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Republican Senators Tax Constituents for Minimum Wage Hike

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Democrats campaigned on a promise to raise the minimum wage for American workers, a popular issue among voters.

House Democrats fulfilled that promise by pushing through a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour.

Now, Republicans have ensured that taxpayers are going to pick up the tab.

Senate Corruptpublicans blocked passage of the minimum wage increase for a week, demanding that $8.3 billion in tax breaks are included in the final language of the bill. The breaks would benefit the richest corporations in America.

So thanks to Republicans, you will pay for the raise in the minimum wage rather than Wal-Mart, McDonalds and the other companies that deserve to be penalized.

Essentially, the GOP is making Middle America pay the wages for employees at corporations like McDonalds. Joe America is writing the pay check for employees at Fortune 500 companies. How does that make you feel Joe?

The CEO's of these corporations can afford to buy little islands for Spring Break while you're counting pennies and now the Senators that YOU voted for are fixing the laws to make you pay wages for the richest corporations! They are FORCING YOU to pay $8.3 billion in wages for employees that work for million and billionaires?

The $8.3 billion in tax breaks has to come out of somebody's pockets.

Had the Senate passed a bill identical to the one passed by the House, the Limousine Class would have paid for the minimum wage raise.

It's an outrage that Senate Republicans are getting away with this tax hike. Not even the Senate Democrats have the heart to expose this indecency, and the media has glossed over the implications of $8.3 billion in tax breaks for "small businesses," which is an aphorism for McDonalds.

For 20 years, Republicans have castigated Democrats as the party that raises taxes. That is a lie. Both parties raise taxes. The Democrats raise taxes on the greedy and disgustingly wealthy; Republicans raise them for the middle-class and the poor.

It is Republicans who have inflated the national debt with excessive giveaways to their corporate backers, like Halliburton.

If you asked voters in Oregon if they wanted their Republican Senator, Gordon Smith, to raise their taxes for a minimum wage hike, they would be outraged. If you asked the voters in Nebraska (Sen. Hagel), Oklahoma (Sen. Inhofe, Coburn), Alabama (Sen. Sessions, Shelby), Tennessee (Sen. Corker, Alexander), South Carolina (Sen. Graham) Idaho, Utah or any other folks from so-called Red-blooded states how they feel about paying for the minimum wage raise, they would probably pull out a gun and invite you to leave their property.

Well, these senators, the "fiscally conservative" senators that RED AMERICA elected, have burdened all of us with an $8.3 billion tax hike for the minimum wage raise.

This tax on us is outrageous, but what's worse is the backhanded, slimeball way they slipped the tax past our noses. I'd like to see Sessions, Corker, Alexander, Shelby, Hagel, Smith and the whole Lott of them campaign on the platform of taxing their constituents so that the Millionaire Class doesn't have to pay their employees.

The minimum wage hike is absolutely necessary, but Americans supported the hike because they expect rich corporations to do their part.

But to be fair, let's consider that whole incentive argument. The argument goes: In order for the world to continue spinning, profit should reward those who work hard.

That theory insults and enrages poverty line mothers and fathers working 60 hours a week.

Nonetheless, Ivy League economists think this stuff up. Let's pretend that they're right. Just how much profit do CEO's need to make? By today's standards, on average, CEO's make nearly 200 times the lowest wages of their employees.

Right, so if they actually paid their employees a living wage, they would only be making 120-130 times more than the lowest wages of their employees. Everybody knows these talented CEO's would just quit their jobs for those kinds of bread crumbs.

Hey, it's tough work playing God in a leather chair with servants ready to jump at your command. Who would accept that kind of responsibility for merely two-thirds of the millions CEO's are getting paid now? I didn't think you had an answer.
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Dean Powers lives in Castleton, VT. He has apprenticed at several newspapers including The Nation. He currently writes for OpEdNews. He can be found at facebook.com/deanppowers.

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