Minimum Wage

One of Obama's "left-wing" muddle-headed well-heeled upper-middle class supporters made this statement as part of an analysis of the 2014 Elections:

"President Obama's State of the Union address is expected to focus on income inequality. It will set the tone for this election year and coming up onto 2016."

First of all, Obama will offer no solutions, programs or legislation intended to put an end to "income inequality" as part of his "State of the Union" address.

There is a huge difference between pretending to be concerned about income inequality and doing something to end it--- and the poverty that is the main concern when it comes to "income inequality."

Second, the so-called "leftist" making this statement also supports Obama's stated objective of a $10.10 Minimum Wage indexed to inflation and she went on to say that she supports the call for a $15.00 an hour Minimum Wage.

But, in the struggle for health care reform, this same leftist supported Obamacare saying she preferred single-payer.

This has become the shrewd and deceptive strategy of those on the "left" supporting what the Democrats are doing. They say they support what Obama wants done while wishing--- not fighting and struggling--- for something else. This sounds real good. They often claim as this woman has in the past, that by supporting Obama this will open up the chances for more reforms in the future.

However, $10.10 is a poverty wage. It is being advocated only for the Democrat's self-serving political expediency knowing it will never pass and the blame for failure will be attached to the Republicans.

A mass movement of grassroots working class supporters could put an end to Republican opposition but the Democrats 1.) Do not want the Minimum Wage raised to $10.10 in the first place, 2.) the talk is sheer demagoguery, 3.) the Democrats work for Wall Street and Wall Street is unwilling to tolerate "raising" the Minimum Wage to even the pathetic miserly sum of $10.10 because huge super-profits derived from these poverty wages would be the result.

$10.10 is not a "living wage." $15.00 is not a "living wage." Both are poverty wages.

A valid argument can be made that a $10.10 or $15.00 an hour Minimum Wage is "better than" being paid $7.25. Only a complete idiot would refuse to take an additional $3.00 or $8.00 increase in their wage.

But, that these proposals are "better than" the present $7.25 is not the issue.

These Democrats campaigned on a platform of being for a "living wage." There is only ONE thing a "living wage" can be compared to and that is "cost-of-living."

The present "cost-of-living" requires a Minimum Wage of between $22.00 and $26.00 an hour at a bare minimum.

Even Minnesota State legislators and Minnesota's governor admit that for the Minimum Wage to be in line with "cost-of-living," it would take two adults in a four person house-hold working full-time 40 hour work-weeks being paid $14.00 an hour each to meet the actual borderline, non-poverty "cost-of-living" thresh-hold.

So, why has Minnesota's Governor Mark Dayton met in secrecy with the leaders of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's so-called "business caucus" and agreed to "raising" the Minimum Wage to $8.00 an hour with a "training wage" of under $7.00 an hour?

Because these blowhards know that Obama isn't sincerely seeking a Minimum Wage of $10.10 an hour.

What these Minnesota Democrats do know is that Obama is aiming for an "increase" in the Federal Minimum Wage of no more than $7.75 and hour and he will probably complainingly agree to something more like $7.35 to $7.50 an hour.

No matter how this all goes down working people get screwed even though they will get "more" than before which the Democrats will argue going into the 2014 elections is "better than what it was"--- the best the Republicans would let them do.

Which brings us back to Minnesota Democrats with a super-majority over which the Republicans have no say what-so-ever--- so, why have Minnesota Democrats made this dirty backroom deal in secrecy with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce instead of bringing a real living Minimum Wage forward based on what they, their allies in organized labor and their partners from all these church and foundation-funded outfits agree what a real living Minimum Wage would be: $28.00 an hour--- their own figure, not mine.

To think that these Democrats, after acknowledging what a real living wage actually is would bring forward legislation that is $20.00 an hour less than what is required to lift a working class family out of poverty--- hundreds of thousands of working class Minnesotans can only be described as shameful.

But, merely declaring these Democrat's act of betrayal as "shameful" is not enough. This is no solution.

The person who stated the stupid opinion I opened this with also said we should only run candidates against the most reactionary Republicans because we need these Democrats as part of some kind of bulwark against the most extreme right.

But, shouldn't we seek to punish these Democrats at the polls who have betrayed their grassroots working class base on issue after issue and once again now on this most important "kitchen table" issue of the Minimum Wage?

It is against these very Democrats who take the bribes from the employers to keep working people in poverty as these Democrats appeal for our votes with demagoguery which means corporate profits will climb at the expense of our wages and an improved livelihood which we should be running our own progressive and left working class candidates.

I can only guess that Obama's "left" supporters will bristle and get riled at my suggestion, but these are the same people who sit in silence as Obama engages in these hideous and barbaric drone attacks murdering so many innocent people.

At some point we have to see the pattern to their thinking and behavior lest we remain too timid out of fear of offending our former "left wing" friends who seem to have made a career out of defending Obama for doing the very things the Republicans say they will do.

The fact is, there isn't one single Democrat these "leftist" supporters of Obama want to see defeated.

Here in Minnesota these Democrats are getting so much flack over their betrayal on this Minimum Wage issue, that in their meetings they won't even tolerate a free exchange of opinions--- they are now forcing people to write down any questions or comments they have and then they select what they think should be asked.

None of this, from the secret meetings with the Chamber of Commerce to campaigning on the promise to bring the Minimum Wage up to a living wage to the way meetings are being manipulated and controlled to the bribes from the employers' lobbyists have anything to do with democracy--- too the contrary.