Quick Note Digest: GOP Likes Money--As Long As It's Theirs

1.  Bi-partisan Senate Agreement Advances Unemployment Package. Boehner Shrugs

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate advanced a bi-partisan extension of emergency unemployment benefits.  The extension, which had been filibustered into silence several times since the beginning of the year, was moved on with ten Republicans joining Democrats to approve the extension.  The bill will now go to the House where its outcome is cloudy at best.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had this to say about the new Senate bill:  " I made (it) clear that if we're going to consider dealing with unemployment--emergency unemployment--we ought to do something about creating better jobs in America, higher wages in America...It's time for the Senate to work with the House to help get the economy moving again.  That's the real issue."

Mr. Boehner thinks we, (meaning Congress, I assume) should be doing something about "creating better jobs" and "higher wages."  I wonder how he justifies that need with the Republican fight against raising the minimum wage.  Which brings be me to...

2.  Giving Up on Republicans, Others Step Up to Raise Pay

A January Gallup poll found that seven out of ten Americans support raising the minimum wage, including 54 percent of those identifying themselves as conservative.  President Obama and Democrats continue to call for the raise. Republicans continue to refuse to consider it.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) recently explained he was concerned that raising the minimum wage would hurt young workers. "The majority of these workers are younger people just getting into the workforce.  What we don't want to do is support ideas (that will) reduce the availability of jobs from the very people we want to get into jobs so they can start climbing that ladder of life, so they can get in and start working their way up and get the skills they need to earn a better job." 

The facts that Mr. Ryan and his ilk continue to ignore are that 84 percent of minimum wage workers are over the age of 20, and 47 percent are over 30.  These are not teenagers looking for a part-time job to support their iTunes habit; these are adults trying to raise families.

Other Republicans, led by Karl Rove and Fox News, are claiming that the actual number of minimum wage workers is so small that raising their hourly rate would do nothing to help the economy. Mr. Rove called the Democrat's focus on minimum wage workers "theatrics."

Fortunately, there are others who refuse to follow the Republican lead on this issue.  The Gap announced last month that it would raise the minimum wage for all its workers to $9.00/hour by June and to $10.00/hour next year.  

Several states, including conservative strongholds like West Virginia, Montana and Arizona already have passed bills raising the minimum wage in their states.  On Wednesday, Connecticut voted to raise their minimum wage to $10.10/hour, the same rate President Obama is pushing Congress to approve.

President Obama, by executive order, raised the minimum wage for all government contract workers.  Not surprisingly, Mr. Boehner and the rest of the GOP saw this move as an example of the President over-stepping his rights. 

So, which is it Mr. Boehner, do you want to create "better jobs" with "higher wages" or do you want to complain when the President, the states or employers like The Gap do exactly that? You can't have it both ways.

And, Mr. Rove, if the number of minimum wage workers is so small, why are you fighting so hard against it? 

3.  Texas, Where Equal Pay for Equal Work is "Nonsense"

Last week, I wrote about how the Republican Party in Texas was having a little trouble explaining their antipathy for equal pay for women.  They're excuses ranged from "women are very busy" to women need to "become better negotiators." http://whateyethynk-politics.blogspot.com/2014/03/quick-note-digest-anti-equal-pay-in.html

This week, soon to be ex-Governor Rick Perry appeared on MSNBC and gave his own take on the issue, which has become a hot-topic in the Texas Governor's race. He called the back and forth jibes between Greg Abbott, Republican candidate for Governor and Wendy Davis, the Democrat's candidate, "nonsense" saying that Democrats should focus on more "substantive issues."  When asked about a bill that would have guaranteed equal pay for women--a bill which passed the Texas legislature last year but which he vetoed--Mr. Perry replied, "Why do we need to muddle up our statutes when we already have laws on the books that clearly take care of this?"

If these statutes already exist, why are most of the female assistants in Attorney General Greg Abbott's office paid less than their male counterparts?  And why did Mr. Abbott go to court in defense of a Texas state college that was sued by a female professor who was being paid less than her male colleagues?  Surely, Mr. Abbott as Attorney General would be aware of these existing statutes?

I'd say, the real "nonsense" here is that Texas Republicans still see women as too unimportant to qualify as "substantive," no matter the issue.