Paul Ryan: Portrait of An Unserious Man

Rep. Paul Ryan's remedy for man made climate change is to do nothing. Literally. This is what he told the media.

"Climate change occurs no matter what. The question is, can and should the federal government do something about it? And I would argue the federal government, with all its tax and regulatory schemes, can't. And all it will do is end up hurting our country, our people, and especially low income individuals."

What Ryan didn't tell the media is the $181,299 he has received from the oil industry during this campaign cycle.

Ryan talked about his poverty program.

"In many cases, the federal government, in its war on poverty, has inadvertently displaced civil society, prodded out good things that are happening in our communities, when it should be supporting them. It should be manning supply lines, not dictating the front lines."

"And the other point, it has given the notion in our society that this isn't your problem. Pay your taxes. The government will fix this. The government fixes poverty. That's not true. We need to break those notions that so that everybody gets involved and does something in whatever way they can to make a difference in this area. And that is one of the messages we need to pound over and over and over if we are going to be successful in reintegrating the poor and getting them from where the are to where they want to be."

Ryan does not have a basic understanding about poverty. Naturally, Ryan is against raising the minimum wage. Ryan previously made the hysterical claim that raising the minimum wage will keep teenagers from getting jobs.

“The majority of these workers are younger people just getting into the workforce,” Ryan said. “What we don’t want to do is support ideas, especially in this kind of economy, which will reduce the availability of jobs, number one, but more importantly 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.” He added that his time working at McDonald’s as a young man helped “give me better training to keep moving on in life.”

The New York Times had the actual numbers.

Climbing above the poverty line has become more daunting in recent years, as the composition of the nation’s low-wage work force has been transformed by the Great Recession, shifting demographics and other factors. More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers has declined to just 17 percent from 28 percent in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, according to Janelle Jones and John Schmitt of the Center for Economic Policy Research.

Today’s low-wage workers are also more educated, with 41 percent having at least some college, up from 29 percent in 2000. “Minimum-wage and low-wage workers are older and more educated than 10 or 20 years ago, yet they’re making wages below where they were 10 or 20 years ago after inflation,” said Mr. Schmitt, senior economist at the research center. “If you look back several decades, workers near the minimum wage were more likely to be teenagers — that’s the stereotype people had. It’s definitely not accurate anymore.”

The Chamber of Commerce doesn't want a minimum wage increase. The Republican Party heeds the word of the Chamber. The Chamber of Commerce represents businesses that will fight tooth and nail not to pay their employees more. The Chamber of Commerce released an article on their website titled "A Better Approach Than the Minimum Wage Distraction."

The minimum wage debate is misplaced as part of the income inequality debate simply because raising the minimum wage by $1 an hour, for example, adds about $2,000 to the pre-tax income of those few full-time minimum wage adult workers. (Most minimum wage earners are either teenagers or are working part-time). A $2,000 increase would make a difference to the worker, assuming he or she still has a job, but it doesn’t do much for income inequality when stacked against the incomes of those at the very top of the income scale.

Ryan cited the CBO report. The truth is states that have raised the minimum wage have found no adverse effects. The wage increases were needed to keep up with inflation. What Ryan and other Republicans refuse to mention is cost of living increases. From the Associated Press:

"In the 13 states that boosted their minimums at the beginning of the year, the number of jobs grew an average of 0.85 percent from January through June. The average for the other 37 states was 0.61 percent.

"Nine of the 13 states increased their minimum wages automatically in line with inflation: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Four more states — Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island — approved legislation mandating the increases."

Republicans constantly say that unemployment will increase if the minimum wage is increased. At some point the minimum wage must be raised. Millions of Americans having less spending power will be a drag on the economy. It also costs the federal government money. Forbes reports that WalMart workers $6.2 billion in public assistance. WalMart employees simply do not make enough to survive.

Ryan is against raising the minimum wage because he doesn't want to cut into the bottom line of companies like WalMart. Ryan's war on poverty should be treated like the nonsense it truly is.

WalMart to Be Built on Florida Rain Forest Land

The Miami Herald reports that the University of Miami has come to an agreement with Ram to develop 40 acres of a rain forest preserve. The land will be used for a Walmart, LA Fitness center, Chik-fil-A, Chili’s restaurants and other box retail stores. Needless to say, environmentalists are not happy.

