More Photos (1):

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Construction
West-Press
Printing Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator

Republicans in Congress are playing a cynical game of politics with the lives of millions of hard-working Americans by attaching a long overdue raise in the minimum wage to fiscally irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

President Bush doesn't support an increase in the minimum wage either, and his recent comments on the prosperity of our economy reveal how deeply out of touch his administration is with the lives of working Americans.

While the president and the Republican leadership in Congress are promoting more and more tax giveaways for a small number of wealthy Americans that will only increase the deficit and further undermine our economy, millions of working families are struggling harder and harder to make ends meet. Prices for everyday necessities like gasoline, housing and health care are skyrocketing, and too many hard-working families are struggling — one illness or a pink slip away from disaster.

It's little wonder that the vast majority of Americans say they are worried and stressed about the economy. Families already struggling to get by are being stretched to the breaking point. And for minimum-wage workers, the situation is even more desperate.

This week marks 10 years since Congress last increased the minimum wage. Since then, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has fallen by more than 20 percent. Minimum wage workers can't afford health care and can't earn enough to pay for adequate housing for their families anywhere in the country. Even a tank of gas to help a minimum wage earner get to work can cost more than they make in an entire day.

It is unacceptable that hard-working Americans working full time can't earn enough to support themselves. But that is exactly what is happening. A single mother with two children who works at the minimum wage 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year earns $10,700 per year. That's almost $6,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three.

As the men and, more often, women working at the minimum wage fall farther and farther behind, the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in Congress keep turning a blind eye to their struggles.

To add insult to injury, the Republican leadership has repeatedly given themselves a raise. Since Congress last increased the minimum wage in 1996, members of the House and Senate have raised their own pay by more than $31,000.

Yet the White House and the GOP Congress have consistently opposed any effort to provide a fair increase in the minimum wage. It cannot be that in America our nation's leaders take care of themselves, but continually ignore the neediest Americans.

It will not be. That is why Democrats in Congress are taking a stand for minimum-wage families. We have vowed that Democrats will do whatever it takes to block a congressional pay increase until we have raised the minimum wage.

The Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour would give a family an additional $4,400 a year to spend on rent, child care, health care, college or putting food on the table. More than 5 million more Americans have sunk into poverty on President Bush's watch, and a fair increase for our lowest-paid workers is long overdue.

Raising the minimum wage is a vital step toward putting our economy back on the right track. The promise of the American Dream is that if you work hard, you can earn a decent living for yourself and your family. To build a stronger America, we need to make the American Dream a reality for working families again. In this great nation, no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.