Are you sick of politicians taking the “minimum wage challenge”? That’s when they claim they’re going to live off what someone making that kind of money takes home. Interesting that none of them address the Federal/Medicare/FICA/State taxes when taking the challenge. Those taxes have a bigger effect on a person’s living expenses than anything else.
I found it very interesting that Gov. Quinn says a person has $79 to spend after transportation and housing. Using my famous CPS math, 8.25 x 40 = $330. $330 – 79 = $251. If CTA is $50 for a week (based on purchasing a Ventra card and needing to make one transfer, that’s $50/week just to get to and from work. If they don’t have a Ventra card, the price jumps to $3 for a one way ride as long as they buy it at the train station. The CTA, in their wisdom [stupidity], says you cannot get a transfer on the bus even though there are more buses than trains), that leaves $201 dollars. So if $100 of that is for housing, then 1/3 of the person’s income is taxes!
Yup, nothing is more interesting that folks claiming they are going to make it better for minimum wage workers when the biggest issue is the taxes they and the rest of us have to pay. And no matter what the new minimum wage amount becomes, those folks will pay higher taxes and probably have a lot less jobs to get all in the name of politicians attempting to promote their self-serving agendas.
I am also finding the commercials for the governor very interesting. Let’s be truthful. If any of us, like Bruce Rauner, made $53 million in one year, we’d have a number of houses too. Yet when several young people were profiled in Barneys buying purses and belts that cost several thousand dollars and it’s obvious they could barely afford to do so, no one wanted to criticize them. Plus, do you want a governor who knows how to make money or one who proves he can spend that kind of money so long as it’s our tax dollars?
Am I the only one to recall that back in May, Quinn’s neighbors were upset because his yard was full of dandelions? So I have gone through hysterical laughter watching as, in a new commercial, Quinn is mowing his grass. In the ad, Quinn concludes, “I’m working to fix the mess and I’m not finished.” Well, just like his own yard, he made the mess. He ignored the mess. He allowed the mess to occur and then we are to believe that all of a sudden he gets his magic lawnmower and he is going to fix it? For me, when Quinn overlooked Art Turner and went for Sheila Simon and now Paul Vallas, he has managed to find a way to slap the black community in the face.
I will remind everybody that it was a Republican governor, George Ryan, who put a moratorium on the death penalty, and it was Pat Quinn who had to “think about” ending the death penalty.
The black community is being given the scare tactics by those who want to profess that a Republican governor will be the worst thing that can happen to this state. Yet in my adult lifetime, I have lived under George Ryan, Jim Edgar, and Jim Thomson to name a few. If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then the black community needs to know which enemy is truly our friend.
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