Will the rich get richer?
Someone working full-time for the federal minimum wage makes just $10,700 a year. The federal minimum wage has been stuck at the same rate since 1997, but salary of our lawmakers have gone up by $35,000, which is almost three times the yearly income of someone on minimum wage. The real value of the minimum wage is more than $3.00 below what it was a generation ago, and presently has its lowest buying power in over 50 years.
Democrats forced a vote on legislation that would benefit millions of Americans, and I’m proud to have been one of thousands of citizen co-sponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act, which sought to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25.
Americans believed they could achieve their dream by working hard. They hoped to provide security for their families, and save for a comfortable retirement. Today, Americans are losing faith in that dream as the cost of basic necessities like gasoline, housing, and health care continue to skyrocket.
For minimum wage workers, the American dream is impossible. No matter how hard they work, they are forced to make choices, between buying groceries, or paying the heating bill.
Its shameful that in the richest and most powerful nation on earth, one in six children live in poverty and one in five children live on the edge of hunger, because their full time working parents, still can’t make ends meet.
Fifty-three Senators stood up and fought for fairness and the dignity of hard-working men and women. The Senate filibuster rules required a three-fifths or 60 votes for the bill to prevail.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist won’t let it come to a vote, unless it is linked to the repeal of the estate tax. This cynical election year ploy is designed to force Democrats to either vote against increasing the minimum wage, or give a tax cut to 7,500 very rich people at a cost of $753 billion dollars.
The effective tax rate for small business estates worth less than $2 million is 1.6 percent on average. The family keeps $1,968,000 of the $2 million. Those with a $20 million estate, the effective rate is greatest at about 23 percent, which means their family gets to keep $15.4 million.
Democrats forced a vote on legislation that would benefit millions of Americans, and I’m proud to have been one of thousands of citizen co-sponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act, which sought to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25.
Americans believed they could achieve their dream by working hard. They hoped to provide security for their families, and save for a comfortable retirement. Today, Americans are losing faith in that dream as the cost of basic necessities like gasoline, housing, and health care continue to skyrocket.
For minimum wage workers, the American dream is impossible. No matter how hard they work, they are forced to make choices, between buying groceries, or paying the heating bill.
Its shameful that in the richest and most powerful nation on earth, one in six children live in poverty and one in five children live on the edge of hunger, because their full time working parents, still can’t make ends meet.
Fifty-three Senators stood up and fought for fairness and the dignity of hard-working men and women. The Senate filibuster rules required a three-fifths or 60 votes for the bill to prevail.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist won’t let it come to a vote, unless it is linked to the repeal of the estate tax. This cynical election year ploy is designed to force Democrats to either vote against increasing the minimum wage, or give a tax cut to 7,500 very rich people at a cost of $753 billion dollars.
The effective tax rate for small business estates worth less than $2 million is 1.6 percent on average. The family keeps $1,968,000 of the $2 million. Those with a $20 million estate, the effective rate is greatest at about 23 percent, which means their family gets to keep $15.4 million.
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