Obama to Vacation in West Palm Beach
Six weeks into 2013, off on Vacation No. 2...
Taxpayers will be sending President Obama on his second vacation of the year when he departs Friday aboard Air Force One for a Presidents’ Day Weekend excursion to West Palm Beach, Florida.Without apparent irony, Obama has decided to jet to a well-trod stomping ground of the rich just days after presenting himself to the nation in his State of the Union speech as the guardian of the middle class.
Obama presumably will head directly to some fabulous golf course, having not been able to play in recent weeks because of the cold weather in Washington.
While Obama may pay some hotel and other miscellaneous costs related to his vacation travel, taxpayers are on the hook for much of the expense, shelling out for the president’s travel aboard Air Force One, a cargo plane that carries supplies, and the cost of the president’s substantial staff and security retinue.
While unemployment stands at nearly eight percent, Obama is taking his second vacation of 2013. The year is only six weeks old.
Obama initially traveled to Hawaii in late December. He returned after a several days to work on a fiscal cliff deal, and then went back for several more days in early January after signing a bill. So this will also be the third time in less than two months that taxpayers have footed the bill for a round-trip Obama vacation.
It’s not clear if Michelle is going with him – the White House announcement of Obama’s plans doesn’t mention her. She usually goes skiing in the Rockies around this point in the year.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/02/13/obama-vacation-west-palm-beach/
PK'S NOTE: The hypocrisy. She, like anyone alive today in the US, has NO IDEA what it is like to be a slave. She has been in Congress since 1995. Her net worth is reportedly $456,014 to $1,364,997. From her House of Representatives biography: "Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee earned a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University with honors, followed by a J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School."
Dem Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Uses 'Slave' Card To Urge Sequester Vote
http://lonelyconservative.com/2013/02/john-kerry-fail-russian-foreign-minister-refused-to-return-his-call/comment-page-1/
Destroying Jobs to Save Them
Few poor workers will benefit from minimum wage hikes, economists say
“We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages,” Obama said. “That’s why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, 19 states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.”
However, those 19 states boast some of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, especially among the teenagers who make up the majority of minimum wage earners.
Only two states with minimum wages above the federal level have youth unemployment rates that rank among the best-performing 10 states in the nation. Of the 10 states with the highest teen unemployment rates, six have higher minimum wages than the federal standard. About 30 percent of teenagers are out of work in Washington state, the only state with a minimum wage above $9 an hour.
Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, says minimum wage increases often lead employers to cut hours or lay off workers as they try to cope with rising labor costs.
“States that do this place barriers to employment that hurt workers,” he said. “Just because their hourly wages went up doesn’t mean they’re getting annual increases. Some workers benefit, but many lose out.”
Political insiders were surprised Obama included a higher minimum wage in the laundry list of goals he laid out during the speech. The announcement pleased many in his base. For example, labor groups praised Obama for the proposal, saying it would lead to “rising wages and good jobs.”
“We applaud the president for expressing support for raising the minimum wage and tying it to the cost of living,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.
Dr. Mark Perry, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said raising the minimum wage would not alleviate the long-time stagnation of wages because it could lead to increased unemployment.
“We’re struggling in a jobless recovery; this would price unskilled workers out of the labor market,” he said. “Wages go up when there are labor shortages and higher competition for workers—we have such a high unemployment rate right now that can’t happen.”
Obama said during his speech, “A full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line.”
“Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour,” Obama said. “This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families.”
Obama may be exaggerating the benefits of his policy, however.
“There were almost 45 million workers nationwide who were paid hourly wages and working full-time (40 hours or more) in 2011. Of those full-time hourly workers, 98.3 percent were earning more than the minimum wage, and only 743,000 (and 1.7 percent) were earning the minimum wage or less,” Perry wrote in a blog post.
The majority of minimum wage earners are young and unmarried not the breadwinner described by Obama, according to a 2011 the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the most recent year available.
“Minimum wage workers tend to be young,” the report states. “Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly-paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers paid by the hour, about 23 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 3 percent of workers age 25 and over.”
Those workers have enough trouble finding a job as they lack the experience and education levels of older workers, according to Saltsman. Minimum wage work for many is a stepping stone for their careers: Missing that step because of fewer job openings can have a long-term impact on their careers, he said.
“Teenagers are missing out on the skills and experience of entry level employment,” he said. “Today’s CEOs didn’t start out running companies; they started waiting tables and tossing newspapers. We have a generation that will not learn valuable skills.”
Employers are quick to recognize those skills. The BLS found that the majority of workers paid by the hour earn more than $7.25 an hour, a sign that workers are only at the minimum wage for a short time period, according to Perry.
