Maurice Brandt letter: Here’s the real story about Nancy Pelosi

Maurice Brandt letter: Here’s the real story about Nancy Pelosi

Published Thursday, January 18, 2007
I’m wondering why I haven’t seen on the famous “unbiased” big three TV networks, heard on the famous “unbiased” network radio news or seen in the famous “unbiased” print media anything about Nancy Pelosi’s fiddling with the new federal minimum wage.

You all know the House passed a new minimum wage law, right? It is raising the minimum wage, which the Dems promised to do right away. There are, however, many workers who I’m sure would like to get that higher wage but will never see it. They work for Star Kist Tuna and Del Monte Foods, both of which are headquartered in Pelosi’s home district. Ms. Nancy attached a provision to the House bill that exempts those two huge corporations.

Yup, that’s the same Nancy Pelosi who said, when appointed as Speaker of the House, that the Dems, led by her, were going to “not be so beholden to special interest groups as Congress has been under the leadership of the Bush administration.” Yeah, right, and it never gets cold in Fargo, either!

Maurice Brandt

Fargo

http://www.in-forum.com/Opinion/articles/153328

Edited to add:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070112-120720-2734r.htm
http://www.gopbloggers.org/mt/archives/004597.html
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53747
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016478.php
http://www.airamerica.com/node/3171
http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/2007/01/nancy-oops-i-did-it-again-pelosi-and.html
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=51107

two companies in her own district?

Is this guy a loon?

Originally the bill exempted workers in American Samoa...same companies. Pelosi 'fiddled' with the bill to make sure they'd receive the same increase to the same minimum wage.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/minimum_wage

WASHINGTON - Fending off charges of favoritism, House Democrats say a just-passed minimum wage bill will be changed to cover all U.S. territories — including American Samoa — before it reaches President Bush's desk.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters she has instructed the House Education and Labor Committee to help get the bill changed to "make sure that all of the territories have to comply with the U.S. law on minimum wage."

The original bill did NOT specifically exempt anybody, it simply neglected to change a different minimum wage law that covers American Samoa. The Dems have now, as I understand it, changed the new hike in minimum wage (the first in a decade) to also include American Samoa. Just so everyone knows, Samoa did have a different federal minimum wage law that specified $3.10/hour.

I believe that it was an oversight.

It is true the Starkist Tuna is the islands largest employer. Starkist is owned by Del Monte. Del Monte is located in San Francisco. But these are not two different corporations HQ'd in Nancy's home district, it's just one corp. And Del Monte is not a large donor to Pelosi or any Dems (they ARE big donors to various repukes, however).

Once the repukes made a big deal about it (trying to make some sort of scandal for the non-thinking mouth breathers out there), the Dems changed it to include Samoa (probably much the chagrin of Del Monte... who might think twice about who their friends in Washington are... the Dems or the repukes that brought up this issue).

And yeah, it's not clear that this will be wonderful news to Samoa either. Starkist says that they cannot compete with canneries located in other nearby islands NOT part of the US if this wage increase goes through, and that they may have to move their operation to some other location not part of the US territory. They employ about 50 percent of the workforce in American Samoa. Given the cost of living in Samoa, $3.10 might actually be a decent minimum wage.

All these monetary things... like minimum wage laws, marginal tax rates, etc should be indexed by a local cost of living correction. You can't live on $7.50/hour in my area, and I shouldn't be taxed at the max marginal tax rate because I choose to live here (and in my field, there are few places where I can live). I would gladly take a 50 percent or larger wage reduction to live in American Samoa or the US Virgin Islands (where I did live for a year).

;-)