Friday, May 16, 2014

Quote of the Day

"If he had any knowledge of the lack of health and medical facilities in the hills of Kentucky," Cook says, "he'd know it's a problem we need to solve. For Mitch McConnell to decide the new health program is not good for Kentucky—it tells me he's not looking out for his own constituency."

Former KY Senator Marlow Cook, the man who gave Mitch McConnell his first job in politics

Thursday, May 1, 2014

From Our "Lamar's Fibbing Again" Dept: The Minimum Wage By The Numbers

Senate Republicans successfully filibustered the minimum wage hike in the US Senate yesterday, in spite of the vast majority of Americans being in favor of the hike. Bob Corker is looking like a temporary statesman here as he was the only Republican who voted to end the filibuster. Lamar said "Surely Senate Democrats could come up with a better jobs program than one that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says would destroy 500,000 jobs." I've had problems with Corker's dishonesty in the past ("We need to fix Social Security to reduce the deficit"), but Lamar has told a whopper! This is a complete misrepresentation of what the CBO study projected and Lamar knows that. Lamar may or may not remember that the last year that Republicans were in control of the Senate America lost 4.3 Million jobs under Republicans' jobs program. Lamar may remember that but he hopes you don't. The CBO says it is "possible" that raising the minimum wage will reduce the number of jobs "created" by between 100,000 and 1 million. The study also says this: "The CBO acknowledges that the employment impact could be essentially zero." Here's some more stuff Lamar leaves out... 16,500,000 workers would receive a raise directly from the minimum wage hike. Another 8 million Americans would see their wages rise as a result of a rising tide lifting all ships. This wage increase would help the economy right now! Republicans hate helping the economy when they aren't in power. That's why they filibuster. 88% of minimum wage earners are adults trying to support themselves and their families. Republicans leave out everything good and focus on the tiny kernels of bad in everything Democrats try to do to improve the American economy and the lives of working Americans. Here's the economists take on the wage increase. They don;t get why Republicans are filibustering against something that will help a majority of Americans...But I do!