Too Good To Be True
I was enthusiastic about the change in Congressional Leadership. Then…
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s minimum wage bill apparently has an exemption for a company Headquartered in her district that operates in American Samoa. But the ban on House debate thwarts making this more public.
Senator Harry Reid proposes earmark reform but tries to restrict the changes to a relatively small number leaving the overwhelming majority of earmarks unreformed. The GOP catches this and proposes a more aggressive reform along with a minority of Democratic Senators.
Rep. Dingell of Michigan is against increasing the Vehicle mileage standards.
The GOP passes the Medicare Plan D law but includes a number of anticompetitive features to protect the profits of the Drug industry. The proposed Democratic fix to this law does not include removing all of the anti-competitive features.
We can go on making a list like this for most Representatives and both parties.
It is no surprise that National Policy is pretty much for sale to the highest bidders. The art of Political leadership is to appear sympathetic to the middle class while redistributing their money to donors.
This is why I hope the GOP gets its act together to mount a strong congressional campaign in 2008 with moderate candidates who can court the independent voters. Our power as voters is to make it so that our representatives can not take our vote and contributions for granted.
Update:
The Hill has an article about the minimum wage bill: Dems feel heat on wage bill, but GOP gripes are misleading.
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30 Responses to “Too Good To Be True”
Before you repeat Repub talking points about the minimum wage bill you may want to actually look into the issue a little more closely.
In regard to the minimum wage bill you are just repeating a Repub talking point that is easily dismissed by anyone who bothers to research the subject for five minutes. This is from the Washington Post:
It seems the issue is a bit more complicated than Pelosi trying to protect Starkist. If we were actually arguing about the minimum wage we might discuss why it would be better if the Marianas didn’t get such a huge minimum wage bump instead of how corrupt Pelosi is.
Meet the new boss…
You are repeating a Republican talking point regarding Pelosi and the minimum wage. If you actually looked into the issue instead of taking what the GOP says at face value you wouldn’t be so discouraged.
This is from a WaPo article about the issue:
But Samoa has escaped such notoriety, and its low-wage canneries have a protector of a different political stripe, Democratic delegate Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, whose campaign coffers have been well stocked by the tuna industry that virtually runs his island’s economy.
Faleomavaega has said he does not believe his island’s economy could handle the federal minimum wage, issuing statements of sympathy for a Samoan tuna industry competing with South American and Asian canneries paying workers as little as 66 cents an hour. The message got through to House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), the sponsor of the minimum-wage bill that included the Marianas but not Samoa, according to committee aides. The aides said the Samoan economy does not have the diversity and vibrancy to handle the mainland’s minimum wage, nor does the island have anything like the labor rights abuses Miller found in the Marianas.
Sorry for not linking but I haven’t been able to post a comment with a link in it.
Ah, it was purely coincidental then that the only company that got to claim that it would be subject to unfair international competition was one that is headquartered in Pelosi’s district. I feel much more reassured now.
I hope that both parties field lots of strong candidates in the primaries, which I think is one of the most broken parts of the system.
Also, I disagree with the “Rep. Dingell of Michigan is against increasing the Vehicle mileage standards” as being negative. In my opinion it’s perfectly fine for a representative to be against something that will hurt their constituents — and yes businesses are constituents when they provide much of the economic base — as long as they are against it in full. Trying to thrust something on everyone else and making exceptions for your district (or the other way around) is what makes me upset.
I hope you aren’t surprised. There will always be some level of this sort of thing going on in politics. You can’t stop politicians from wanting to help their friends and supporters.
The key is making sure that politicians aren’t required to play this kind of political favoritism. Right now political campaigns are so out of control that politicians *need* the dirty money to get elected and stay there.
So does that mean you’re taking Democratic talking points at face value, Blue Neponset? While the economy of the Northern Mariana Islands is more based on tourism, they have had a sizable garment industry because of their below-minimum wages. Also, a Garment Oversight Board has been created there which is improving the conditions of workers (though I doubt tuna factories are much more pleasant to work at than garment factories), so unless we’re adopting minimum wage as punishment for past abuses, that’s not a terribly good reason to treat the two differently.
Of course, Northern Mariana’s workers are mostly foreign-born, even as almost half of their indigenous population is unemployed. I guess it’s good to force higher wages into the hands of asian immigrants.
There are some legitimate reasons, perhaps, to treat the two differently. But I’m far from convinced that any of those reasons explain why Speaker Pelosi had decided to do so. If concern for lost canning jobs were the real reason, I’m sure that there are some communities in Washington and Alaska and elsewhere who would also appreciate the break. We’ve lost a lot of American jobs overseas because of our minimum wage. If it’s respect for local self-determination that we’re showing, then why doesn’t Northern Mariana get the same respect?
By the way, according to the figures in Wikipedia, the per capita GDP of the Northern Mariana Islands was about $9,300, while the same figure for American Samoa was about $8,000. Not quite as healthy, to be sure, but that different?
One difference might be this: the willingness to hear and act on legitimate complaints.
Keep raising these issues.
I think this is the article Blue N was referring to: LINK.
I get the feeling that they won’t care until 4 months before the next election. But that’s an improvement over Republicans who didn’t give a damn what anyone thought.
Oh, it’s Samoa? It’s all coming together now … Barney Frank slapped down some Republican trying to get Samoa exempted on CSPAN the other day for breaking parliamentary procedure. Not as simple an issue as it seems, but the best thing is to hold our government accountable, whatever letter behind their name.
PatHMV,
I think we shouldn’t be raising the minimum wage in the Marianas for the same reasons it is a bad idea in American Samoa. IMO, the Dems are overcorrecting the problem because of all the publicity the Marianas got as a result of Delay and Abramoff. This huge minimum wage increase will hurt the Marianas more than it will help them. As I said earlier if we were actually discussing minimum wage we would be talking about these things but instead we are talking about how Pelosi is crooked because Starkist is in her district.
Minimum wage should be tied to local and national consumer price indices and readjusted annually. Perhaps weighting the two 50/50. That way the minimum wage couldn’t be way out of line with the local economy. And this readjustment should be automatic and mandated by law so that way we won’t have argue about it in the future
Hey, I thought that the Democrats told us that raising the minimum wage does not lead to more unemployement and does not hurt business?
Of course, what the Democrats meant is that raising the minimum wage in Montgomery County Maryland or San Francisoc does not raise the unemployment becasue the market wage is much higher than the minimum wage. But in a place like Samoa (or El Paso, Texas) raising the minimum wage does lead to unemployment.
Did StarKist (based in SF) contribune too Pelosi or other top Democratic leaders’ campaign committees?
Did StarKist (based in SF) contribute to Pelosi or other top Democratic leaders’ campaign committees?
I would rather see the Congressional leadership promoting fair and open debate rather than parliamentary tricks to force through special interests.
It seems to me that as long as the Dems have the majority the only reason to avoid debate is to hide something.
Whoever wins the election, it’s the politicians that always win.
Attempting to paint this as Pelosi corruption is SO disingenuous.
Right, it was Abramoff and DeLay who have been fighting against Democrat-supported wage increase there since 1996. Abramoff, not Pelosi was paid by the Islands to prevent an increase there. The new bill raises minimum wage there, gradually rather than all at once, at the request of the Islands, not Pelosi.
And you’re trying to make this a Pelosi scandal? Sir, have you no shame? Pelosi included the gradual increase, rather than exempting the islands from the increase, as Republicans wanted. It’s a compromise (look it up, conservatives) that attempts to address the Islands’ concerns by giving them time, but make no mistake here. Pelosi’s team passed a clean bill, cleaner than anything the GOP has done in 12 years.
Paul, obviously returning to GOP control won’t reduce the corrupting influence of money in politics. It was never worse than under the GOP (and oh yeah, you bet I can back that up).
But let’s not have a pissing match over who’s more corrupt. Let’s propose a permanent solution, not chipping away at “earmarks”. I have floated mine many times. Strip corporations of the legal fiction of “corporate personhood”. These fake and sociopathic “individuals” are not people and not entitled to a vote, nor “free speech” in the form of corrupting monetary influence (that would be bribery). I want my government to work for the people, in the public interest, not in the service of corporate greed.
GreenDreams,
I appreciate your passion and information.
There are many sides to each story.
I would have preferred the House to openly debate these reforms and allow amendments that could be voted up or down.
