May you be cursed to live in interesting times...

Washington Post Article


Rarely has our system produced a more naked exercise in opportunism than this measure. Most conservatives oppose the minimum wage on principle as a form of government meddling in the marketplace. But moderate Republicans in jeopardy this fall desperately wanted an increase in the minimum wage.

So the seemingly ingenious Republican leadership, which dearly wants deep cuts in the estate tax, proposed offering nickels and dimes to the working class to secure billions for the rich. Fortunately, though not surprisingly, the bill failed.


Heard about this this morning on the way in...and it just didn't make sense--an increase in the minimum wage AND cuts in the Estate tax?

Huh? What sort of game are these guys in the House running?

* * *

I don't particularly agree with Dionne's article, but I do see the current situation as untennable--Ammericans en masse cannot support our current lifestyles given $3.00+ gasoline. Somethings got to give. Here in Lexington, we're close to civil unrest as people witnessed a 30-cent rise in gas prices overnight, without a coincident rise in wholesale prices. In short, we all got gouged, and the airwaves were alight today with complaints.

This situation would be bad enough if we were a nation of fiscal conservatives, living well below their means. We're not. Taken together, we max-out credit, overbuy houses, finance cars on 6-year notes. We lived right to the razor's edge, and that was when gas was $1.20.

I know one thing, I'd not mind converting my car to E85, or swapping-in a VW diesel. Yeah, blasphemy I know, but like I said: Interesting times. . .

Comments

  1. Bryan8/04/2006 4:43 PM

    The Republicans in congress don’t feel that it is necessary to raise minimum wage, however they do feel it’s OK to give themselves a $30,000 a year “cost of living” raise. What a joke!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bryan8/04/2006 4:44 PM

    The Republicans in congress don’t feel that it is necessary to raise minimum wage, however they do feel it’s OK to give themselves a $30,000 a year “cost of living” raise. What a joke!

    ReplyDelete
  3. DavidTJarvis8/10/2006 6:03 AM

    Well, don't get me started on politics. (Too late) But this Republican has watched a storybook set of majorities (could have come outta some Tom Clancy escapist plot) end up as the most depressing disappointment since I've been watching politics in 30+ years.

    Each party motivates its base with minimal progress on hot-button issues. (Parental notification for an abortion. DUH! It took 33 years to get that approved?!) Meanwhile the rapid transformation of the greatest country in the world to a big sludge-pile of fat socialists continues unabated, no matter which party is in power.

    ReplyDelete

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