Minimum wage, homelessness and latch key kids

Good paying jobs are hard to find and, therefore, it's no wonder the homeless population continues to grow!

In this opinion published in the Reno Nevada Gazette Journal, a full time employee must earn at least $21+ per hour to be able to afford paying for a place to live. This echo letter to the editor describes the situation from the writer's personal experience, by Valerie Truce*:

US workers need living wages, not a social safety net: Truce

To rent a 2-bedroom home, on average, you would need to earn $21.21 per hour as a full-time worker in the United States. Depending on the location, the hourly wages required for housing range from $9.68 (in Puerto Rico) to $35.20 (in Hawaii), for people working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Wochit

In 1968 I became an emancipated-minor a few days before I graduated from high school. Within days I went to work for Pacific Bell, making minimum wage. My job afforded me a studio apartment. I had sick leave, health care, a pension and worked 40 hours a week. I accrued a week of vacation time a year. I even managed to save from every paycheck. I needed no safety net.

Today a high school diploma will still get one a minimum wage job, but not a living wage, no health care and no ability to save for a rainy day. In the wealthiest country on earth, we have enabled a new slave class, the working poor, dependent on the government to survive.

In 1968 our country believed a minimum wage should be a living wage. We hadn’t developed into a place where CEOs profit at the expense of fair wages for their workers. For example, a typical Mc Donald’s employee makes minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Steve Easterbrook, the CEO of McDonald’s, was paid $21.8 million last year — a raise of $6.4 million, or 42 percent over his 2016 pay. Forty-two percent! If a McDonald’s employee receives an increase it’s generally 5 percent, about $2 a week.

Minimum wage is not only a hardship on the worker, but our social services as well. If workers made a living wage, they wouldn’t qualify for social safety nets, like Food Stamps, Medicaid and income assistance, "Welfare".

When I read that the Nevada Governor Sandoval vetoed an increase in minimum wage from $7.25 to $12, I was dismayed. Once again we have marginalized the needs of the working poor. 

Why do we prefer to honor the outlandish desires of CEOs and their corporations, the true welfare queens? It’s to our own detriment.

Maintaining the current minimum wage exacerbates the enormous social issues. Many work two or three jobs to make ends meet — too many hours to be home with their families. We now have a subculture of latchkey children, and children who are institutionalized in schools and after-school programs for as much as 11 hours a day. These children often don’t benefit from family outings, have no idea nature is just a few miles away, and, ironically, McDonald’s is their go-to for a meal. For them there is no vision of what the world offers. Our country is not only creating poverty, but failing those impacted by poverty.

It maybe argued this is how a capitalist society works, but other developed nations haven’t allowed such a huge divide between classes to be created. Come November I will vote for a person who realizes how important it is to increase the minimum wage to a living wage. I will vote for someone who appreciates the cold-hearted disparity between the top 1 percent and the less fortunate.

I am not a socialist. I am a citizen who realizes with a bit of American ingenuity we can fix this disgrace.

*Valerie Truce, M.Ed., is a Reno resident.

Republican Men Speaking About Women

Every Republican woman in America should be demanding to see the talking points for male GOP politicians who insist on speaking about the female psyche.  For reasons beyond comprehension, Republican politicians seem obsessed with defining women, a subject they clearly don't understand. 

Whatever words were in the condescending talking points political wanna-be Mike Huckabee used in a recent speech, they should be destroyed. In fact, Republican women should put all the "women talking points" used by male GOP politicians into a paper shredder and burn the remnants.

Huckabee is among a line-up of politicians to grab the political spotlight by talking about women. This has been a stupid move for the men who attempt to gain political favor by using women as the misplaced focus of their attention getting scheme. 

In a ridiculously titled speech called "The War For Women", Huckabee said,  "Our (GOP) party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women. That’s not a war on them; it’s war for them. And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it. Let us take that discussion all across America, because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be."  (Even typing this gives me a headache.)

Dear Governor Huckabee- you need to get a life! Stop talking about women. The above comment is astoundingly inaccurate and, frankly, laughable.  

