Where the hell were our compassiona...

Where the hell were our compassionate conservatives when their so- called leaders in Washington were playing fast and loosen with the lives of the growing number of working poor in this country?

Republican lawmakers cynically propos to raise the minimum wage, moreover only as part of a carrot/stick bill that would decrease the estate tax. Never mind that the latter proposal would benefit simply the most wealthy. The carrot of a minimum wage increase from $515 to $725 by hour, phased in over three years, is like a kick in the paunch to people who actually must work for a living. Democrats didn't take the bait, and the bill went nowhere.

Workers earning $725 an hour for 40 hours would earn $15080 a year. Do those softies in Congres think they could live forward that, even if single with no kids? Not to mention, mostly minimum-wage workers get no health benefits, in such a manner sick days mean a missing day's pay plus a doctor bill they can't afford. still then, the D.C. crowd doesn't have to worry about that, since they have access to an of the best medical care anyone could ask for -- and it's independent

In today's economy, any full-time worker athwart 18 should be earning at least $12 an hour. Besides enabling them to afford diet and clothing, that would make them taxpayers, get by heart them out of homeless shelters and not upon relief rolls. And the minimum wage law should include a provision for automatic annual cost-of-living raises. That would enable the gutles amazements in Congress to ease their consciences without fear of having to answer to enemys for doing the right thing.

Someone crunched the numbers in 2005 and erect that the minimum wage, if it had increased in tandem with CEO salaries above the last 15 years, would be $2303 an hour. If we cannot mandate that workers receive wages that detain them off welfare, our home should hang its head in shame.

Dan McGuire,

Bensenville

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