Truth about the minimum wage bill in congress

It is refreshing to hear Rep. Frank LoBiondo speak about his efforts in the Congress with fellow Republicans in trying to raise the federal minimum wage. "Remembering American working families this Labor Day" (DJ-9/2) is a nice Alice in Wonderland story. All of a sudden our congressman is the big defender of America's working families when in fact he has voted against those same families he claims to be protecting. Why did the Senate oppose the minimum wage bill proposed by the House Republicans? It is very simple -- the House Republicans along with our representative failed to bring a stand-alone minimum wage bill to the House floor. Rather, they decided to combine the needed wage increase with a controversial repeal of the estate tax. This is a clearly political maneuvering on the part of the Republicans and Rep. LoBiondo. You can tell by their actions that election time is coming and they are playing games with the hard working families of our country. At the same time, they are pretending to be the great friends of the labor movement in our country, when in fact the Republican Congress has weakened every labor law and regulation. According to the best estimates, the bill that Mr. LoBiondo voted for in the House will cost American taxpayers around $267.5 billion in just the first 10 years, and approximately $700 billion in the 10 years after the tax cuts would take full effect. This clearly shows on which side of the fence Mr. LoBiondo is sitting on -- on the side of the very wealthy piling more debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren. Hipolito Lagares, Vineland - Published in the Daily Journal, September 6, 2006