If Congress won't raise the federal minimum wage, you can. At least for people who work for companies that get federal contracts, subcontracts and grants.
So says a group of liberals in the House and Senate who want President Obama to sign an executive order requiring federal agencies to give preference in awarding contracts to companies that pay workers no less than $10.10 an hour.
Currently the federal minimum wage is $7.25. And there's been a push by Democrats to raise it to $10.10 -- an idea that Obama supports.
Doing so directly and indirectly could raise pay for up to 28 million workers, according to estimates from the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
But there's not a high chance Congress will pass that proposal anytime soon.
That's why 15 senators, led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and 17 members of the House, led by Keith Ellison of Minnesota, sent letters to the president urging him to exercise his executive authority.
"Profitable corporations that receive lucrative contracts from the federal government should pay all of their workers a decent wage," the senators wrote in their letter.
Demos, a liberal think tank, estimates such a move -- depending on how broadly it's structured -- could improve wages for up to nearly 2 million low-paid workers.
The White House hasn't taken a position. When asked at a forum last week what the chances were for executive action, Jason Furman, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said that the goal is to raise the minimum wage for all low-wage workers.
"How can we best advance this effort ... to make sure no one in this country is paid less than $10.10 an hour?" Furman said.
His answer: To do so legislatively.
But that doesn't necessarily mean the notion of executive action is dead.
"If the [minimum wage] bill languishes in the House, there's a good chance Obama will use executive authority to raise the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist of the Potomac Research Group. Republicans would object, he argues, and "simply draw more attention to their refusal to raise the minimum wage."
Dear Republicans, let them raise the minium wage for God sakes. If you won't do it for the economy, if you won't do it to relieve the economic stress and suffering of millions... Do it so I can stop agreeing with fucking Bernie Sanders! I'm gonna have an identity crisis and it's your fault! I'm at best a parochial Kensyian and you're making me ally with the fucking socialist! Stop it! We're suppose to be agruing over private property (I'm in favor) vs state control (He's in favor) and my love of giant fuck off military budgets and so on and so forth. Instead you got me agreeing with him! I'm a right wing nationalist! We're suppose to be natural enemies! Stop fucking with the natural order of things to suck up to old people! My vote will be around longer! Suck up to me!
*cough*
The rest of you lot didn't read anything, got it?
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
Wow, you still think you're right wing? I figured this crowd had LIBERALIZED you ages ago.
Chatniks on the (nonexistant) risks of the Large Hadron Collector:
"The chance of Shep talking his way into the control room for an ICBM is probably higher than that." - Seth
"Come on, who wouldn't trade a few dozen square miles of French countryside for Warp 3.5?" - Marina
I could go down this huge checklist which frankly would prove I'm more conservative then say... Newt Gingrinch or Paul Ryan but that would take up alot of time and it's my night to GM Earthdawn (We're talking pages here).
Let me just say this. Out of Gingrinch, Ryan or myself, I consider myself to be the most conservative in that I am not the one demanding radical changes to society in pursuit of some idealogical utopia. Additionally I feel comfortable stating that I'm the one whose based his economic, social and foreign policy on cold hard facts and common national interest and not ideological purity, blithering mean spirited fairy tales spun by a traumatized refugee or narrow class interests.
Frankly the Republican Party left conservatism behind in favor of a agenda of radicalism where they want to dramatically alter society and destory institutions that have stood for decades before I was even born. That's not conservative. That's at best reactionary and at worse anarchist as they have no replacements to offer, simply blind faith in the free market, which is nothing more then a collection of human interactions with the goal of making money by trading goods and services... On the good days!
Taking the tea party and their spokesmen as models for conservatism is like taking Karl Marx as a spokesmen for democracy and personal liberty.
Nor am I willing to cede other bastions of the right wing to them. Religion? They've reduced the greatest faith in human history to a pair of manic talking points! They seem dead set on replacing the Messiah with that traumatized refugee I refered to earlier and they taken the doctrine of grace and used it has cover for their own misdeeds (I'M LOOKING AT YOU GINGRINCH!) and as a platform to demand that they can never be held to any account for them! Nationalism? These men and women would torch the entire nation to win political points! They cheered the idea of a default! This is base anarchy and hovers near striking at the very national best interest and for what? Short term factionalism!?! Oh Yeah Washington would be soooo proud. These individuals have repeatly struck out at domenstic and foreign efforts in order to undermine the government for their own personal and factional benefit. They have thrown entire sections of the nation under the bus! If these men are nationalist then I'm a dwarf Thark!
I'll admit that doesn't stop them from being on the right wing, but that doesn't mean they get to define the right wing. It is a statement of the times that the most conservative and nationalist thing I could is vote for the Democratic party until the Republicans either get a fucking grip or are replaced by something approaching sanity. It may not be comfortable for me at times but there is more to life then comfort and if all one wants is comfort I invite them to head back to the nursery. Babes in diapers are usually kept in warm comfort and not disturbed.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
