Tag: minimum wage

When he said:

"....that's freedom, and I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners"

He touched on a point that is relevant no matter whom the leadership might be.  The interference and 'concern' over the affairs of our lives is too often conflicting with the independence we claim as our birthright.  Some folks forget that we have to be able to fail. That risk and reward is a part of the American dream.  That sometimes, our decisions make us healthy, and sometimes not.

Its NOT government's place to provide a boost for a business.  Its NOT government's place to control the healthcare choices through exchanges or limitations on where one buys insurance or the care itself.  Its NOT the government's place to provide housing. Nor is it government's place to control the terms of employment, and compensation that business provides.

Ryan is correct.  

Republicans in Michigan and elsewhere ought to take note of the future VP's comments and internalize them.  

Unfortunately, the laws of physics, or at the very least common sense don't always necessarily apply to our elected representation, Where up becomes down, and logic (our hero) meets a tragic fate.

The sleight of hand in politics becomes evident when Michigan's governor Jennifer Granholm can suggest that increasing the financial burden on business can actually help those businesses.  People actually believed it, and in March of 2006  Gov. Granholm signed legislation raising the minimum wage in Michigan. In October 2006 it went to $6.95 an hour from $5.15 an hour, then to $7.15 an hour in July 2007 and to $7.40 an hour in July 2008.

Yesterday's announcement of House Republicans' plan to rescue the state budget from drowning in red ink, free up millions of stimulus dollars to plug directly into the economy and completely avoid the tax hikes the Dillon Majority and the Granholm-Cherry administration have promised didn't just get short shrift... at one "news" outlet it actually got NO shrift.

MLIVE provided a prominent link for part of the day yesterday, the Lansing State Journal has the story and the Detroit News buried the story in fine print half-way down their front page but our friends at the Ivory Tower decided a massive package of reforms and cuts that'd actually solve this dag-blamed budget crisis simply wasn't news worthy.

What do we get instead from the FREEP?  The front page contains "above the fold" stories (as it were) about the Red Wings (which is actually OK with me), Michael Vick, Delphi workers frustrated by part of the "bailout" plan... and a discussion of a boat race.  

Maybe on their dedicated "Politics" page?  Nope.  The top five actual stories, in order:

-Obama defends healthcare plan to Americans
-Dems line up as possible Macomb County Exec
-Michigan Democrats test water for ballot proposals
-Union-tied lawyer joins Michigan governor's race

In between the third and fourth is a pro-Obama puff piece Q & A page ostensibly designed to help viewers better understand what the President said during last night's television address.  

Anyone notice a trend?  National Dems, local Dems, statewide Dems and Dems in the biggest race this election cycle.  

If you only read the FREEP it isn't that you don't know House Republicans proposed a massive spending and regulatory overhaul that ends the state's budget crisis without raising taxes... it's that you don't even know Michigan Republicans exist!

Alas... this morning eeeeeveryone knows that Mark Brewer exists and job providers across the Mitten have already begun looking at real estate listings in other states.  That's the sort of thing that can happen when the Chairman of the Democratic Party stands up in an overwhelmingly Democratic state and tells anyone listening that he may be looking to launch a ballot proposal aimed at using rocket fuel to propel the minimum wage to an astronomical $10 an hour.

(Read on...)

But you know what they say... the more things change the more they stay the same.  

Lest you lose your footing, your grip on reality or your general intellectual equilibrium, there is evidence in fish-wraps across the state today that things aren't as topsy-turvy as the MEA / Dillon spat might indicate, and what good is a site like Right Michigan if we don't keep you grounded in reality?  

Not that reality is eeeeveryone's strong suit, though, but isn't that about what we've come to expect from paper's like the Ivory Tower?  The state's leading Lefty pub carries an AP story with an interesting headline that proclaims "Teenagers may receive pay raise this week."

Michigan teenagers who have jobs might see a pay raise this week.

Michigan's subminimum wage, a wage paid to employees younger than 18, will jump from $6.55 to $7.25 when the federal minimum wage rises to that rate on Friday.

And they're right, technically, though I couldn't help but be carried away to the bygone days of the Cold War when a two-car automobile race between the Soviets and the United States once produced a Moscow Headline proclaiming- "Soviets finish second, Americans second to last."

Yes.  Some teenagers might get a pay raise this week as the government introduces another bureaucratic regulation on job makers across the country, even here in a state where job makers have become an endangered species. Alas, many teenagers will also get a pretty serious pay reduction this week when their bosses crunch the numbers and decided instead of paying the higher wage they'll do without the seasonal help the rest of the way.

And as teenagers across the state find their jobs no longer exist, their parents back at home suddenly find themselves dealing with skyrocketing prices on their monthly utility bill, thanks in large part to the MEA's whipping boy, Andy Dillon.  The Grand Rapids Press reports on new, and unstoppable, rate hikes headed our way from Consumers and DTE.

Read on...