House Republican leaders played a cheap political trick over the weekend when they tacked a proposed minimum wage increase, from $5.15 to $7.25, onto a bill of inheritance and other tax breaks for the rich.
The gambit allows moderate Republicans up for election to point out that they voted for a minimum-wage hike — denying Democrats a potent economic issue. Meanwhile, the bill has no chance of passing in the Senate.
An estimated 15 million American workers would benefit from the boost in the minimum wage, which, because of inflation, is at its lowest level of buying power since 1955, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Meanwhile, in the last decade, lawmakers have approved cost-of-living wage hikes for themselves of about $35,000.
Working Americans aren’t getting a fair shake.
Who are minimum-wage workers? Would boosting wages hurt businesses, as critics often claim? What’s the difference between a minimum wage and a living wage? Check out this good link for a helpful overview of the issue.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The U.S. State Department used accounting tricks to hide construction cost overruns in Iraq and knowingly withheld information from Congress, according to a federal audit released last week. One example cited by The New York Times was the construction of a children’s hospital in Basra that was supposed to cost $50 million. After being told by its contractor that the hospital would end up costing $98 million, the State Department’s agency that administers foreign aid classified the additional $48 million as overhead and still reported to Congress that the hospital project cost $50 million.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
In an interview with The Iola Register, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius noted that if Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison beats Attorney General Phill Kline in November, Morrison will see a $40,000-a-year pay cut. He “is willing to run even if the state office pays so much less than his current job because he thinks it is that important to bring professionalism and competence back to the top legal office in Kansas,” Sebelius said.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansas State Board of Education member Connie Morris of St. Francis played the martyr in a recent campaign letter, saying that she is shocked “that liberal activists who controlled our school system for years would stoop to childish behavior.” She added: “I have been called every name in the book and have put up with endless personal attacks and insults. Sometimes that behavior has made it difficult to justify continuing to serve on a board that pays less than $6,000 per year.” Actually, the job pays a lot more when you include the trip to a Miami resort Morris tried to stick taxpayers with. But never fear — Morris concludes that she is running again because she truly cares about our children’s future.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Medicare prescription drug program depends on beneficiaries choosing the plan that best suits them. But how can they be expected to choose the right plan when they can’t get straight answers about the plans? Government Accountability Office investigators found that the plans only give correct and complete information about a third of the time. Here are some more details from the report, as reported by The New York Times:
Investigators placed 900 calls to 10 of the largest companies that offer drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. They reached customer service representatives in 864 calls.
The plans provided accurate, complete responses to one-third of the calls, 294 of the 864. Twenty-two percent of the 864 responses were inaccurate, 29 percent were incomplete, and no answers were provided to the other questions.
Two of the 10 companies gave inaccurate or incomplete information at least 75 percent of the time, the report said. And operators at the same company sometimes gave different answers to the same question.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Could the future of autos be not hybrid or hydrogen but electric? Check out this review of the recent unveiling of the Tesla roadster, an electric car that is generating a lot of buzz: It can go 0 to 60 mph in four seconds and makes no sound whatsoever. The green angle: It’s twice as efficient as hybrids and emits no tailpipe emissions. The battery charge has a range of 250 miles — several times greater than past electric cars.
An electric sports car? Interesting, huh? Here’s the company Web site.
A new documentary that laments the auto industry’s determined opposition to electric cars — “Who Killed the Electric Car?” — has just been released. But the Tesla might be a sign that the death notices were premature.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
