[Vision2020] Fwd: Re: request

Thu Jul 27 22:43:21 PDT 2006

Rep Trail,

  Roosevelt also lost with that platform too in 1912. 

  I don't think you should waste time trying to raise the minimum wage,  it isn't going to happen. You should instead spend time raising the  limit amount to get food stamps, child support services, medical care,  and low income housing.

  Did you know:
 1) A single adult  in Idaho who makes $5.55/hr or more in Idaho and works 40 hours a week  does not qualify for food stamps-they make too much.

 2) A  single mother with a child going to college to get a better job is  disqualified from every new low income housing unit in northern Idaho. 

  3) A disabled individual who works more then 20 hours a week at $5.15/hr will lose their state assistance and medical.

  4) A person on SSI gets only a check of $660 a month to pay for food,  housing, clothing, OTC drugs, and all other personal expenses. 

  5) A person with no money but a $2000 car does not qualify for financial assistance.

  6) If a poor family tries to save money for a down payment on a mobile  home they will lose their medical benefits before they  afford to  do so. 

  7) If a person does not spend all of their welfare check, their amount will be reduced. 

  I think that most working poor, people making under $7 an hour, are  only in a temporary position.  The elderly, disabled, single  parents, etc, are in a long-term or even permanent condition of poverty  and hardship. Raising minimum wage helps college students and the few  not capable of getting promotions and hanging onto a job. 

  Relaxing the income requirements for getting food stamps, medical  assistance, and housing would be a greater relief to all poor, not just  those that can work 40+ hours a week. I also believe that adults that  want to go to college to get out of poverty ought to be given that  chance by not barring them from tolerable housing. It is so contrary to  logic, to makes laws preventing adults from getting an education to get  out of poverty if they want to live in low income housing. Not to  mention it seems oppressive and a violation of freedom of speech. 

  Best,

  Donovan J Arnold

Tom Trail <ttrail at moscow.com> wrote:    Fwd: Re: request  Visionaries:   There has been  much debate over minimum and living wage issues  

  and these will be even more fully discussed in the campaign  ahead.  I did a
  bit  of research on these issues, and it is interesting that the great  progressive/Republican President Teddy Roosevelt called for both a  minimum
  wage and living wage in the Platform of the Progressive Party in  1912.
  Teddy has consistently been ranked among the top five outstanding  U.S.
  Presidents by historians.   Read on.

  Rep. Tom Trail

    Platform of the Progressive  Party
  August 7, 1912
    Declaration of Principles of the  Progressive Party
    . . . . . .
    Social and Industrial Strength
    The  supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources  through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We  pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for:--
    Effective  legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents,  occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other  injurious effects incident to modern industry;
    The  fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various  occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of State and  Nation, including the Federal control over inter-State commerce and the  taxing power, to maintain such standards;
    The prohibition of child labor;
    Minimum wage standards for working women,  to provide a living scale in all industrial occupations;
    The prohibition of night work for women  and the establishment of an eight hour day for women and young  persons;
    One day's rest in seven for all  wage-workers;
    The  abolition of the convict contract labor system; substituting a system  of prison production for governmental consumption only; and the  application of prisoners' earnings to the support of their dependent  families;
    Publicity  as to wages, hours and conditions and labor; full reports upon  industrial accidents and diseases, and the opening to public inspection  of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products;
    Standards  of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade  diseases which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the  families of working people to the industry, and thus to the community;
    The  protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular  employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social  insurance adapted to American use;
    The  development of the creative labor power of America by lifting the last  load of illiteracy from American youth and establishing continuation  schools for industrial education under public control and encouraging  agricultural education and demonstration in rural schools;
    The  establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the methods  and discoveries of science at the service of American producers.
    We  favor the organization of the workers, men and women as a means of  protecting their interests and of promoting their progress.
       Teddy Roosevelt     

-- 

  Dr. Tom Trail
  International Trails
  1375 Mt. View Rd.
  Moscow, Id. 83843
  Tel:  (208) 882-6077
  Fax:  (208) 882-0896
  e mail ttrail at moscow.com
  =====================================================
 List services made available by First Step Internet, 
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
====================================================

---------------------------------
Groups are talking. We&acute;re listening. Check out the handy changes to Yahoo! Groups. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20060727/0a5badda/attachment-0001.htm 