Mr. Rogers receives 'Public Enemy of Middle Class' Award

Just yesterday, we saw one more example of how out of touch Mr. Rogers is with Michigan's working class. Today, the evidence against Mr. Rogers continues to mount, and all his neglected constituents can do is run for the hills.

Mike Rogers has made the Top 18 Public Enemies of the Middle Class in Congress, according to Americans United for Change.

"More and more of America's working people are struggling to make ends meet, and our middle class is disappearing," said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Americans United for Change. "At least two meaningful pieces of legislation to reverse this trend have already come before Congress this year - and, unfortunately, these eighteen Members were no where to be found when the middle class families they represent needed them most. Just last week, they each opposed the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give middle-class workers a fair shake by fixing a badly broken system for forming unions and bargaining with Corporate America for better pay, improved benefits and retirement security.

(emphasis added)

Mr. Rogers joins Michigan's Vern Ehlers on the dubious list. Of course, not just anyone made the Top 18

While more than 18 Republicans voted against both the minimum wage increase and the Employee Free Choice Act in the House, these 18 were selected as public enemies of the middle class because they either come from districts where these issues have gained added resonance because of the growing disparity between the wages of workers and corporate executives or because they had been identified as persuadable on these issues.

You can bet this is one award that Mr. Rogers won't be waving around come election time. In fact, we fully expect Mr. Rogers to bury this as far as he can.

The People of the Neighborhood will not forget, making sure the good folks of the 8th District remember what a true menace to society Mike Rogers really is.

Rogers votes NO on minimum wage increase

Here's the legislative summary of the minimum wage bill, H.R. 2:

Currently, the federal minimum wage sits at $5.15 per hour. H.R. 2 raises the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour over 26 months. Sixty days after the President signs the bill into law, the federal minimum wage will rise to $5.85. A year following, the federal minimum wage will rise to $6.55. A year following that, the federal minimum wage will rise to $7.25. There are twenty-one states that have their state minimum wage below this level, and will be forced to comply with the new dollar amount.

For some history about the minimum wage, check out this Wikipedia entry.

America's minimum wage had its highest purchasing value ever in 1968, "when it was $1.60/hour ($9.12 in 2005 dollars)." Of course, we all know that the minimum wage hasn't had that much value in a long time -- the rate has been stuck at $5.15 since 1997, the longest stretch without an increase.

So, who will a minimum wage increase help?

Our research shows that 5.6 million low-wage workers have earnings that place them in the affected range and thus would directly benefit from the increase. These workers are mostly adults (70 percent are 20 or older; half are 26 or up). About 40 percent of them work full time, and a similar share work more than 20 hours per week.

While many are not officially poor, their incomes typically place them within the bottom two-fifths of the income scale (less than $36,000).

Helping millions of American workers earn more money to support their families sounds like a good thing, right? Well, Mike Rogers doesn't think so. He voted no on H.R. 2 yesterday afternoon.

The State of Michigan already voted to increase the minimum wage last year (up to $7.40/hr by July 2008), but yesterday's vote clearly shows that Mike Rogers thinks this was a bad idea.

Mike Rogers says he works "for you", but if he truly valued the work of his constituents, he would've voted to support an increase in the federal minimum wage.