Stop the Political Posturing!

I new article posted to cnn.com entitled, "Bailout talks implode, economy's fate in peril", is suggestive of the talks imploding. However, it is conceivable to me that it is not the talks that are imploding, but rather the Republican Party that is imploding before our very eyes.

They can see that everything they have run on since President Reagan, less government; de-regulation; supply-side economics; and last but not least the trickle down theory, is the root cause of our current economic mess. The question for them is not how they save our economy, but how do they save their Party?

Popular opinion is solidly behind the Democratic Congress with demanding that the bail-out of our financial market meet the conditions of regulation and oversight; mortgage assistance for people whose mortgages are in trouble; scrutiny over the amount of the bail-out; and language to stop any "golden parachute" payments going to the CEO's of the organizations involved within the bail-out.

Now what has made the news is that the ranking Republican member of the House Banking Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), has conceded that he does not have authorization to speak for his colleagues. This is a very troubling assertion, but it also shines a bright light into the vast darkness that is the current Republican Party.

It appears that committee appointments mean nothing to the House Republican Leadership, and that every issue must be approved by leadership, albeit minority leadership, in order to be recognized by all Republicans in the House. This is the House Republican modus operandi that equals their Senate counterpart's use of the filibuster.

What happens now? It is really quite obvious. We've seen it before. After the media gets hold of this and projects a picture of a static Democratic Congress, then, the House Republicans will reach consensus. We then will be told, lead by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), how they stood together for the American people and solved this economic crisis.

This cheap political grandstanding by the Republican Party is hope only of stopping the implosion of their political affiliation. Call your Congress person, call the media, tell them that this political nonsense must end. It is time to put all Americans first, and end politics as usual.

Stand up for annual inflation adjustment for the wage floor

The following is a graph of the minimum wage since 1967, the average annual inflation rate since 1967, and the effect that said rate would have had upon the minimum had the minimum wage been adjusted annually since 1967. Note also that in years in which their was no minimum wage increase their was still inflation.

Can someone tell me in, logical and reasonable terms, why the minimum wage cannot be adjusted annually by the average annual inflation rate as quoted by the CPI? Notice also that had the minimum wage been adjusted by the annual inflation rate also note that the increase in most years would only have been fifteen to twenty cents, and the minimum wage in 2007 would be $7.85. Our minimum wage (commonly known as the wage floor) was just increased in 2007 to $5.85. This increase still leaves the floor lagging by $2.00 per hour!

As an extra added bonus, by adopting this method of increasing the minimum wage we would be removing all future minimum wage increases from the political arena. I think the working women and men of the United States deserve this initiative. It's the correct thing to do!!

Read this doc on Scribd: wage floor