Today Bush exempted construction workers from the provisions of the Davis-Bacon act. This amounts to a defacto tax on construction worker's salaries. Imagine the plumber or carpenter who has just lost his home and is near destitute but gets a job helping to rebuild New Orleans. What is the first thing that awaits him or her. Bush decided to slash the old paycheck.
The Davis-Bacon Act requires that Contractors working on Federal projects pay the "prevailing wage". The prevailing wage is the average wage paid for particular skills in an area thus Huston's pay scale might be different than Chicago's. Note: Davis-Bacon does not require higher wages only paying the prevailing wage. The suspension of Davis-Bacon requirements means that workers in Hurricane area would receive less wages than those working in other areas that have the same wage scale. This amounts to a backdoor tax on wages.
Does this idea make any sense. NO!!! Why would you want to lower wages and thus encourage workers to work elsewhere when you are trying to bebuild an area. Bush's motive is simple defund Democratic labor while contributing to Republican corporate profits.
Everyone should write your senators and congressman and demand to stop this outrageous tax on construction workers.