Helen Thomas: Rich Senators Defeat Minimum-Wage Hike

Congressional Pay Rises While Minimum Stays Same

Helen Thomas, Hearst White House columnist

POSTED: 3:12 pm PDT October 26, 2005

<http://www.kcra.com/helenthomas/5183628/detail.html>

<snip>

U.S. senators -- who draw salaries of $162,100 a year and enjoy a raft of perks -- have rejected a minimum wage hike from $5.15 an hour to $6.25 for blue-collar workers.

Can you believe it?

The proposed increase was sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and turned down in the Senate by a vote of 51 against the boost and 49 in favor. Under a Senate agreement, it needed 60 votes to pass.

All the Democrats voted for the wage boost. All the negative votes were cast by Republicans.

More...

this!

What's lincoln chaffe, susan collins, and olympia snowe, among others, have to say for their well fed selves?

YEAs ---47

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dayton (D-MN)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---51

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)


And these guys...

Not Voting - 2

Corzine (D-NJ)
Inouye (D-HI)

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00257

Keep wages low and people will have to resort to enlisting to earn a decent wage to support their families and get health care coverage.

... have so much as read a review.

Shame!

Or McCain, of course.

"During the same period since 1997, raises that the Senate has given itself bolstered senatorial pay by $28,000 a year, Kennedy said."

Plutocracy... grrrrrrrr...

Yeah, that "economy" sure is improving! It is! No, really! In some alternate reality, not this one, but still!

:mad: :argh: :grr: :nuke:

:thumbsdown: :cry: :cry: :cry:

do no work. (I speaking as an ex-beekeeper.) Theses poor people work their rear ends of for practically nothing.

:hi:

The drones are the Republican senators!

Okay then. Excuse the bad pun.

:thumbsup:

the working people of this country.

:hi:

to never vote for another wage increase for themselves until all Americans can expect a decent living wage.

>>When asked about the Kennedy measure, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush "believes that we should look at having a reasonable increase in the minimum wage ... But we need to make sure that, as we do that, that it is not a step that hurts small business or prices people out of the job market."<<

If a lousy SIX FUCKING TWENTY-FIVE AN HOUR "prices (someone) out of the job market," it's the festering JOB MARKET that is broke, not the poor sods trying to make a miserable living!

Saint Jude on a pogo stick!! Do these morans LISSEN to themselves? Do they even IMAGINE how something like this might sound before they open their stupid, insensitive, greedy, flappy mouths to spout off such nonsense?

And does anyone ELSE lissen to this goat puckey? Who buys this rancid fungus scrapings, anyway? When are we gonna have a general strike of all minimum-wage workers?

Priced out of the...

oy....

Merciful Providence, forgive me, I just can't "be nice" about something this clueless and immoral.

despairingly,
Bright

Dems ought to jump on this and keep it in the forefront of elections. The vast majority of Americans are for an increase in the minimum wage. The only time it ever passes in a Repig congress is just before election time.

Never heard "St. Jude on a pogo stick" before, might have to use it now and again.

TO BE A SENATOR. Nothing like the truth to punch through and remind us all - what it is!!

I'm begining to think that our senate in Canada - all appointed for life - is not so bad. At least they are not all Rich people.

The minimum wage fell about 29% in real terms between 1979 and 2003.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#Consequences_of_minimum_wage_laws

We'll just tighten our belts a little more. :mad:

They should walk a mile in my shoes and see how tough it is to live.

issue!

GOP politicians & their greedy/stingy supporters. Hasn't it always been this way?

No suprise here - following tradition and determined to keep them on top, blue-collar down.

sarcasm.

needle. They'll have a lot to explain of Judgement Day.

who has been in country for a fair number of years. Her english is good and she understands idioms. Her take is that U.S. has over reaching ideas about the worth of labor and that there shouldn't be such a disparity. Not that the lowest labor should be increased but that the greater salary should be dropped to match. I left in awe and speechless.
:wow: