Sanders, Murray Announce $15 Minimum Wage Bill

[Donkees]

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON, April 26 – Addressing hundreds of low-wage workers outside the Capitol, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced legislation Wednesday that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.


"For the last 10 years, Congress, giving tax breaks to the rich, has forgotten to raise the minimum wage. We are here to remind them that a $7.25 minimum wage is a starvation minimum wage. Nobody can live on $7.25. You can’t live on $8. You can’t live on $10 an hour," Sanders told the workers. "And that is why we are saying that after 10 years of inaction the United States Congress is going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $15 an hour."

Twenty-three Senate Democrats have signed onto the bill, which would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024 and would be indexed to the median wage growth thereafter. This raise would increase the minimum wage higher than its 1968 peak. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009.

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are original co-sponsors of the legislation.


The bill will be introduced in the Senate soon.

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-murray-announce-15-minimum-wage-bill

[JudyM]

1. Perfect timing, too, as counterpoint to Rs "healthcare" and tax initiatives.

[Bettie]

2. Good.

It won't go anywhere, given the assholes in charge, but it's good to make the effort.

[Orsino]

3. And we need more than 21 Dems signing on.

Show me a Dem who thinks minimum wage workers don't deserve $15 an hour, and I'll show you a Dem who'd damned well better be typing up his or her own bill that is an improvement on the idea.

[JudyM]

4. Maybe the others haven't had time to read it yet.

[MineralMan]

5. This bill should be introduced each year,

despite the fact that there isn't a prayer of passing it in a Republican-controlled Congress.

While I admire those who put such bills forward, they don't give any real hope to people who are minimum wage workers. They are merely a gesture in their direction. I celebrate the idea, but understand that passage of such a bill is simply not going to happen until we return majority control of both houses of Congress to the Democrats and elect a Democrat as President.

No Republican in the House or Senate would ever vote for this bill.

[matt819]

6. Now it's time to frame the narrative

Of course fast food companies and all republicans will cry that this will destroy them.

So it's time - now - to frame the narrative. Living wage. Boosts economy. Failure to support is a fist to the face of the poor, of service workers, of whatever demographic makes up most minimum wage workers. Cite locations that have boosted the minimum wage with positive results.

Wanna bet this won't happen?

You'll have likes of Ted Cruz preempting Dems with the kind of shit he used today, asserting that Dems want a government shut down. And that's what'll stay in the headlines.

[uponit7771]

8. Amen and Amen!!!

[beam me up scottie]

7. Recommended!

I agree with the above posters - when Republicans shoot this down - and we all know they will - we need to hammer them on it. Show everyone which party really cares about the working class.