What don’t you understand about being poor!

Watching CSPAN has never been better. The up and down vote on the minimum wage increase is just moments away and a motion by the minority party has stalled the procedure. Attaching an amendment to the bill granting small business owners exception from the wage increase if they offer health insurance to their employees. Just offering health insurance is enough for business owners to opt out of the wage increase. Never mind the co-pays or deductibles. To cultivate this irresponsible action, a human interest story from a GOP congresswoman in New Mexico telling the heartbreaking tale of a small business owner having to choose between cutting employment or offering a wage increase, explaining that the minimum wage is a weapon against small business owners. The GOP aisle rose in cries of ‘here, here’ and loud applause.

Then George Miller (D-California) was yielded his 5 minutes and took the GOP to the woodshed. Paraphrasing, he explained the GOP had ten years to implement this bill and now on the day of reckoning they want to slither in an amendment which would gut the wage increase from the inside out. Then as Miller’s face began to turn a satisfying shade of crimson he pointed emphatically to the GOP and rhetorically asked: “WHAT DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT BEING POOR!!” In a nut shell this is the different between the parties. In the eyes of the new GOP, the poor is there because they are poor and it is their fault, systemic problems do not exist, only cause and effect issues. As it stands now the vote will pass and small business owners, like all other business owners will have to pony up a whopping $7.25 in hour. This in GOP eyes will be the down fall of small businesses everywhere. Again I repeat Miller’s exaltation: “What don’t you understand about being poor!!”