The Progress Report SEPTEMBER 23, 2004

[Guest guest]

The Progress Report

by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

SEPTEMBER 23, 2004

 

MINIMUM WAGE Hurricane Jeb Bears Down on the Working Poor

IRAQ The Long Hard Slog to Elections

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

 

MINIMUM WAGE

Hurricane Jeb Bears Down on the Working Poor

 

With Floridians still recovering from the economic destruction caused

by hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan, Jeb Bush and his corporate

allies are determined to make matters even worse for low-income

Floridians. Jeb and his big business supporters are working to defeat

a November ballot initiative that would raise the minimum wage in

Florida by one dollar, to $6.15 an hour for most employees. If the

measure passes, the Florida minimum wage would have a yearly

cost-of-living adjustment equal to the inflation rate to ensure that

the value of the minimum wage does not erode over time. The front

group created by corporations to fight the initiative claims that the

modest increase in the minimum wage " would cost businesses billions,

lead employers to cut benefits and slow job growth in Florida. " The

proof? They polled themselves as to what they thought the impact would

be. Real economic analysis, released yesterday by the Center for

American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute,

demonstrates that the minimum wage increase would significantly

benefit low-income Floridians and have a negligible impact on the

state's business community. For more information on the effort to pass

the initiative, check out Floridians for All.

 

BENEFITS TO WORKERS SUBSTANTIAL: For non-tipped hourly workers making

minimum wage, the increase would mean an average raise of 7.3 percent.

Other workers making up to $7.49 an hour would also receive

substantial raises (from 2 to 6 percent), due to employers voluntarily

raising wages to maintain a fair, graduated pay scale. This translates

into increases in disposable income for low-income Floridians between

$500 to $600 per year – allowing them to reduce debt, reduce work

hours or purchase a car. The minimum wage increase would benefit

700,000 workers in Florida.

 

IMPACT ON BUSINESS MINIMAL: The American Progress study concluded that

the total cost of the measure to private businesses in Florida would

be $406 million. That amount represents just 0.4 percent of the total

sales of these businesses, which was $928.7 billion in 2003. A

clothing store, for example, could fully cover its increase costs by

raising the price of a sweatshirt from $20.00 to $20.01. The tiny

increase in costs will also be off-set, at least in part, by

productivity gains. Wage increases have shown to lower absenteeism and

raise morale. There is no objective evidence that the doomsday

scenarios presented by the corporate front groups opposing the

initiative – unemployment, relocation and inflation – would occur.

John Podesta, CEO of American Progress, notes that after the federal

minimum wage was raised in 1996, " over the next four years, 13 million

jobs were created. " Businesses in low-income neighborhoods will

experience substantial increases in sales as the disposable income of

residents increases.

 

MINIMUM WAGE ABYSMALLY LOW: Someone who makes the federal minimum wage

of $5.15 – which is also the prevailing rate in Florida – and worked

full time for 52 weeks a year would earn just $10,712. That amount is

28 percent below the federal poverty line. Thirty percent of workers

who make up to twice the level of the poverty line faced hardships

such as missing meals, being evicted from their housing or having

their utilities disconnected. In 1968, the minimum wage (adjusted for

inflation) was $8.49 – 40 percent higher than it is now. Raising the

minimum wage can have a particularly positive impact on minority

communities.

 

OPPOSITION OUT OF TOUCH: Rich McAllister, CEO of the Florida Retail

Federation, an organization leading the charge to defeat the

initiative, said on a conference call with reporters that " there would

never be a good time to raise the minimum wage. " McAllister added that

" the minimum wage is an artificial number that means nothing. "

Embarrassed by McAllister's candor, another spokesman for the Florida

Retail Federation later claimed that the comments made by the CEO of

the organization to the reporter were " Rick's personal opinion " and

did not represent the group's position. Small business owners,

meanwhile, are more supportive of the initiative. Miami restauranteur

Mark Soyka, asked about his thoughts on the initiative, said " my

reaction is, from a humane perspective, I don't even know how they

make it on $6.15 an hour. "

 

IRAQ

The Long Hard Slog to Elections

 

Military leaders met with Congress yesterday to warn lawmakers that

the upcoming months in Iraq will be even more violent and turbulent in

the lead-up to the election. Officials, including Defense Secretary

Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers and

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, told Congress in a

closed-door briefing yesterday " that it would be impossible to hold

elections in Iraq while several major cities are in the hands of

insurgents. " Much of the country, including Fallujah, Samarra, Baqubah

and Ramadi, is increasingly in the violent hands of insurgents. Gen.

