Received this e-mail today from Senator Tom Harkin (D. IA) regarding the minimum wage:
The big banks and out of control risk-taking crashed the economy in 2008, but working families have had to bear the brunt of the crash.
To make matters worse, the same people who wrecked the economy keep calling for cuts, cuts, and more cuts to programs that benefit the people who are struggling the most -- cuts they want to use to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. That's wrong. We need to build a strong middle class to power our economy.
Folks who work hard every day deserve a fair wage, not a poverty wage. So I'm calling on the Senate to raise the minimum wage, strengthen and expand the middle class, and kick start our economy.
Will you add your name to my petition urging Congress to raise the minimum wage today?
http://www.democratsenators.org/...
We've seen jobless recoveries like this before -- and we know how to fix it.
Seventy-five years ago, in the middle of the worst economic crisis our country had ever seen, President Franklin Roosevelt enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act and established the very first federal minimum wage.
He did it despite overwhelming opposition -- opposition spouting the same ridiculous attacks you hear from minimum wage opponents today. He did it because he and his allies understood it was a moral and economic imperative that would lift millions of Americans out of poverty and create jobs.
Those fundamental principles are the same today as they were 75 years ago, and that's why I'm asking your help to build congressional support for increasing the minimum wage.
Will you add your name to my petition urging Congress to raise the minimum wage today?
http://www.democratsenators.org/...
Today's minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour -- a poverty wage that hasn't budged since 2009. $7.25 an hour today has nearly one-third less purchase power than the minimum wage in 1968.
In fact, a single parent with two children working a full-time job will still fall $3,000 below the poverty line.
But it doesn't have to be that way. If we gradually raise the minimum wage to $10.10 -- and then index it to inflation -- here's what will actually happen, according the Economic Policy Institute:
30 million Americans -- including parents of 18 million children -- get a raise.
GDP increases by $33 billion over three years.
140,000 jobs are created.
It's reasonable, fair, and we need to get it done.
Sign my petition urging Congress to raise the minimum wage today!
http://www.democratsenators.org/...
The key to real economic recovery and job creation isn't more tax cuts for the rich -- it's a thriving middle class. Until we start investing in our real economic engine, we can only expect to keep struggling.
I will always do everything I can to grow and strengthen the middle class. Thank you for your help keeping up that fight.
Sincerely,
Tom Harkin
U.S. Senator
You can sign Harkin's petition here:
http://www.democratsenators.org/...
In related news, Tea Party Congressman Steve King (R. IA) may have passed on the U.S. Senate race but Congressman Bruce Braley (D. IA-01) who is running to succeed Harkin, has a GOP opponent just as crazy as King in talk radio host Sam Clovis (R. IA):
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/...
Sam Clovis, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, seems easy to stereotype. If you heard he was a conservative radio talk-show host from Sioux City who appeals to the tea party, you might imagine that’s everything you need to know about him.
Some things are rather predictable, to be sure. During a phone interview from his home, a passel of dogs barking in the background, he says the federal government is “too big to succeed.” He calls the immigration bill pending before the Senate “an abomination.” That’s nothing different than you’d hear from any conservative radio personality.
I asked how he positions himself in the Republican Party. “I am gaining a lot of support from tea party people across the state,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of people understand the tea party, and I do.”
Clovis doesn’t necessarily present positions that break him out of the mold. His top priority is tax reform, and he checks all of the religious-conservative boxes on abortion, marriage and other social issues. However, he says his background and experience mark him as more than the media stereotype of “another social-conservative loony from northwest Iowa.”
Clovis is worth watching in part because of his relationship with presidential candidate and 2012 Iowa caucuses winner Rick Santorum. Clovis has signed on some of the former senator’s campaign staff. If he emulates Santorum’s campaign style, expect an effort based far more heavily on shoe leather than TV ads. - Des Moines Register, 6/27/13
That's right, Clovis is in line with Rick Santorum. Pretty scary. Braley, who has vowed to continued Harkin's legacy in the Senate, is not underestimating Clovis:
You may have thought Steve King wasn't running for Senate in Iowa, but unless we meet our fundraising goal this Sunday, we may give the next Steve King a leg up.