“You wonder how things end up being endangered? This is how. This is bad policy and bad enforcement. And shame on UM,” said attorney Dennis Olle, a board member of Tropical Audubon and the North American Butterfly Association, who wrote to Florida’s lead federal wildlife agent Friday demanding an investigation.

The proposed land for development contains many endangered plants and species. Conservationists were sent in last month to rescue plants and other rare life. They found more than what they bargained for.

To their surprise, rescuers picking their way through the forest in June and earlier this month found a trove of rare plants outside land staked off for preservation, including the tiny, endangered polygala smallii, a small flowering herb. They also spotted rare butterflies, including the Bartram’s hairstreak, one of the butterflies expected to be named to the endangered species list this summer, and the Atala hairstreak, which almost went extinct in the middle of the 20th century.

Environmental protection is next to nonexistent under the Rick Scott administration. The oil industry wants to drill in the Everglades. Even the environmentally unfriendly Jeb Bush was never that bold.

Occupy Tampa Protest at WalMart

Occupy Tampa staged a protest at an area WalMart. The protesters chanted, "Fair Labor, Worker's Right." WalMart has fought against the attempts of their employees to unionize.

Black Friday

Capitalism at its worst. Patrons of a Wal-Mart destroy a display and crush each other during Black Friday.

Card Check

The Republican Party of Florida is attacking Joe Biden on (drum roll please) card check.

“Vice President Biden has traveled to Florida today to draw support for, the big union backed, ‘card check’ legislation. What he won’t tell workers, though, is that this bill seeks to strip American workers of their fundamental right to vote by secret ballot, subjecting workers to pressure by their employers, union organizers and colleagues by publicly signing union authorization cards,” stated Chairman Jim Greer. “The secret ballot is the foundation of American democracy and protects workers from intimidation. I am proud of Florida’s Republican elected officials, led by House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and Senator Garrett Richter who have worked hard to protect Florida’s business climate and workers by sponsoring an amendment to the Florida constitution to supersede the any federal legi slation and Save our Secret ballot.”

Wal-Mart has repeatly intimidated workers from forming unions.

Wal-Mart has responded to the union drive by trying to stop workers from organizing -- sometimes in violation of federal labor law. In 10 separate cases, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Wal-Mart repeatedly broke the law by interrogating workers, confiscating union literature, and firing union supporters. At the first sign of organizing in a store, Wal-Mart dispatches a team of union busters from its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, sometimes setting up surveillance cameras to monitor workers. "In my 35 years in labor relations, I've never seen a company that will go to the lengths that Wal-Mart goes to, to avoid a union," says Martin Levitt, a management consultant who helped the company develop its anti-union tactics before writing a book called Confessions of a Union Buster. "They have zero tolerance."

More Wal-Mart workers are trying to form unions because they can't live on Wal-Mart's low wages. Wal-Mart worker Michael Rodriguez injured his ankle on-the-job. His supervisors locked him in the store and refused to let him leave to get medical treatment. Another Wal-Mart employee was locked-in after experiencing a heart attack. Card check (aka Employee Free Choice Act) would allow worker to vote on if they want to form a union.

The text from the bill.

(a) In General- Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 159(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, whenever a petition shall have been filed by an employee or group of employees or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf alleging that a majority of employees in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining wish to be represented by an individual or labor organization for such purposes, the Board shall investigate the petition. If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection (a).

`(7) The Board shall develop guidelines and procedures for the designation by employees of a bargaining representative in the manner described in paragraph (6). Such guidelines and procedures shall include--

`(A) model collective bargaining authorization language that may be used for purposes of making the designations described in paragraph (6); and

`(B) procedures to be used by the Board to establish the validity of signed authorizations designating bargaining representatives.'.

(b) Conforming Amendments

(1) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD- Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 153(b)) is amended, in the second sentence--

(A) by striking `and to' and inserting `to'; and

(B) by striking `and certify the results thereof,' and inserting `, and to issue certifications as provided for in that section,'.

