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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KonKilo who wrote (22055)	6/24/2006 9:16:59 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541604

>>I have to admit, even I didn't think the political pimps in control of our national whorehouse would have the gall to sneak through a pay raise for themselves, then turn around a week later and kill the first increase in the minimum wage in almost ten years.<< Emotional response. The implied nexus between minimum wage and congressional salaries is bogus, IMO. Well, maybe not bogus, but he sure didn't bother to argue the significance of the juxtaposition. If he had, I might have paid attention to his rant. It reminds me of PJ O'Rourke at his best. Yikes.

To: KonKilo who wrote (22055)	6/24/2006 9:38:52 PM
From: MrLucky	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541604

Believe it or not, congressional pay raises creates votes. Votes from the federal employee. Why? Because the federal workers annual salary increases are often tied to the politicos increase for themselves. I expect a few former and current feds on this thread are well aware of this tactic by Congress and the government unions. Really, nothing new. Sometimes, the pressure is too great and Congress backs down. Not lately tho with all the consecutive hikes in salary.

To: KonKilo who wrote (22055)	6/27/2006 3:52:38 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541604

I'm with Lane 3 on this one. The relevance of the congressional pay raise to the minimum wage is minimal. One is about whether congress should get a raise or not. The other is about whether people should be forced to give raises or fire employees who make less than the new increased minimum wage. Voting to increase the minimum wage is not the same as giving low income people a raise. 1 - Congress wouldn't be giving anyone a raise, they aren't paying the employees, the employers are. 2 - Many low income people, either already make above what the new minimum wage would be, or would lose their job, lose benefits, or have their hours reduced if you get a substantial increase in the minimum wage, rather then getting a raise. Now its not particularly likely that a modest increase in the minimum wage would greatly increase unemployment, because most people get paid more than $7.50, and many of those that do not are illegal immigrants. But this also means that the benefit of a minimum wage increase will be minimal. It won't effect most employees. If it did rise enough to effect a large fraction of employees, or the majority of low skilled employees than it would also have a larger effect on decreasing employment. Something like a $12.50 minimum wage would have a real impact on the few people it did help, but would put a lot of people out of work, or in to off the books work.