Do you have any similar insight into why Senator Reid is resisting the GOP efforts to expand reforms to ALL earmarks?
I’m sorry, but any American based business, especially a major one like Starkist that has employees currently living on the existing federal minimum wage should not be overly burdened by the increase. This is assuming Samoa has to comply with Federal minimum wages, which as a territory I really dont know one way or the other.
Also, its mentioned that the industry virtually runs the island nation, so I am 99% sure that there is some influence peddling going on. I just don’t buy that they can’t handle an increase thats been long overdue for 10 years.
We need public funding of elections to reduce special interest influence. There are too many lobbyists in Washington, and it gets worse every year. PAC fundraisers have led to corporate lobbyists writing their own legislation and massive deregulation of banking, energy and telecommunications industries. How can that be in the public interest?
Wow, so you thought enthusiastically about another party taking power over in Congress after one turned corrupt after it took over power from previously mentioned party after that party had turned corrupt. And what you do to deal with this apparently newfound corruption in congress is get your hopes up that the other party can once again step up to the plate and eliminate the corruption in this party. I have a question, in six to eight years, are you going to be saying ‘The GOP deserves to be booted out for what they’ve done in Congress’ whilst hoping the Democrats can clean up Capitol Hill. Maybe the problem is you’ve had the same trick pulled on you over and over again, but every time they fake-toss that ball, you go chasing after it in delight.
SurgeJack, that’s dark. Thought I was cynical…
Paul, I’m with you for strengthening the Senate’s ethics reform legislation. But I believe you’ve misrepresented the debate to say that Harry Reid is “resisting GOP efforts to expand reform”. Indeed the legislation introduced by Reid is exactly what the GOP proposed just this summer.
But I will certainly join you in this by writing both my own senators and Senator Reid to urge that the Democrats take a stronger position than the Republicans were ever willing to. You can find sample letters on the web site linked above.
And BTW, instead of joining in the debate on this topic, former ethics reformer John McCain has been down on K. Street hitting up the lobbyists for some loot.
for more on what you can do, and sample scripts to call your reps check out cleanupWashington.org
Click here to find your Senators’ phone number, or call the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Click here to find your Representative’s phone number, or call the House switchboard at (202) 225-3121.
next, Representative Dingell. I’m not much of a Dingell fan, but as he represents the state of Michigan, and hence Detroit, I suppose it’s possible that he is representing the position of his human constituents and not just corporate interests of his state.
As for fixing Part D of Medicare, rage, rage against anything that prevents our getting the best deal for our seniors and our tax dollars! I’ll be contacting not only my representatives, but pressing AARP to fight for this as well.
i am overjoyed that the repugs finally care what happens to the people of american samoa…just like they cared about the people of the marianas….horseshit…its all politics
while i do not like that samoa is being exempted, i can understand their fears of having the cannery biz being outsourced. evil as it may be, it is a fact.
michigan is giving ford 300 mil to stay in the state…they have the money to fight outsourcing.
6 years the repugs had the opportunity to raise minimun wages…they waited till the last moment, then attached it to a tax cut bill for the wealthy…what big hearts they have.
oh, and george miller wrote the bill, not nancy pelosi…but she is the rights new boogeyman
nice to see politics as usual up in the house.
as for the reform bills not going far enuf…not one…and i mean not one repug has the right to complain about any reform bill
they sat in chambers while their cohorts raped and pillaged with impunity and they did nothing
me thinks they dost protest too much
As I read more about the Samoa situation I tend to agree with Greendreams that it is probably a Republican distortion. I still wonder about the coincidence that the Headquarters of one of the largest employer there is in Pelosi’s district.
It also does look like Reid and McConnell did agree to submit the GOP ethics package as a point of departure. And the efforts in favor of making it stronger are coming from both sides of the aisle.
There are legitimate reasons in the past to doubt the sincerity and intentions of both parties. But today is the first day of the rest of our lives. I want to participate in helping move both parties towards pragmatism, cooperation, collaboration. Part of this would be to keep both parties from taking the moderate and independent voters for granted. What I can do is to question anything that looks like inappropriate favoritism while celebrating improvements that benefit the middle class. I hope we can share what we learn here at TMV.
I send my opinions to the DCCC and RNCC and the Senate counterparts, since they are sensitive to what voters think about their parties.