KENNEDY NEWSLETTER: What Were You Thinking?

What WERE you thinking Senator Kennedy, when you wrote your "Dear Friends" letter? Here, let me quote your very first sentence:

"Over the past ten years, Members of Congress have raised their own pay by $31,000, but the minimum wage hasn't gone up a cent."

Aren't YOU a "member of Congress" Senator?

Did you - or any of your fellow Democrats stand up before other "members" and renounce the pay increases?

Did you REFUSE TO accept the pay increase - purely on moral grounds?

Did you standup and say - nay, shout, "We should be ashamed of ourselves for increasing our pay at a time when minimum wage for a year's work is $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three!"

If you DID standup and reject the pay increase but it passed anyhow - why not mention this in your letter to all your "Dear Friends"? Don't you think your "dear friends" would like to know if you did?

"Presuming you didn't", then why did you remain silent?

Why didn't you raise a hot and louder commotion over the wage increase than you did the Dubai Ports deal? (After all - it DIRECTLY effects a sizeable portion of America's voters.)

Senator - you and your fellow Democrats missed a great opportunity. What's $31,000 a year to you or any other "member of Congress"?

Imagine the impact if you, and your fellow Democrats were to make this speech on the Senate floor:

"My fellow Americans, I refuse to accept the past few years' pay increases of nearly $31,000 for myself. I will accept it on behalf of my dear friends, you who are struggling against ridiculously low minimum-wage pay scales. Therefore, I will randomnly choose ten Americans working at minimum wage and contribute $3100 to each of their yearly salaries this year."

"You coulda been a contender..." good thing I'm not working as one of your handlers or you would be $31,000 poorer. But I digress... (but its still not too late to do this you know.)

Instead you post a fairly impotent "Dear Friends" letter on your website to remind us ALL that YOU, that all "members of Congress" have received (in total) nearly $31,000 in pay raises. Then the salt in the wound - proposing minimum-wage earners would get a whopping $2.10 HOURLY increase (in total) TWO YEARS from now.

Lemme see now... let's say it works out this way: The first year: 2040 times $1.05 equals $2,142. The second year would be 2040 times $2.10 or $4,284. In total, (over two years time) the increase would be $6426.

Your recent pay raise (alone) would cover the first year's wage increases for SEVEN people!

Or you could cover almost five people's entire TWO YEAR wage increase. I'm sure that will make the minimum-wage earner in the US jump up to support you!

And a note to all those talking about cheap illegal immigrant labor. Do you think there's ANY job in the US that legal residents would NOT do for $7.25 an hour MINIMUM? If you do - you'd be wrong.

So take note - this proposed increase in minimum wage would decrease the need for illegal immigrants. Senator, are you SURE its the right time to push the increase? Maybe it'd be better to wait, eh?

The KENNEDY NEWSLETTER: Senate Democrats work to Improve America's Competitive Advantage:

Dear Friends:

Over the past ten years, Members of Congress have raised their own pay by $31,000, but the minimum wage hasn't gone up a cent. It's still just $5.15 - $10,700 a year for a full-time worker. No one can live on that. It's more than $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. In the wealthiest country on the face of the earth, no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.

That's why I've fought time and again to increase the minimum wage. Yet, time and again, Republicans in Congress have refused to give hard-working men and women the pay they deserve.

One thing I've learned in this ongoing battle is that the American people understand what this Republican Congress does not - that a fair increase in the minimum wage is long overdue. People see their friends and neighbors struggling to survive on poverty wages, and they want to help.

I'm working with community activists, religious leaders, and workers around the country to obtain citizen co-sponsors for my Fair Minimum Wage Act, which will raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over two years. With these signatures in hand, I'll demand a vote on the minimum wage as soon as possible.

To help make this effort a success, I am asking each of you, as friends and supporters, to stand with us. Please sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act, and encourage others to do so. With your help, we can succeed, and give minimum wage workers a well-earned raise.

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