(2) UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES- Section 8(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 158(b)) is amended--

(A) in paragraph (7)(B) by striking `, or' and inserting `or a petition has been filed under section 9(c)(6), or'; and

(B) in paragraph (7)(C) by striking `when such a petition has been filed' and inserting `when such a petition other than a petition under section 9(c)(6) has been filed'.

Attacking card check and worker rights during an economic downturn is politically tone deaf. Most people don't know or care what card check is. It is an easy sell for Barack Obama and Biden. All they have to say is the Employee Free Choice Act gives workers the right to unionize and negotiate for better pay. I don't see 500,000 people protesting in Washington against pay increases and worker rights. Jim Greer is taking a stand against union authorization cards. Obama will appoint a board to set guidelines. Knowing how politically astute he is, Obama will have card check be secret ballot. Does anyone believe Republicans will support unionize with secret ballot votes? I didn't think so.

News flash to Jim Greer: Biden is going around the country pushing card check because the White House knows it will play well and the GOP will make clumsy attacks.

Hillary and Wal-Mart

I wanted to write about Hillary Clinton's tenure at Wal-Mart. Garance Franke-Ruta covers how Hillary Clinton's friends said she was concerned about women being promoted to management.

The fact that Wal-Mart’s one-time executives and board members would still describe concern for the equal treatment of women in the workplace as a “personal cause” despite the very public court battle current and former female Wal-Mart employees are waging against the firm, would seem to be a symptom of the attitude female employees are fighting against, and possibly even evidence for their suit. If the executives and board members are to be believed, Clinton tried to press the company to make progress on this issue years before the firm’s employees felt the situation so intolerable they had no recourse other than to sue. The class action suit only covers the period from late 1998 through the present, but the board of directors appears to have known there was a problem years before this — even Clinton’s 1986 invitation to join the board was the result of pressure from female Walton family members to increase women in higher-level positions with the company — and failed to take adequate action.

Wal-Mart had the biggest class action lawsuit in history filed against the company by 1.6 million female employees. It is easy to why why Clinton didn't want to be interviewed for the New York Times story.

Bill Bradley Is Wrong On Gas Tax

Bill Bradley steals a page out of Thomas Friedman's playbook and touts a dollar gas tax.

A few hours later, former U.S. Sen. and onetime Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Bradley — whose nickname as a New York Knicks basketball star was “Dollar Bill” — told the Palm Beach Democratic Club that a $1-a-gallon tax on gasoline and a “big fee” on SUVs and other gas-guzzling vehicles would be good ways to encourage fuel-efficiency and combat global warming.

There are several reasons why this is a bad idea. Consumers are being hit with increasing high gas prices. Making motorists pay more will punish them. There is no proof that they will moderate there driving use. Increased gas prices have proven to make inflation worse.



Prices in the chart spiked from decreased Gulf Coast production due to Hurricane Katrina. Gas prices have since topped the 2005 high.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. average gasoline price set a record Monday, eclipsing highs seen following Hurricane Katrina. To have your say about the spiraling costs, click on the link below.
A number of analysts, including those at the Oil Price Information Service and A.G. Edwards, say a peak should come soon.

The U.S. average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.073 Monday, up a little less than a penny from Sunday, when the record was first broken, according to a daily survey from motor club AAA and OPIS. Prices are still below the all-time high when adjusted for inflation, $3.223 in today's dollars set March 1981, according to the Energy Department.

Wal-Mart is blaming gas prices increases on slow sales.

Technically, Wal-Mart's 3.5% April decline ranks as Wal-Mart's worst monthly showing in the 28 years it has reported such figures, handily outpacing the previous worst 0.6% decline in April 1996. In a broader context, the result was pulled down by scheduling quirks in addition to Wal-Mart's increasing difficulty in topping its own year-ago numbers.

In 2003, Wal-mart was 2.5 of America's GNP. The business titan can be hurt by increased gas prices. Bradley hasn't calculated how a dollar gas tax will affect smaller businesses and consumers.

Democrats should keep Bradley's proposal at arm's length. It is political suicide to support a gas tax. Barack Obama is pressing the automotive industry to make more fuel efficient cars. Senate Democrats have outlined a plan for cleaner renewable energy. That is a good place to start the dialogue.