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dc_dux · 01-13-2007, 02:59 PM

Back to the OP....

My guess is that the provision on the Marianas was included by the Dems,in part, as a political statement (along with a sincere interest in bringing some wage standards to the Marianas) to John Boehner and Roy Blunt, the two top Repubs in the House, both of whom had ties to Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff and the K Street project* that resulted in the worst abuse and influence peddling by lobbyists (ahd the Repubs) in our lifetime.

Chances are the provision will be dropped in the Senate version and replaced with something similar to the exisiting minimum wage standards and procedures for American Samoa - neither of which should be held to wage rates that apply in the US, but both of which should have some minimal standards as US territories that benefit from having that status.
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* The K Street Project, according to former Washington Monthly editor Nicholas Confessore, is (was) an attempt to build a new Republican political machine "built upon patronage, contracts and one-party rule ... among Washington's thousands of trade associations and corporate offices, their tens of thousands of employees and the hundreds of millions of dollars in political money at their disposal."

The theory behind the project, Confessore wrote, boils down to this: "As Republicans control more and more K Street jobs, they will reap more and more K Street money, which will help them win larger and larger majorities on the Hill."

01-13-2007, 02:59 PM	#16 (permalink)
dc_dux Location: Washington DC	Back to the OP.... My guess is that the provision on the Marianas was included by the Dems,in part, as a political statement (along with a sincere interest in bringing some wage standards to the Marianas) to John Boehner and Roy Blunt, the two top Repubs in the House, both of whom had ties to Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff and the K Street project* that resulted in the worst abuse and influence peddling by lobbyists (ahd the Repubs) in our lifetime. Chances are the provision will be dropped in the Senate version and replaced with something similar to the exisiting minimum wage standards and procedures for American Samoa - neither of which should be held to wage rates that apply in the US, but both of which should have some minimal standards as US territories that benefit from having that status. ---- * The K Street Project, according to former Washington Monthly editor Nicholas Confessore, is (was) an attempt to build a new Republican political machine "built upon patronage, contracts and one-party rule ... among Washington's thousands of trade associations and corporate offices, their tens of thousands of employees and the hundreds of millions of dollars in political money at their disposal." The theory behind the project, Confessore wrote, boils down to this: "As Republicans control more and more K Street jobs, they will reap more and more K Street money, which will help them win larger and larger majorities on the Hill." __________________ "The perfect is the enemy of the good." ~ Voltaire Last edited by dc_dux; 01-13-2007 at 03:33 PM..