Action pnum580 Last 25 Messages Transmitted Log Pass the Minimum Wage into law ********** [040459:030107] s.a., Los Angeles, CA Please raise the minimum wage. Its the only moral thing to do. ********** [181349:021107] L.M., Berkeley, CA I can't believe that the US Senate will not pass an increase in the minimum wage! This is long overdue. The poor need our help much more than the rich! ********** [101212:021007] S.F., Jemez Springs, NM I have had to move to South Korea, A DEVELOPING COUNTRY, to make a decent wage. As a foreign worker I am also provided with National Health Insurance. The US sends aid to South Korea. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? ********** [145336:020707] C.S., Albuquerque, NM I am currently in an apartment that is spiraling downhill because none of us can make enough money to keep it. if the minimum wage was higher then we would be able to keep the apartment but as it is we are currently under a 3 day notice because congress is taking too long. Just pass the bill already and let Americans get somewhere in their daily lives. "78% of American citizens are currently living paycheck to paycheck" and the other 12% cant even do that because the checks arent big enough to cover everyday expenses. ********** [114647:020707] M.H., Plano, TX This is not America! This is not the country our troops are fighting for! Take care of Americans first and let us have a decent living wage! We are the laughing stock of other nations who take care of their citizens first! Flag waving does not put food ion our tables. Wake up, for the love of God!!!! ********** [003120:020707] S.R., Round Rock, TX Every time the price of bread and milk goes up and wages stay the same, we the people take a salary. Corporate profits has climbed (not to mention gross revenue which is really analagous to a indivdual's wage). Why do "We the People" continue to get ignored and exploited? It is morally wrong to continue to cut poor people's wage through inflation by maintaining a unjust minimum wage. Avarice and greed and despising the poor must not continue to be the effect domestic policy of this nation. ********** [232204:020607] k.a., Milwaukee, WI Congress, Americans are struggling. Minimum wages must be improved. We just did it in Wisconsin. Middle class is struggling. The working poor must be so overwhelmed just to survive. Most CEO's have received a 400% increase in wages while the rest of us struggle to survive. Please address the issues of the working poor. Thank you, Kathy Arciszewski, Milwaukee, WI ********** [084759:020607] A.B., Miami, FL I feel strongly that the minimum wage should be increased. I have heard that Congress has boosted it's own wage annually, yet the minimum wage has not increased in years. People earning minimum wage cannot survive on a fourty hour a week job, due to increasing costs of living. What's the deal? Why is Congress allowing Bush to cut taxes for the people who should be taxed THE MOST, while strangling the people who need money more? ********** [121234:020507] R.D., Boynton Beach, FL THe people of this country deserve to earn AT LEAST minimum wage. ********** [103953:020507] K.D., Jackson Heights, NY Raising the minimum wage to a living wage is an important step in correcting the incredible economic disparity in our country. Please fight for a clean minimum wage bill! ********** [005924:020507] P.E., Culver City, CA The minimum wage finally went up to $7.25, it is better, but certainly not good enough espacially when we all know you guys in congress elect your own raises and get free medical dental, and all the purks in the world. A suggestion would be to strart M.W. At $10.00/hr., and keep raising it every year (just like congress does for its own pocket) With all do respect it is a shame and a scandal that most honest, hard working american people should find themselves with no medical ins., sometime having to raise a child ( single parent) out of $7.25 which after taxe seriously does keep you right at the poverty level. How can you people justify anyone live in this beautiful land of opportunity country earning $ 12,000./year, and have any kind of dignity left. what we need to fight is the war on GREED. I sure pray God that someone will take consideration of my letter, and that legislature passes new regulations on minimum wages, again very soon. Thank you Patricia Elkaim ********** [234358:020407] R.H., San Clemente, CA An increase in the national minimum wage is long overdue. The workers at the lower end of the economic ladder provide essential services that allow those of higher income to perform their jobs. They are an important part of the overall economy and deserve to be treated fairly. Also, the vote should be restricted to this issue alone without any amendments such as small bushiness tax relief, etc. This is a red herring designed to burden the minimum wage increase bill and should be considered separately. ********** [224338:020407] l.n., Albuquerque, NM This is not a new issue here in NM. It's been covered in the news for over a year now, so why has nothing been done. This is one the poorest states in the US, and the current minimum wage is not enough for to cover the average costs of living. How can we ever eliminate poverty with the minimum wage being as low as it is? ********** [153604:020307] M.P., Yuma, AZ Please raise the minium wage for all working Americans. Every year CEOs and corporate executives raise their salaries but Congress rather than stepping in and allowing Americans a raise in their own salaries has voted to raise their own salaries and keep the salaries of working Americans at the same levels they were since