John Abizaid, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, admitted yesterday

that it was possible that more U.S. troops would be needed to secure

Iraq's elections: " I think we will need more troops than we currently

have. "

 

THE REALITY IN IRAQ: The situation in Iraq already is a sobering one.

The U.S.-led coalition forces are widely perceived as " occupiers, " not

" liberators. " The number of Iraqi insurgents has quadrupled over the

past year. Insurgent attacks on U.S. forces are up 20 percent since

the spring and 100 percent since last winter; last month, attacks on

U.S. troops averaged 90 a day, five times as many as last winter. Even

the highly fortified Green Zone is no longer considered completely secure.

 

THE COST OF WAR COMES HOME: As military leaders warn the situation in

Iraq is about to get more chaotic, a new study by the National

Priorities Project examines the effect of the war in Iraq on each of

the fifty states. NPP compiled data on the number of soldiers killed

and wounded in each state, the dollar amount each state is paying for

the war, and the number of their reservists and National Guard troops

on active duty. The result is sobering. Pennsylvania, for example, has

shelled out $6.3 billion of taxpayer money for the war in Iraq.

Fifty-two men and women from the Granite State have been killed; 270

have been wounded. The state of Michigan has ponied up $4.6 billion.

Thirty of its troops have been killed, and 2,352 of its National Guard

soldiers and reservists have been called to active duty. (For a view

of the federal scale, check out American Progress and Project

Billboard's running total of the cost of war.)

 

THE COST OF MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: The National Priorities Project also

calculates the cost of the Iraq war in missed opportunities. Current

policies, the study finds, weakened international institutions and

reduced capacity to work in cooperation with allies and others to

prevent terrorism; neglected homeland security needs and

nonproliferation; and diverted money away from domestic programs. In

Florida, for example, the state paid seven times as much money for the

war as it did for homeland security and domestic programs combined. In

fact, for the amount of money Florida gave the federal government for

the war in Iraq, 140,821 container inspectors could have been hired

to protect America's ports. And for the $5.7 billion the state of Ohio

has had to spend for the war in Iraq, 779,785 people could have

received health care coverage.

 

ALLAWI IS IN THE HOUSE: Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi will address

a joint session of Congress today " as an increasingly violent

insurgency complicates his country's plans for its first Democratic

elections. " He has joined President Bush in avoiding addressing the

crucial questions about instability and ongoing violence in Iraq thus

far. Allawi was remarkably removed from reality yesterday on CNN;

asked by Wolf Blizter what he would do to deal with the deep and

disruptive tensions between religious and ethnic groups in Iraq, the

former exile said, " There are no problems between Shia and Sunnis and

Kurds and Arabs and Turkmen…usually we have no problems of ethnic or

religious nature in Iraq. " Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst with

the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington,

suggested in today's Boston Globe " that the administration should

spend less time staging an attractive photo opportunity and more

adopting a realistic view of the challenges ahead. 'As Prime Minister

Allawi comes here, we need real accomplishments and real progress and

honest measures of capability, not sound bites of rhetoric which are

not substantiated by the figures being issued in detail by the United

States government.' "

 

LEGITIMACY QUESTIONS: The New York Times reports Grand Ayatollah Ali

al-Sistani, Iraq's " most powerful Shiite leader, is growing

increasingly concerned that nationwide elections could be delayed, his

aides said, and has even threatened to withdraw his support for the

elections unless changes are made to increase the representation of

Shiites. " Sistani is worried that control is overwhelmingly going to

the political parties which cooperated with the American occupation

and are comprised largely of exiles. Sistani's aids claim the cleric

is attempting to contact U.N. advisor Lakhdar Brahimi to voice his

concerns.

 

 

Under the Radar

 

ECONOMY – GOP STAYS STRONG TO BEAT BACK BILL FOR POOR: Even as they

added massive corporate tax breaks to a package of middle-class tax

cuts that could come to a vote in the Senate today, the Washington

Post reports congressional negotiators managed to " beat back efforts

yesterday to expand and preserve tax refunds for poor families. " The

fight centered on controversial changes to the child tax credit, which

will act effectively as a tax hike on more than four million working

families. Who was in favor of increasing the financial burden on poor

families while focusing on a package of tax breaks for big business?

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), House Ways and Means Chairman

Bill Thomas (R-CA), Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK), and Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS).

