They had a vote today in the House of Representatives on whether or not to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 by 2015. All the Republicans voted against it. Every single one. But six Democrats also voted against it. Here are their names:
John Barrow- (Georgia- 12th District)
Jim Matheson- (Utah- 4th District)
Mike McIntyre (North Carolina- 7th District)
Bill Owens- (New York- 21st District)
Colin Peterson- (Minnesota- 7th District)
Kurt Schrader- (Oregon- 5th District)
All six of them represent conservative districts. None of their votes made any difference to the outcome. But I’d still like to understand their motivation for voting against the hike in the minimum wage. Did they want to pad their moderate voting records? Did they want to avoid needlessly annoying business interests in their districts? Did they hope to win or maintain business support? Are they genuine assholes who truly share Republican values?
One thing that is not possible is that they voted in a way that represented their constituents’ values, because there are no congressional districts where most people oppose raising the minimum wage. Seventy-one percent of Southerners support raising the minimum wage, as do 50% of Republicans. You won’t find a single congressmen whose opposition to raising the rate has majority support in their district. Not one.
Nonetheless, the amendment failed 184-233.
Any idea what percentage of the vote Obama received in each of these districts?
Look it up. Google is your friend.
According to this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/19/1163009/-Daily-Kos-Elections-presidential-results-by-congre
ssional-district-for-the-2012-2008-elections
Owens and Schrader have no excuse as Obama won both those districts.
I have a good friend in McIntyre’s district and the local dems there hate him with a passion. She told me that they are pretty much organizing around the theme of vote for a Speaker Nancy Pelosi by way of the jerk McIntyre.
McIntyre has an excuse the other two don’t. He represents a district, thanks to gerrymandering, that Willard won 60-40(or close). Of course that’s no real excuse, just letting you know the “excuse” you’re likely to hear from McIntyre’s peeps.
I’m going to look into Kurt Schrader. Oregon’s minimum wage is $8.95 so I’d be curious as to his motives.
You would think reporting on laws that get voted down while having the overwhelming support of the electorate (I’m looking at you too Mr Gun Background-Check) would cause the media to immediately investigate how this could happen in a democracy like ours.
Yeah, it’s alarming. What about all that “my constituents” talk? That should be grounds for pitchforks and the person being run out of town. What’s the point of electing these idiots??
One thing that is not possible is that they voted in a way that represented their constituents’ values,
That is to, semi borrow a line from Bill Clinton, according to exactly how you define the term constituents.
If the term you are trying to define are the eligible voters in their district, your statement is factually correct but conveniently ignored by the Corporate Owned media ….
If however the term refers to those who actually funnel them money in the search for positive (to the brib, er I mean donor’s perspective) results
IE campaign donations,
The polling is severely skewed because too large a sample of non germane people are included. The polling sample includes people who go into the booth with out actually contributing much for the congresscritter in his eyes.
Sorta a congressional 47%er idea, if you will; they ask for things but haven’t done enough (from the congresscritters perspective)to deserve them.
So he or she as the case may be, only reserves his full constituent services to those who have made a sincere commitment to the campaign both word (IE the ballot), and deed (IE the brib,) er I mean donation.
The genuine asshole theory isn’t a distinct choice. There’s no Republican or conservative position that isn’t capable of being rationalized by invoking a larger good. And many of those people really believe that their positions are ethical. We wouldn’t continue to be astonished by their shamelessness if we remembered this.
Why is Obama offering up chained CPI for Social Security? Does he want senior citizens to struggle more than they already are? What difference does the motivation make? Do Iraqis care how well-intentioned the Democrats were who voted for the war that consumed their country?
The working class will never make real strides under the current system. Our wages will never be increased enough, our leisure expanded enough, to match the rise in our productivity over the last 30 years. I was earning $10/hour in 1990 when my rent was $150/month. I can think of a few financial markers I wouldn’t mind chaining.
Why raising the minimum wage isn’t a campaign theme for every Democrat in every election is even more of a mystery. It’s not as if it’s ancient history that it’s an electoral winner as Ms. Pelosi demonstrated in 2006.
The restaurant industry lobby owns them. Or some other low-wage industry group. Betcha.
This was my thinking – an opportunity to cast a meaningless vote that will help them with fundraising. I’d hold off on the “turncoat” label until a vote comes up where their yea or nay makes the difference.
Every one of those jokers is doing this all the time. I think that the “turncoat” label fits. But in this case, they are even bucking their constituency because they have, to put a fine point on it, sold out.
Yes, I agree. This is a bad vote to hold them accountable on. This was never going to pass.
Colin Peterson is in the pockets of Big Agriculture. I’m pretty sure they hate the fact the minimum wage exists at all.
Representative government’s product lies at the end of a series of sieves.
The median resident of a district isn’t where the median eligible voter is.
The median eligible voter isn’t where the median registered voter is.
The median registered voter isn’t where the median actually-votes-on-the-day voter is.
The median actually-votes-on-the-day-in-low-turnout-off-year-elections voter isn’t where the median influencer (people who donate time, money, who have megaphones of various sorts) is.
And the sum of all those differences isn’t in a social-democracy-wards direction.
You left off the final sieve:
The Median wealth donor to the representative i question, who is the constituency they ACTUALLY represent.
The Government represents Rich White Males, thus has it ever been, from the founding of the country.
Democracy shemocracy..we get circuses every couple of years to keep us deluded that we have anything to do with how our country is run.
you will notice…not one woman on the list.
One word:
Donors.