the last minimum wage increase years earlier. ********** [152346:020307] C.F., Jupiter, FL If the Republicans decide to interfere with a vote to provide more money for hard working Americans, then maybe we have to attach minimum wage increase to each and every raise that Congress votes for itself. After all, if Congress needs a cost-of-living raise, then everyone in America should be entitled to the same raise. I cannot begin to tell you how angry I am that these selfish Republicans can be so cruel. Isn't the Republican base the Christian Coalition? I wonder what Religion condones their behavior. How can these people be so hypocritical! ********** [140006:020307] R.F., Encinitas, CA Everyone will benefit when everyone has a decent, living wage. ********** [014149:020307] G.M., Fortine, MT Make a household budget based on working full time at minimum wage and ask yourself how you would live on it. Then ask yourself as a representative of this country susposedly basing its principles on christianity, "How low would Jesus keep the minimum wage?" Ten dollars an hour would be a good place to start, don't you agree? ********** [185232:020207] R.S., Mercer Island, WA Pass a minimum wage without taz break or other amendments. ********** [180335:020207] B.S., Cottonwood, AZ There have been many wealthy and high income people getting raises over the past 10 years, so NOW it is TIME for the poor lowly peon to get a raise!!! I mean what? 3 dollars? Is that really such a crime? Do the RIGHT thing. ********** [145832:020207] V.S., New Springfield, OH Ether pass the MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE or take a pay cut of all the raises you gave yourself over the last ten years. ********** [140427:020207] J.S., Santa Rosa Beach, FL What we really need is a way to equalize the economic gap in this country. I was born into a post WWII middle-class family. My Father served in Europe and his younger brother died in Korea (my namesake). I was at the lower end of the middle-class as a young adult and by 30 was moving steadily upwards. During Reagen's "trickle-down" economic policies I found myself and many of my peers suddenly begin to slip downward from career loss, job loss and/or pay and salary reductions designed to keep our surviving employers competitive in a world market, and also because of corporate lobbying to reduce or eliminate labor bargaining powers. Now at age 54 I am below the poverty level and losing daily what little retirement I have managed to save through the years. I am certainly no teenager, college student or immigrant!!! I believe Reagan had good intentions, but misunderstood the perversions of Greed and the general ability of the country to adapt equally across the marketing spectrum... Raising the minimum wage is a "brute-force" method of addressing the larger problem and though it needs to be done, until we address the source of the problem which is "capitalistic greed", then obviously that greed will result in tit-for-tat tax-break measures which to me are nothing more than corporate and business welfare. These measures at best will only result in short term "perceived" benefit. The wealth holders dictate the standard-of-living which in turn elevates the cost-of-living for everyone, again because of greed in the marketplace. We place more emphasis in this country on monetary success than we do on a common morality. Iraq is an excellant example of how capitalism distorts our humanitarian motive. I urge you to take some "quiet time" and reflect (imagine) how your life would be if you were in the economic situation that millions of loyal and patriotic Americans like myself are in. I lost both my parents in the last three years, and cannot describe how it has affected me emotionally. But the present state of our country and the terrible future I see coming as a result of our political mindset has upset my life in such a way that I am finding it hard to concentrate on my daily efforts to survive. Human history tells me that eventually Democracy as our fore-fathers intended may yet prevail, but in light of that history I have to wonder why we never seem to learn our lessons? My only answer, again, is the greed that our economic policies create. There is only one war we should be fighting now: The War On Greed!!! ********** [131610:020207] L.A., Santa Rosa, CA Please vote to raise the minimum wage to a livable wage! Help the people out of poverty! Help families with children, young people, and the nation to raise everyones standard of living! Bring back the middle class! The voters are watching! The whole world is watching! Peace and Freedom, Leslie Angeline ********** [123248:020207] P.S., Bessemer, PA After almost ten years without a raise, it is about time that Congress pass a new Minimum Wage Bill. This has happened in the people's house. Now this bill is being held up in the Senate by those who don't want it passed. It is time that Bills be put to a vote without unrelated things added just to defeat them. ********** [110524:020207] H.F., Grandville, MI For too long America has benifitted the rich and powerful companies. For too long the care and feeding of the Rich has been prioroty Number 1. Now it is time to do a little for the average guy, the person who shows up Everyday and works hard at what ever the big guys refuses to do. It is time minumin wage was raised to give the little guy a fair shake...they work hard and do the thankless jobs and they deserve a break as well. ********** [105121:020207] T.V., Madison, WI Just keep it clean, no amendments, no self-contradictory benefits for the robber barons, the super rich. Vote it up or down, please. **********