In fact, Democrats are not the party offering to give women birth control pills. Rather, women are requesting them, all by themselves!

By the way, who is Uncle Sugar? Just askin', never heard of him.

Republican male politicians who are starving for media attention would do far-far better if they went out and into the people, emulating leaders like Pope Francis. 

Rather than talk about women, Huckabee should visit a shelter for abused women and speak to them. Rather than talk about women, Huckabee should spend the night with a single mother and help her to feed breakfast to her family. Rather than talk about women, Huckabee should try to live on food stamps for one week. 

If Huckabee and his male political counterparts really want to talk about women, they need to walk in our shoes, share our burdens and communicate from our point of view.

But the best advice I can give to all Republican men who are speaking about women is this - don't do it.

Meanwhile, those talking points used in the past must be burned.

Maine Governor LePage - Intimidation of Those with EBT Cards

Another acronym to understand:  EBT - Electronic Benefits Card
This particular acronym also happens to be a euphemism for "welfare".

In real speak, EBT means people who receive food assistance, like Food Stamps. This could mean an elderly person, a child, a working class seasonal worker (like a fisherman), a legal immigrant or somebody who's disabled on Medicaid.

Regardless of who receives an EBT card, Maine Governor LePage has now succeeded in intimidating their vulnerable economic situation. LePage staged a political Maine Capitol info session whereby he claimed proof of people using Maine EBT cards to make purchases at New Hampshire liqueur stores. How can anybody rebut such outlandish claims? (What's evident is that New Hampshire liquer stores often have rows of cars with Maine license plates in the parking lots - and they aren't people with EBT cards). 

People with EBT cards would have to come forth and show themselves as the disabled, the poor, children or immigrants. Vulnerable people are already intimidated by their situation.
They can't expose themselves.

Now, Maine's governor, rather than protecting the dignity of these people, has created a sterotype about their needy utilization of the cards used for their particular needs. 

Following the Governor's grandstanding about what he claimed to be misuse of the EBT cards, the New Hampshire liquer stores rebutted the claims. EBT cards are not used at New Hampshire liquer stores. A report in the Maine Sunday Telegram rises questions about the Governor's fraud claims.

Instead of offering clear-cut examples of welfare abuse, however, the LePage administration’s list arguably illustrates why the national campaign to crack down on questionable purchases with welfare funds is so difficult – and why politicians’ black-and-white portrayal of alleged welfare abuses often differs from the fuzzy reality.

A case in point is that “one liquor store in New Hampshire,” in reality a convenience store never named by LePage but identifiable in state reports.

Located in Somersworth, N.H., just across the bridge from Berwick, Borderline Beverage is popular with Mainers who stop by for sodas, chips, groceries and, of course, a six-pack of beer or a pack of smokes.

Data from the LePage administration show that Maine welfare recipients swiped their Electronic Benefits Transfer cards – the EBT debit cards used to access cash through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program – at least 1,070 times at Borderline Beverage’s check-out counter or ATM between January 2011 and November 2013.

Because of a fatal flaw in the EBT reporting system, Maine and New Hampshire have no idea what those shoppers purchased. And even if it was beer or cigarettes, neither state prohibits residents from making such purchases with EBT cards at the vast majority of stores, although lawmakers in both states are likey to debate such changes this year.

Both states (Maine and NH) prohibit EBT usage at stores where 50 percent of visible inventory is composed of alcohol (New Hampshire) or alcohol sales make up 50 percent of all revenue (Maine). Officials in neither state could say Friday whether the convenience store met those legal thresholds, however.

When asked about the transactions, an employee, Sam Patel, said the store sells “only food, groceries and soda” to EBT card users, not alcohol or cigarettes.

Indeed, rather than root out fraudulent use of EBT cards, the Maine governor has intimidated everyone who is vulnerable and needs to use one to assist their economic distress.  

Sadly, those who use EBT cards are unable to defend themselves.

It's supposed to be part of the Governor's job to protect those who need public assistance, rather than contribute to making their sad lives even more miserable.

Fortunately, advocacy groups and Democrats are pushing back on widespread EBT fraud claims. Nevertheless, their noble efforts are often after the damage has already been done by Governor LePage's overt front page news claims. 

