Congress Has Misplaced Priorites

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Ham on Wry has lost all hope of Congress accomplishing anything worthwhile during its next session, given the continued posturing and Republican stonewalling of President Obama on almost every front.  It seems a majority of congressional members are serving a master not named in the United States Constitution: financial supporters, both individual and well-shrouded groups, that contribute to campaigns.  The Preamble to the United States Constitution contains a clause stating that one of the reasons for establishing the constitution is to " Promote the general welfare."  This blogger can't speak for other citizens, but I don't feel promoting the general welfare has a high priority in the 113th Congress, especially in the House of Representatives.

Readers will recognize the photo above taken from a previous post as John Boehner, Speaker of the House.  Although he claims to understand what it's like being poor, I believe any comprehension he might have had once is long forgotten.  He claims that people make minimum wage because they bring few, if any, skills to the workplace and will have little chance of developing them in minimum wage jobs.   He, therefore, objects to President Obama's proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9/hour, explaining, “When you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less it.  At a time when the American people are still asking the question ‘Where are the jobs?’, why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?”  Notice his enlightened view of the president's attempt to pay workers a living wage.

Mr. Boehner, and many of his colleagues who have served multiple terms in office, have profited mightily from their time in office.  He is a millionaire many times over with no worries about how to feed his children and keep a roof over his family's head.  Companies like Walmart, Target, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and Starbucks are doing quite well, thank you, and can afford to pay their workers a higher wage, but they fear how it would impact earnings.  I suggest that Mr. Boehner, and any other member of Congress who resists raising the minimum wage, live for a month on minimum wage and see how they fare.  I predict some might change their tune. 

Startling but true, the current minimum wage, $7.25, has less value than the $1.60 paid in 1968, which would be worth $10.56 today.  President Obama's request for a $9.00 minimum wage falls below that.  Congress has no problem voting its .own raises, but balks at elevating the earnings of the working poor.  I am sick of hearing all the nonsense and sick at heart for the intransigence of the very people elected to work on behalf of the nation's citizens.  Voting is the sole power citizens have to voice their objections to the status quo, yet states continue to send the same inept people to make our laws and handle our finances.  If these buffoons worked for a business, a vast majority would have been fired long ago.  When will America wake up from its long winter's nap?