Will Congress Listen To Oprah? (on minimum wage)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/14/opinion/main1501076.shtml

Last week I wrote about the efforts of Representative Sherrod Brown and others to change a system in which the federal minimum wage has been frozen for eight years at $5.15 an hour, while a corporate CEO earns $13,700 an hour.

But this week there were some hopeful signs — Arkansas raised its state minimum wage to $6.25 an hour. And Friday the most popular woman in America — Oprah — featured the struggles of minimum wage workers who earn a maximum of approximately $10,000 annually, and the growing coalition of organizations working to make certain that a hard day's work receives a fair day's pay.

Perhaps if the Republican Congress won't listen to America they will listen to Oprah. Stranger things have happened (why it was only weeks ago that George Bush attempted to wax – while not exactly eloquent — wax interested about America's addiction to oil).

With 86 percent of Americans in favor of an increase in the wage, this much is clear: no one wants leaders who turn a blind eye to people now forced to live out of their cars; working two and three jobs and still not making ends meet; and an increasingly squeezed middle class that is a stone's throw away from financial ruin.

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"Nope"

But even I am beginning to wonder how people will respond.

So are officials; I keep hearing all the time about more funding for more and more prisons.

Isn't she the one with the quack psychologist on her TV program all the time.

she's the highest rated daytime show in the country. Millions and millions and millions of voters, potential voters, etc watch her every day, so what she says CAN have an impact. If a sizeable handful of those who sat at home and turned on her show even start to think about why are Reps in Congress are allowing this to happen while voting themselves pay raises and kick-ass health care coverage every year, it can be a problem for the decision makers in Washington.

Democrats need to make this the wedge issue like Republicans make social issues theirs, it might change alot of people minds.

This country is economically liberal, we support an increase in minimum wage and I saw a poll yesterday saying most Americans believe the tax system is unfair. But with the Republicans in the Congress, the people's economic interest is not a priority.

She can dedicate her show to more than makeovers and re-doing celebrities' kicthens.

I am NOT dissing her, but she does take on "issues" in fits and starts.

She could do a WEEKLY or at least MONTHLY show about HOW OUR VOTES DICTATE OUR LIFESTYLES.

People do not get that message. They often vote for the "cute one"..the "funny one"..the "one you'd like to have a beer with"..etc..

She could be our "National Civics Teacher". She reveres teachers, and we get little education on civics these days.

Women control the national pursestrings, and yet are, as a group, underserved as a populace. Oprah could go a long way to correcting that.

How does a religious mother benefit when she votes for an anti abortion candidate, who will ALSO deny her own children college financial aid, or affordable medical insurance, or a comfortable old age for herself?

People need to learn that their single-issue votes HAVE consequences..

Oprah could educate people about that, and perhaps change their thinking.

I saw her show the other day, and as I applauded her for soing it, I also saw it as a rightwinger would see it.


They would comment on the stunning lack of fathers/husbands/extended families
They would ask why someone with 4 kids and a lowpaid husband would rack up 10K in college debt
(there was no mention of how near finishing she was or what she was studying)

Poverty is a HUGE issue, and will not be solved easily, UNTIL we decide what we want and who we are. We have been in a push-pull mode for decades, and all we have to show for it is bloated agencies and MORE poor people than ever.

I wish I could find it, but a while back I read an article that said that aid administered to a family COSTS about $40K a year to administer..That 40K given to the family, would render them "no longer poor", but look at the people along the way who would then be jobless-poor..

Instead of tax cuts for the rich, I wish they would subsidize smalltime-employers so they could pay $12.00 minimum wage, and still keep the costs of their products what they would be with the wages they now pay.. The big companies could easily pay it without HAVING to raise prices if they were willing to pay their CEOs less and not have such ridiculous stock "aims".

The subsidization would be as a TAX CREDIT..not a deduction..

and of course a national health care system ..

Those two things would create a lot of growth because poor people and middle class people SPEND THEIR MONEY ON GOODS AND SERVICES, and they do it in their own communities..and create more jobs as business increases. More tax revenues into local coffers, means better infrastructures and fewer property tax increases.

I would write to Russ Feingold about raising the minimum wage. I asked her why she wanted me to do it and she said she heard it on Oprah and thought we should do it.