February 12, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

MINIMUM WAGE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

Every time there is talk of raising the minimum wage there is a great rending of garments by right-wingers. They'll hiss and moan that a minimum wage increase will just destroy small business. It's like the bad banker tying the lovely widow to the railroad tracks. The evidence is that raising the minimum wage actually benefits business. This article by Holly Sklar is at www.commondreams.org:

Minimum wage critics predictably forecast dire consequences with every raise, and are just as predictably wrong. After the last federal minimum wage hikes in 1996 and 1997, the nation experienced dramatically stronger job growth, and lower inflation and poverty rates. States that have raised their minimum wages above $5.15 have had better employment and small business trends than states that have not.

Minimum wage raises aren't put under mattresses -- or offshore tax havens. They are recycled back into the economy.

"Overall most low-wage workers pump every dollar of their paychecks directly into the local economy by spending their money in their neighborhood stores, local pharmacies and corner markets," notes Dan Gardner, commissioner of Labor and Industries for Oregon, which has the nation's second-highest minimum wage at $7.80.

"Higher wages benefit business by increasing consumer purchasing power, reducing costly employee turnover, raising productivity, and improving product quality, customer satisfaction and company reputation," says a statement supporting higher minimum wage signed by the CEOs of Costco, the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Majority, Eileen Fisher apparel company and more than 500 business owners across the nation -- from the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York and Dixie Rod & Custom in Alabama to the Mercury Cafe in Colorado and Broetje Orchards in Washington. From Candle Enterprises in Minnesota and Vintage Vinyl in Missouri to North Georgia Woodworks and Small Biz Survival in Oklahoma.

BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE

I agree with the author of this article. When Bush says something believe just the opposite. If he says it's white, it's black If he says it's bad, it's good. Bush makes claims about the incredible economy. If you're Exxon-Mobil, it's great. If you're Joe Six Pack, it's not so good. This article by Ed Naha is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

In a surreal way, Bush's dazzling American economy does exist. It just doesn't exist for ordinary Americans.

For instance, if my name was "fast" Eddie Exxon, I'd be dancing in the streets right now. Exxon Mobil, last week, revealed that it racked up record earnings in '06, $39.5 billion bucks - the biggest profit an American company has ever made. (The previous record holder was...Exxon Mobil in '05 with $36.13 billion.) Exxon's '06 profit averaged out to about $4.5 million an hour. (Why, some of us have to work, uh, 9.5 million lifetimes to earn that hourly amount before we croak! And that's only if we use public transportation!)

Also rolling in dough with best-ever profits were Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Marathon Oil Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. Suprisingly, Jed Clampett didn't make the cut.

The same week that Exxon revealed its "Happy Days Are Here Again" figures, The Commerce Department reported that the savings rate of Americans for all of '06 was negative 1 percent. Translation? Not only didn't any of us save but we also spent more than we earned. On the plus side, we didn't top the existing negative savings record, 1.5 percent, set in 1933 during The Great Depression.

January 09, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

TIME TO REPRESENT WORKING PEOPLE

Since the early 1970's the working class in the United States has been hammered by the economic policies of the federal government. Right-wingers have often screeched about "class warfare" and offer up statistics about the percentage of taxes paid by the rich. You would think, from their rhetoric, that the rest of us are just getting a free ride on taxes and sailing merrily along. Instead, we've seen a growing economic gulf between the very rich and everyone else. Despite rising productivity, most working people aren't getting ahead. The social contract has been thrown overboard and left to drown. It's time for the Democratic party to represent its core constituency, working people, and push policies that will benefit the vast majority of us who work for wages. This article by Bob Burnett is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

For the past six years, the ultra-conservative Bush Administration waged war on America's working families. Monday's New York Times provided fresh evidence of this: Tax Cuts Offer Most For Very Rich reported what most of us already knew: "Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush's tax cuts." Op-Ed columnist Bob Herbert noted that in 2006, "the top five Wall Street firms (Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley) were expected to award an estimated $36 billion to $44 billion worth of bonuses to their 173,000 employees." Herbert reported these bonuses - for one year - overwhelmingly exceeded the pay increases received by America's 93 million production and nonsupervisory workers for the last six years. The rich have benefited from the policies and ethics of the Bush Administration; everyone else has gotten the shaft.

Samuel Coleridge's Ancient Mariner famously lamented: "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink." America's workers are in a comparable situation: all around them are indications of prosperity, yet it's not available to them. For twenty-five years, conservatives promised that a market stimulated by Federal tax-cuts would take care of America's problems: "A rising tide would lift all boats." Yet, the conservative tide lifted only the yachts of the rich.