“Raising the minimum wage sounds wonderful, but if it was so good for the economy, why not raise it to $19 or $29? They wouldn’t do that because it would displace people who need those skills and those jobs,” he said. “You hurt the most vulnerable people in the workforce when you do that.”
http://freebeacon.com/destroying-jobs-to-save-them/
The Minimum Wage is Bad for Employers, Workers, and the Economy
The minimum wage is about freedom. Think about it. The government is forcing employers to pay people a certain amount of money. It’s no wonder that a majority of voters have no problem with the government taking ever higher amounts of money from workers in the form of taxes.When the minimum wage goes up, union wages and benefits also go up. That’s why unions are always behind an increase in the minimum wage. Union workers do not make minimum wage. Unions can hold companies hostage to force up wages. They’re the fourth branch of government. When the minimum wage goes up, the wages of union employees have to go up as well, so they want new contracts to reflect a “proper” wage distance from the meager minimum wage earner.
Higher wages also mean higher prices. Not only will employers have to pay $9 per hour if Obama gets his way on an increase for the minimum wage, but Social Security and Medicare costs also go up for the employer on the increase.
Employers who hire minimum wage workers are usually working on small profit margins. If they get hit with something like a 25 percent increase in the minimum wage, it’s possible that to make up for the additional labor cost, an employer may have to lay off a fourth of his work force and distribute the work to the remaining employees. Unlike our government, businesses can’t print money.
Inexperienced young people are the first to suffer when the minimum wage goes up.
It used to be that when two people competed for the same job, a person who could undercut the amount an employer was willing to pay often would get the job.
An employer could take a risk on someone who lacked experience because he didn’t have to pay him what an experienced worker might demand. Many of the jobs available to teens were low skilled anyway.
By making it illegal to pay someone less than a government-mandated minimum wage, those with less experience are at a disadvantage. Employing teenagers is now a classic Catch-22 dilemma.
“Do you have experience?,” the shop owner asks.
The teenager is honest and shows initiative by answering, “No, but I’m willing to work at a lower wage to gain experience.”
“Sorry,” the shop owner says. “I would be
breaking the law if I hired you for any amount less than the minimum
wage. I can hire someone with experience at the same wage I’d have to
pay you.”
“But I can’t get experience if you won’t hire me.”
“Tough luck. Complain to President Obama.”
Brian Levine, co-owner of Tropical Smoothie Café knows knows the law and the logic of the market place:
“A lot of it comes down to what we can
afford, versus the hours they’re available to work. We are more or less,
the minimum wage type of place. I would obviously prefer to pay minimum
wage, but I’d also go for an adult and pay them an extra dollar an
hour. They’re available, have more experience and are quicker to train.”
Once again, government is the problem not the solution to job growth.
You might respond, “Sure, you can say this because you make a lot of money.” I don’t know what a lot of money is, but I sure make more than I did at my first job — $50 a week to wash pots and pans at a country club. Do the math. It’s a little more than a dollar an hour.
I worked a New Year’s Eve party at a restaurant when I was 16 with no hourly wage. The only money I got was in tips. The no-wage guarantee made me work very hard to get good tips. I made $20 for three hours of work. That was in 1966. That was big bucks back then.
I worked in the produce department at Kroger after school and weekends. This experience enabled me to get a job in Florida. I ended up working 60 hours a week. There was no union. My hard work was noticed, and I was offered the assistant manager’s job at a new store the company was opening.
It was these no to low hourly wages and disgusting working conditions that incentivized me to do better. I gained work experience and references. I worked through high school, had two jobs in college, and worked my way through graduate school as a custodian and bookstore assistant manager.
Get the government out of the wage business, and you’ll see the economy grow, prices fall, and wages that will keep up with expenses. The best workers will get the best jobs at the best prices.
DHS Nullifies Fourth Amendment Rights of Millions of Americans
The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution reads:“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”The Department of Homeland Security doesn’t believe in the Fourth Amendment and has recently issued statements to that affect. They are claiming that if you live within 100 miles of the international border that they have the right to search all electronic devices, including cell phones and laptop and tablet computers without probable cause or first securing a warrant. The 100 mile distance is being referred to as the border security search zones.
This would include cities such as San Diego, Escondido, El Centro, Yuma, Tucson, Las Cruces, Carlsbad, El Paso, Brownsville, Seattle, Grand Forks, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Montpelier to name just a few.
But wait, it gets even better! If you live anywhere in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey or Rhode Island, DHS says the search zones encompass the entire state. Let’s not leave New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia out of the fun, because large areas of these states are also being designated as search zones.
If you live anywhere in any of the designated search zones, the feds claim to have the right to invade your privacy and conduct an unconstitutional search of your private possessions without any probable cause or warrant. If you ask me, this sounds a lot like the Gestapo under Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, which is what I compared the Department of Homeland Security to in an earlier article. This just helps to reinforce my claims.
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