It makes me sad to see Maine's governor become obsessed with stigmatizing Maine's most vulnerable people. This is especially unsettling when the proof of EBT fraud is ambiguous. 

What happened to our justice, whereby people are innocent until proven otherwise?

Shame on Governor LePage. He should be focused on helping poor people, rather obsessed with intimidating them.

Republicans Have Lost Their Moral Compass and Their Responsibility to Care about the Human Condition

Republicans who voted to cut the food stamp program out of the Farm Bill are like witches at a smoldering cauldron.  

They're cackling their venomous rhetoric of  poisonous reasons why they simply want to cut every program Americans have needed in times of stress, hunger, unemployment, duress, disability or to improve the human condition, including poor pregnant women and children. 

Now, their toxic entrails have vexed food stamps.  

GOP are poisoning all public assistance programs impacting the poor, the disabled, the homeless, the unemployed, the needy pregnant women and children, but they are Christians?

Wait!  I can swear a majority of Republicans are self proclaimed Christians. As such, they're taught Beatitudes. Apparently, however, they never learned these blessed tenets, preached by Jesus Christ himself at the Sermon on the Mount. Obviously, it's high time we teach these important Christian ideals to our U.S.Congress, beginning with House Speaker John Boehner.  

Here's one on the Beatitudes list for Boehner to memorize:

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.

Perhaps the only remotely positive outcome for Republicans who voted to cut food stamps is that their irresponsible behavior should alarm all Americans, but most especially those who have been sleeping through mid term elections.  We must vote these political fiends and witches out of office!

By cutting food stamps, Republicans have completely lost their moral compass and their human compassion for those who share our human condition.  

Paul Krugman writes in The New York Times how Republicans are now taking food from the mouths of babes, but he also means the disabled, the elderly, the unemployed, homeless, pregnant women, children and the poor.

Paul Krugman writes:

"Every once in a while, politicians do something so wrong, substantively and morally, that cynicism (as a response) just won’t cut it; it’s time to get really angry instead. So it is with the ugly, destructive war against food stamps. The food stamp program — which these days actually uses debit cards, and is officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — tries to provide modest but crucial aid to families in need. And the evidence is crystal clear both that the overwhelming majority of food stamp recipients really need the help, and that the program is highly successful at reducing 'food insecurity,' in which families go hungry, at least some of the time."

But wait!  There's more, writes Krugman:

"Why is our economy depressed? Because many players in the economy slashed spending at the same time, while relatively few players were willing to spend more. And because the economy is not like an individual household — your spending is my income, my spending is your income — the result was a general fall in incomes and plunge in employment. We desperately needed (and still need) public policies to promote higher spending on a temporary basis — and the expansion of food stamps, which helps families living on the edge and let them spend more on other necessities, is just such a policy."

"Look," writes Krugman, "I understand the supposed rationale: We’re becoming a nation of takers, and doing stuff like feeding poor children and giving them adequate health care are just creating a culture of dependency — and that culture of dependency, not runaway bankers, somehow caused our economic crisis. But I wonder whether even Republicans really believe that story — or at least, are confident enough in their diagnosis to justify policies that more or less literally take food from the mouths of hungry children. As I said, there are times when cynicism just doesn’t cut it; this is a time to get really, really angry."

Indeed, Mr. Krugman, I'm really-really-really (really!) angry, at this most recent insult, taking food from the mouths of babes, as the litany of GOP degrading human policies grows.  These heinous  insults on humanity are perpetrated by an extremist group of powerful politicians, hurting needy Americans, and, by the way, they call themselves Christians.  

So, the Beatitudes teach us to be merciful, but even Jesus threw the greedy money changers out of the temple, in anger.

Elections are a tremendous antidote for wicked politicians.  Americans must drive the demons out of the Republicans who voted to cut food stamps.  We must douse the GOP cauldron of poisonous public policies with dose of humility and a reality check. 

Let's create some temporarily unemployed Republican Congress people, so they can learn what it's like to be meek and merciful. 