That's right, the next Steve King: a Rush Limbaugh-style talk radio host from Sioux City named Sam Clovis.
He's a self-described "red meat conservative" who wants to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. Clovis has claimed that the Supreme Court ruling
Sound familiar? on DOMA would open the door to marriages between more than two people. And just this week, he called immigration reform "an abomination."
Don't let the next Steve King build momentum. Please donate $10 or more today before Sunday's FEC deadline:
https://brucebraley.zissousecure.com/...
And just like Steve King, Sam Clovis is "gaining a lot of support from tea party people." You know what that means: we're getting a candidate who can energize his base, raise money fast, and win tough elections.
If that’s not enough, two other potential challengers have emerged. One you may already know: Steve King's right hand man, Bob Vander Plaats of The Family Leader, who says he's "going to be very involved in the US Senate race" in 2014. The other is a multi-millionaire ex-Wall Street banker, Mark Jacobs, who can fund an entire statewide campaign with the stroke of a pen through his checkbook.
We need to make sure that we've got the ability to fight back against another Tea Party extremist. Will you chip in $10 or more before Sunday's deadline to help us?
https://brucebraley.zissousecure.com/...
Iowa deserves a Senator who will represent and work to solve real problems for all Iowans, not someone who will only work to promote their extreme views and block progress at every step.
Thanks for all you do,
Molly
You can click here to donate to Braley's campaign:
https://brucebraley.zissousecure.com/...
By the way, Braley has picked up another big endorsement:
http://wcfcourier.com/...
The Iowa Professional Fire Fighters have endorsed Bruce Braley in his 2014 campaign for US Senate.
“Bruce Braley gets things done for Iowa, solving problems for the people he represents. He’ll be even more effective in the Senate,” organization president Rick Scofield said.
The Iowa Professional Fire Fighters, a division of the International Association of Fire Fighters, represent over 1,500 fire fighters across the state. - WCF Courier, 6/25/13
And Braley recently discussed how he thought the Toomey-Manchin bill was too weak and the need for filibuster reform:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
"The background check amendment as it currently exists, I probably would have opposed -- not for the reason most people think, but because it immunizes gun manufacturers, who get the economic benefit of that protection and use it to fund all of the assaults, legislative assaults on rational measures to reduce gun violence. And I told that to the Newtown families," he said in an interview with The Huffington Post on Friday at the annual Netroots Nation conference.
In 2005, Congress passed a law barring victims of gun violence from suing firearms manufacturers and dealers for negligence, part of the NRA's shift toward representing the interests of gunmakers over gun owners. The amendment by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) would have expanded that immunity to private gun sellers without a commercial license, as long as they implemented the background check requirement.
Braley has an F rating from the NRA, so he's not concerned about falling even further out of favor with the organization. On Election Day, he noted, newspapers in his district were delivered in a plastic sleeve with his opponent's picture on it, paid for by the NRA. He "strongly" supported the substantive policy of Manchin-Toomey, without the immunity protections, said Braley.
Braley also said he supports reforming the filibuster rules in the Senate, so that legislation does not constantly need to overcome a 60-vote threshold to move forward.
"I understand why people who have been there a long time want to preserve it," he said. "But the reality is, in this highly divided Senate that we have now, even the most basic responsibilities of treaty ratification and judicial confirmations are just at a standstill and take up so much floor time that it keeps the Senate from doing its required policy-making. That's why I think progressives are willing to accept some of the risk of doing away with the current filibuster system if it means that we can get things done that the American people want to see happen."
He endorsed the idea of a "talking filibuster," which has been pushed by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), where senators who want to filibuster actually have to get up and speak. - Huffington Post, 6/21/13
I respect Braley's answer and I am glad to her he's an advocate of reforming the filibuster. If you want to donate to Bruce's campaign, you can do so here:
https://brucebraley.zissousecure.com/...