[NOW Action List] Call Senators: Min. Wage Increase Held Hostage

Support NOW's Work |	August 3, 2006	| Tell a Friend

Action Needed Background All NOW Actions More about Economic Justice		Minimum Wage Increase Held Hostage in Senate Call your Senators IMMEDIATELY before they vote today or tomorrow on the $750 billion estate tax giveaway. We must stop the Senate from holding the $2.10 minimum wage increase HOSTAGE in order to provide another massive tax cut for their wealthiest donors! Action Needed: Call your Senators now (800-459-1887) and ask them to oppose H.R. 5970. The vote is soon so there's no time to email! H.R. 5970 is bad because: It will raid our treasury of billions of dollars to help 8,000 rich families get richer. It will hurt millions of hard-working families and low-income workers who cannot afford to trade a few dollars increase in their paychecks if the tradeoff is cuts and reductions for federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, veterans programs, children's health, senior services and unemployment insurance, which will leave them with fewer resources after the increase. It will hurt millions of workers in food service and other jobs where they rely on tips. Women, young and old, single and married, make up 70% of the "tipped" workers, and in seven states where they are guaranteed a minimum wage, the minimum will be frozen and they will see no raise. Our message to Senators: "If you, like the bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress, care about increasing the minimum wage, which has been frozen for almost a decade, then vote against H.R. 5970 and insist that it have a free standing vote and not be tied to the estate tax giveaway." Use the toll free number 800-459-1887, provided by the American Friends Service Committee, or call your Senators' offices directly. Background: On July 28, just hours before the House Congressional recess, members voted 230-180 for a bill that would provide massive estate tax cuts for the children of America's multi-millionaires. Only about 8,000 families would reap the benefit, but the total reduction in funds to the government would exceed $750,000,000,000 ($750 billion) over ten years -- likely contributing to serious cuts in spending for basic government services and programs, such as Medicaid, Medicare, Violence Against Women Act, and Head Start to name a few. Why do politicians say we can afford to cut taxes by $750 billion for multi-millionaires, but can't afford to increase funding for important human needs program and vital educational, health care and victim's services? In order to attract Democratic Senators to this revenue giveaway, Republican leaders sweetened the package by adding a long-overdue minimum wage increase (which overrides states' minimum wage laws for restaurant workers and could reduce wages for waitresses in seven states). The minimum wage increase is desperately needed, but Congress should not tie it to a massive tax cut for the wealthiest families. Congress routinely raises its own pay without attaching strings, but now an increase for the lowest paid workers is tied to a benefit for the super-rich. The Washington Post called the bill a "noxious package," and The New York Times editorial called it "cynical in the extreme." TAKE ACTION: Please contact your two Senators immediately and urge them to oppose cutting estate taxes for multi-millionaires. We must make these calls, since there is no time for emails. The vote is scheduled for late Thursday evening or sometime Friday. Call toll-free at 800-459-1887 to reach the Capitol switchboard. Ask for your Senator by name, and then when you are connected to a staffer, tell them that you are a constituent and ask to speak to the staff person handling the estate tax/minimum wage bill. Express your views to the Senator's staff, give them your name, phone and email and ask them to get back to you about how the Senator will vote. Tell them that you are going to a meeting or writing a newsletter or spreading the word so it is important to know the Senator's views. If you get a busy signal, call again -- do not give up until you have reached the offices of both Senators. Please forward this alert to others. All Senators need to hear from their constituents on this significant matter. The most important target Senators for this vote are from Arkansas, Florida, Maine, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and West Virginia so please forward this especially to friends in those states. (The toll-free number is provided courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization whose work includes campaigns for a moral budget and a fair minimum wage. AFSC welcomes groups to use the toll-free number in support of non-partisan budget goals and without linking the alert to a website soliciting donations or actions which may support partisan lobbying.) Resources: Minimum wage laws in the states Latest Data on Minimum Wage Workers and Taxable Estates, by State Political Blackmail: Center for American Progress on the hijacking of the minimum wage Coalition on Human Needs: The Sneak Attack on Restaurant Workers (PDF) How does the estate tax affect your state?
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