 

ECONOMY – CONGRESS PUTS IN SUNSET CLAUSE: In addition to increasing

taxes on working families, the proposed tax will also include a

provision which could hurt military families. Congress Daily reports

that the conference committee added a two-year limit on a provision

allowing military families to count combat pay as income and thereby

qualify for fairer benefits from the earned income tax credit. Finance

Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) endorsed an amendment

offered by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) to make the combat pay

provision permanent, but the proposal was rejected. At the same time

it pinched pennies for military families, the committee " added about

$13 billion worth of business tax breaks " to the bill.

 

AFGHANISTAN – U.S. AMBASSADOR SETS GOOD EXAMPLE OF DEMOCRACY: Fourteen

Afghan presidential candidates plan to meet today in Kabul to air

complaints about U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's interference in

elections scheduled for October. One candidate, Mohammed Mohaqiq, says

Khalilzad pressured him to drop out of the race, then asked his aides

and party supporters to ditch his candidacy. He and others say

Khalilzad, nicknamed " the Viceroy " because his strong-arm tactics

" remind some Afghans of the excesses of British colonialism, " is

guilty of pulling strings to clear the way for interim Afghan leader

Hamid Karzai. The Los Angeles Times reports, " The charges were

repeated by several other candidates and their senior campaign staff

in interviews here. They reflected anger over what many Afghans see as

foreign interference that could undermine the shaky foundations of a

democracy the U.S. promised to build. "

 

HOMELAND SECURITY – RIDGE HAS CONFLICT OF INTEREST, SPOKESMAN RESPONDS

WITH 'STRING OF EXPLETIVES': Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom

Ridge had investments last year in a number of companies with

contracts with his department and others who want to profit from

homeland security, a new list of his assets shows. A disclosure form

made public this week shows Ridge held investments in Microsoft, which

won a $90 million contract with the department, Unisys, which was

selected to manage pilot programs funded by DHS, and Raytheon, a

subcontractor to Accenture, which won a $10 billion contract for DHS'

entry-exit program. In response to telephone inquiries by

Congressional Quarterly, " DHS spokesman Brian Roehrkasse first said

the department did not have enough time to answer questions about the

disclosure form. Pressed further, he shouted an expletive to a

reporter and hung up. Later, in a second telephone conversation,

Roehrkasse said, 'I don't know where we are in the process. I don't

know…I can't validate any information you've got,' and repeated a

string of expletives. "

 

MEDICARE – LOOPHOLE LETS PHARMACIES BILL GOVERNMENT TWICE: According

to whistleblower lawsuits, " A regulatory loophole is allowing some

pharmacy companies to bill government health programs twice for the

same drugs. " The complaints are about a practice called " restocking, "

in which pharmacies resell drugs returned by hospitals or nursing

homes. " We have a situation where there is no regulation. There is no

accountability, " said lawyer Harvey S. Mars. " A company could deliver

the medication, take it back the next day and resell it, and would be

paid twice. " So far, the Bush administration has declined to close the

costly loophole, saying, " each state may set its own rules. "

 

RIGHT-WING COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY: " If [a gay

man] ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he

died, " said televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in a sermon on Canadian TV.

Swaggart tried to rectify the situation by explaining his quip about

killing homosexuals was a " humorous " cliché he's " jokingly " used

thousands of times.

 

DON'T MISS

 

DAILY TALKING POINTS: President Bush and Iraqi PM Failing to Tell it

Straight.

 

TEIXEIRA: Public Opinion Watch

 

POLITICS: The Washington Post on the flip-flopper in chief.

 

BUDGET: Joe Scarborough on fellow Republicans' insatiable appetite for

the other white meat.

 

HOMELAND SECURITY: The Nation's David Cole says John Ashcroft is 0 for

5,000 in the fight to catch terrorists.

DAILY GRILL

 

" The new premiums reflect an enhanced Medicare that is providing

seniors and people with disabilities with strengthened access to

physician services and new preventive benefits. "

 

- Medicare administrator Mark McClellan, 9/4/04

 

VERSUS

 

" Medicare actuaries told Congress this week that only 14 cents of the

increase in premiums was attributable to the new benefits…The

actuaries said that $1.60 of the increase in premiums resulted from an

increase in payments to health maintenance organizations and other

private plans. "

 

- New York Times, 9/23/04

DAILY OUTRAGE

 

Even as it " added $13 billion in corporate tax breaks to a package " of

tax cuts, Congress " beat back efforts yesterday to expand and preserve

tax refunds for poor families. "

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