Ten Percent Approval Rating - Congress Fails: What Business Would Hire This Group?

Businesses seeking to sell to a government agency must usually submit to a bidding process. In other words, if a company sells widgets (or paper clips) to a government organization, the proposal, prior to signing a deal, must go through a rigorous procurement review.  This often daunting process typically includes an open bidding procedure. A company might make the world's best widgets, but if the sales proposal, required to sell them to the government, can't survive the procurement and bidding, the product will be passed over for a competing bid.

So, here's the question. Would the US Congress survive a government procurement procedure?  Of course not. 

Congress recently received a 10 percent public approval rating. 

The Columbus Press reports:  WASHINGTON — The public’s scorn for a gridlocked Congress continues to grow, with a new Gallup poll showing confidence in the legislative body falling to 10 percent, the lowest level Gallup has ever found for any institution.

Congress’ 10 percent rating in the survey was 3 percentage points lower than in a similar Gallup survey of the public’s views of major institutions conducted at the same time last year.

At this low point, (a misnomer - it's really a high "disapproval" rating), it's time our nation seeks competing bids.  

In other words, let's vote politicians out of office when they bring down the respect for government.  We must especially un-elect the likes of Speaker John Boehner, who seem to take disdainful pride in bringing down our confidence in the Congress. 

Let's immediately elect (ie "hire") people who will respond to the will of the people.

Here are some suggestions to Congress, to help improve its approval rating, before it tanks to zero (statistically speaking, a 10 percent low is very close to zero, given there's typically a margin of error of 4-5 percent).

1.  Support tax reform whereby super rich millionaires and billionaires are required to share their wealth through equitable income redistribution - ie. pay their fair share of taxes.

2.  Pass compassionate and benevolent immigration reform including providing a path to citizenship for all law abiding immigrants.  Prohibit laws requiring immigrants to live as indentured servants.  

3.  Sustain social safety net programs, especially:

• Social Security - funded by employer and employee payroll taxes that are recovered by beneficiaries at a retirement age determined to be 62-66 or older.
• Medicare - health insurance paid for by Social Security beneficiaries and guaranteed by the government.
• Medicaid - income assistance and health care for poor people including migrant workers and immigrants.
• Pell Grants - providing deserving college students with tuition assistance.
• Food Stamps - this benefit helps all Americans because the money received by recipients goes directly back into commerce and the food purchased sustains many farm budgets.
• Veterans Benefits - support for those who have served our national defense, and, as a result, their dedication may have exposed them to life shortening experiences (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; Agent Orange, other toxin reactions, combat injuries and related disabilities).
• Infrastructure sustainability - funding for highways, bridges, airports and public safety projects that will expand access to trade and provide opportunities to create new jobs.
• National Wi-Fi networks - available everywhere, like electricity and clean water.  Internet commerce is essential to nearly every legitimate business; therefore, it's time for customers and businesses to have the ability to access the Internet, for free.
• Support for health related research - Americans must keep up with other developing countries, many of them already demonstrating rapid advancements in public health for the purpose of sustaining a healthy, viable and growing workforce. 
• Gun safety regulations - Preventable deaths by gun violence must be eliminated.  Guns really do kill people and Americans deserve protection from people who want to use guns for evil and incendiary purposes. Congress must pass sensible gun control regulations!

Surely, it doesn't seem like "rocket science" to focus the US Congress on how to improve its public opinion rating.  

Republicans are clearly responsible for this institutional disdain. Consequently, one can wonder if resistance to improving the disapproval is, somehow, weirdly strategic.  Does Congressional disapproval serve some unknown outcome, known only to the obstructionist Republicans?  One hopes not, but, who knows, for sure?

Certainly, with only a 10 percent public approval rating, the American people can't re-hire this ineffective group again. 

No business would keep this group on the payroll. In fact, any viable business would've already fired the entire bunch.  

Congress should legitimately be receiving unemployment benefits for only 6 months.  A Senator and Congressional member's annual salary is $174,000.  Surely, there are more qualified people worthy of this salary and care about will of the people, rather than obstructing progressive policies.