way2slo's Journal: A few thoughs on US Politics...

The PotUS does not write legislation. The Legislative Branch writes the laws that spend the money. It was a Republican controled Congress that reduced the deficit in the 90's by spending less, not the president. All the president can do is support or veto, but the veto can be overridden by a 2/3rd majority vote.

"Trickle Down" economics, where tax cuts free up money for business and people to spend, is far better for the economy than raising taxes. The government should not be redistributing the wealth of hard working americans, like all of us. :) We can spend our money better than the federal government. The federal government should not be Robin Hood.

Raising the minimum wage hurts small businesses and their employees. Here's a little example:
A 25 cent mimium wage hike can devistate the budget of a small business. One employee working 9-5 every day 6 days a week, that's $12 per employee per week. $624 per employee per year. 5 people, that's over $3,000 out of your profits. You now have that much less to grow your business. Odds are, your business was making the most it could already so making up that extra $3,000 is impossible. If your business is not doing well, you are forced to fire one of those minimum wage employees to keep yourself out of bankruptcy. Also, the employees that still have jobs have to pay taxes on that 25 cents so they are not even getting all of the benefit of making the extra quarter per hour.
End result is you put a strain on small businesses that may be forced to sacrifice some employees jobs to make the others insignifigantly better. That does not sound very compassionate to me.
If you want to help the minimum wage earner, do it by letting them keep more ofthe money they already earn via tax cuts across the board. That is far better for them, you, me, and the economy as a whole.

In a golbal economy, unskilled labor will be moved to where it costs less. Nothing can stop this. Companies do this to stay competitive. In some cases, they would be under-cut by their competitiors and possibly go bankrupt if they did not relocate. End result is the unskilled workers lose their jobs anyway. (see US steel industry) Putting industries on governmental life support to try and fight Supply and Demmand is a Lose-Lose situation. Horrible for the US economy for in the long run it forces us to pay more while not saving jobs anyway.
In the course of history, the value of certain tasks have changed. At one time, you could make a living by cutting blocks of ice out of a frozen lake and ship them to peoples homes. Times change and so do the ways you can earn a living. You have to adapt to the new ways and give up the old. The government should not artificially protect them.