How to get rich in America? Buy a Congressman.

The Republican Party has long ago built their accurate reputation of greed and giving more money to the rich while taking away from the poor.  But as many of you are already aware, they have refused to increase the minimum wage for the poorest workers in our land.  And even just recently refused once again to increase the minimum wage despite the three dollar per gallon gas prices and the increase in food and medicine costs as well.

But more information has arisen from the party of compassion.  (pure sarcasm here)

 "This year the highest paid staffers in the White House – including Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett and Steven Hadley – got a cost-of-living adjustment of $4,200, boosting their total salary to $165,200.

Meanwhile, the White House is backing Congressional efforts to beat back a modest increase in the minimum wage for the lowest paid Americans for the first time since 1997. Here’s a press release issued today by Rep. George Miller (D-CA):

For the fifth time in less than two weeks, Republicans in the House of Representatives today voted to block a vote on legislation to increase the national minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour…

A full-time minimum wage worker earns just $10,712 per year - which is $5,888 less than the $16,600 needed to lift a family of three above the federal poverty threshold…the minimum wage is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, when adjusted for inflation. Congress has not raised the federal minimum wage since 1997."

Of course there has always been a disparity between the rich and the poor, but during Bush's administration the gap has become even wider.  From the NYT's Select:

"INEQUALITY has always been part of the American economy, but the gap between the rich and the poor has recently been widening at an alarming rate. Today, more than 40 percent of total income is going to the wealthiest 10 percent, their biggest share of the nation's pie in..."

Yeh, but this statistic is even more ludicrous and shows clearly the lack of compassion from the Republican party:

"Chief executive officers in the United States earned 262 times the pay of an average worker in 2005, the second-highest level in the 40 years for which there is data, a nonprofit think-tank said on Wednesday.

In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

The typical worker's compensation averaged just under $42,000 for the year, while the average CEO brought home almost $11 million, EPI said.

In recent years, compensation has been a hot issue with shareholders who have been bombarded with news stories about chief executives who are given multimillion dollar bonus and pay packages even if shares have declined."

Well worth the read is this article about the religious left and how they're fighting for the poor.  From CBS news:

 "Jesus called us to love our neighbor, love our enemy, care for the poor, care for the outcast, and that's really the moral core of where we think the nation ought to go," Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches told CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell."

And the NCOC explained the religious left's values: 

Fighting poverty

Protecting the environment

Ending the war in Iraq

"Right now the war in Iraq costs us $1 billion per week," said Rev. Jim Wallis, a Christian activist. "And we can't get $5 billion over ten years for child care in this country?"

To try to attract young voters and the attention of politicians who want their votes, leaders of the religious left are promoting issues like raising the minimum wage.

"Nine million families are working full time," Wallis said. "Working hard full time, responsibly, and not making it."

Three decades ago liberal religious leaders had a powerful influence on politics.

In the 1960s and 70s they led demonstrations against civil rights abuses and the war in Vietnam. But when those battles were over, the movement seemed to lose energy, while the Christian right had become well organized and committed to having its voice and concerns heard. 
 

Is this where the 'Me" generation has taken us?  And why do most Republican policies hurt the poor and help the rich?  Couldn't have anything to do with the K-Street Project a nice little side-money making enterprise for greedy Republican Congressmen, now could it? 

These articles exemplify the exact reason we need to get the "corporation" out of government and instead have public financed campaigns.  It saves Americans in the longrun and eliminates the opportunities for Corporations to bribe our public servants.  And yes, we pay their wages; they are indeed public servants!