Hi folks. I wanted to give you all a quick update on what the Republican Leadership is up to tonight in the House of Representatives. Once again these guys are doing everything they can to poison a broad-based effort to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
The Republican Leadership in the House is tying a minimum wage increase bill to another bill repealing the estate tax for the richest families in America - the Paris Hiltons of the world.
Basically, it's a cynical ploy to kill a minimum wage increase with nothing more than a Trojan Horse. They know there is no chance of this bill becoming a law because the Senate has already rejected an estate tax repeal similar to the one being offered by the Republican Leadership. But they are doing it anway.
Republicans want to pretend they care about working Americans, but they are doing everything they can to leave no billionaire behind.
It's Christmas in July for the richest of the rich, and April Fool's Day for everyone else.
Here again are some basic points on attaching the Paris Hilton estate-tax cut in the name of passing minimum wage:
*NO MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE IN 10 YEARS: Congress has not increased the minimum wage since 1997. The minimum wage (on an inflation adjusted basis) is now at its lowest level in 50 years. 74 percent of minimum wage earners are adults about the age of 20.
*MINIMUM-WAGE EARNERS LIVE FAR BELOW POVERTY LINE: A person currently working full-time at the minimum wage will earn just $10,700 annually, less than two-tenths of once percent of the average estate tax reduction to estates worth more than $20 million.
*THE FEW AGAINST THE MANY: The estate tax legislation authored by the Republican Majority will benefit approximately 7,500 families nationwide. (Estates worth more than $20 million - between 800 and 900 nationwide - will get an average tax reduction of $5.6 million per estate.) By contrast, an increase in the federal minimum wage would benefit more than 6 million working Americans, including 1.8 million parents with children under the age of 18.
*A PARIS HILTON TAX CUT, AT TREMENDOUS COST: According to available estimates, the estate tax repeal will cost the federal government over $800 billion during its first 10 years in effect.
*AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY SUPPORTS A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE: Fully 86 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage.
I also want to let you know that House Democrats are fighting hard for a clean minimum wage increase bill.
In the Rules Committee earlier tonight, we called for an up-or-down vote on a stand-alone minimum wage bill, and my colleague Rep. George Miller (D-CA-7) offered a Motion to Recommit bill which would allow such a vote to take place. Republicans in the Rules Committee quashed it in a partisan vote.
We are not giving up and we are speaking up on the House Floor tonight.
If you are watching C-SPAN tonight watch how the Republican Congress tries to brazenly ignore the needs of tens of millions of working Americans.
My apologies for not being able to stay and participate in the comment thread tonight as I have to get back on the House Floor. We are going to do everything we can to fight against the Trojan Horse Republicans will try to slip pass the American people.
Thanks again for making me feel a part of this wonderful community. - LMS