DOUBLE DEFEAT FOR AMERICA

The so-called Compromise to continue funds for the Iraq Occupation should be seen in its true reality. The Democrats totally buckled under. There was NO Compromise.

Oh, I understand the logic behind it, but I propose that if Congress ONLY sent one Bill with a deadline attached repeatedly to George, and he kept Vetoing it, only one question would be left. Who is supporting the troops and who is not.

As for the Compromise of a raising of the monimum wage I offer the follwoing.


Where is the so-called Compromise?

The recent Supplemental Funding Bill included a raise of the Minimum Wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour phased in over two years.

Using information from the US Census Bureau, the following may be said.

1. Following the ten year cycle between 1996 and 2006, annual inflation rate has been about 2.546%. Assuming a similar rate for 2007 to 2009, the higher minimum wage would only be about 29 cents in real purchasing terms. (This assumption could be slightly deceptive since gasoline prices alone have doubled between 2004 and 2007)

2. Current minimum wage places a single earner at about 53% of current poverty level, meaning a second full time job would be needed to edge over the poverty level.

3. Only about 2% of all workers currently receive minimum wage rates.

4. Kansas has a minimum wage rate below the mandated Federal level, while Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina have no minimum wage level. The Great Plains States generally have only the Federally mandated minimum rate (North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas) and three western states (Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming). Five other states (Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, and New Hampshire) also use the Federal minimum.

The House Democrats especially have been calling the Supplemental Spending Bill a compromise, but that seems a hard show to sell. Politically, those states which trend Republican will resent the raise in the Wage Rate and might vote accordingly. Secondly, the few workers who will receive any benefit are going to still have no voice in government, nor any assurance of a future raise hike.

Meanwhile, an unpopular war continues and American and Iraqi lives continue to be lost.

So, Where is the so-called Compromise?

Time to React

Wordsworth wrote, "The world is too much with me" in the 19th Century. What might he have written in the 21st Century?

There are so many levels on which one might react today that it seems overwhelming.

On the one hanrd, there are many petitions to Austin and the horrible deal that Ric Perry made with the Devil called the Trans Texas Corridor. On another hand, there are the various Anti-Iraq War petitions to Washington.

Knowing that no matter where I send a petition -- whether Austin or Washington -- the "elected" representative will ignore the petition does not help.

The Cancer is too much with us.

The desire for material gain and control holds fast in both Austin and Washington.

For example, consider the air we are forced to breath in the DFW region. Both Joe Barton and Perry have accepted money to either block passage of Legislation that might restrict polluters or have enabled legislation to allow polluters to run amook.

Logically, such actions do not make any sense. Consider the human factor first and then the economic factor.

The human factor is that thousands of people are struck annually in the DFW area with respiratory problems -- some fatal. Even Barton's own brother died of lung cancer and when he comes to the region he has to restrict his stay or else be transported back to the Hospital to prepare him to leave the area again. But still he takes the money and . . . .

The economic factor is harder to argue on specifics; however, consider those thousands who have to seek medical help annually. They take time out from work, they tie up doctors, they press medical insurers, etc. Is all that worth a few thousand dollars of bribe money Joe or Ric?

So now Perry proposes a Trans Texas Corridor, and will veto any Legislative action that seems to threaten it. But does he care whether the people of Texas want his fantasy? He accepts the bribes and continues onward.

The TTC will make air pollution worse. More cars will exhaust more pollutants at every Toll Plaza -- not to mention how much tolls will inflate everything, from visiting Grandma to buying an egg. So what if more people die from air pollution or starvation -- Perry got his bribe.

Aren't you glad he cares about Republican family values?