U.S. Senate
See Full Big Line
(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
See Full Big Line
(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
See Full Big Line
(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
See Full Big Line
(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
See Full Big Line
(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
See Full Big Line
(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
See Full Big Line
(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
See Full Big Line
(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
See Full Big Line
(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
See Full Big Line
(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
See Full Big Line
(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
October 07, 2016 02:30 PM UTC
26 Comments
If Melissa went from $8.31 to $12.00 per hour overnight would she be satisfied? That's about $25,000 per year. Working for minimum wage no matter what the level will yield a minimum lifestyle. A cruel hoax perpetrated by liberal feel good politicians.
You're right, Pear. No adult, working full time should be earning minimum wage. But that's not the fault of the employee, is it? No, the real culprits in the permanent underclass are the cheap bastards who think it's acceptable to offer pocket-money to an adult, often with a professional credential. It's no wonder the "businessmen" are so willing to climb into bed with the religionists. Religion is what keeps the poor from eating the rich.
I'm sure the regular crowd on this page heads will explode, but Melissa does bare some responsibility for her situation. I suspect she has many poor decisions behind her and is young enough to make more. Two children, 19 & 10 and a single parent. A heavy load to push even for a person making reasonable decisions.
How much is she getting in child support, how much in food stamps, how much in ADC, how much in tax credits? The minimum wage group leaves that out so it doesn't muddy the concept of $8.31 per hour.
The minimum wage crowd wants you to think that if we would raise it to $12 or $15 an hour Melissa would be just fine. Melissa will not be fine. She will not be fine until the skills she has to offer is of greater value to an employer.
The religion you speak of is the religion of slavery and the plantation owner sets in Washington D.C. If the government had any empathy they would raise the minimum wage to $100.00 per hour, then Melissa would be fine.
You flatter yourself that any head would explode over your insipid accusation.
Your arrogant and heartless calculation is the same kind of selfish crap that has caused the problem.
All of the assistance items you mention are there BECAUSE she doesn't earn a living wage. You seem to think the "Walmart model" is the way American workers should be treated.
You are what is wrong with America.
Wall Mart free for 16 years.
You can solve this problem on your own. Call Melissa an offer her a job for whatever you think the living wage she desires.
That sort of non-response is what I expected from you.
You don't shop at Wal-mart, so that absolves you of guilt for promoting their oppressive and rapacious policies.?
OK…smartass. I have employed dozens of workers over the years and I have NEVER paid the minimum wage. I have always paid at or near the top of the prevailing local wage scale. I don't expect you to believe me, nor do I care whether or not you do.
I suppose you are one of those who believes it is just fine for a company CEO to make 300 times the amount their workers receive. But your take on it is backwards. I am sure you think the magnanimous CEO of "Megacorp" is providing his workers with a job so they can live with dignity.
Nope …they provide a means for him to get stinking rich by using the laws created by wealthy men like him to exploit hard working people, who remain "the working poor"….while he pockets $65,000,000 per year.
Sure…nothing wrong with that scenario…right?
My employees make about $60,000 annually. They work hard and I take care of them. I wish I made what they make but it's just not happening now, hopefully in the future. The reason I pay them above average is the value they bring to the business with the skills they possess.
What is the difference between minimum wage Melissa and my April? April has a skill set that my customers rely on. If Melissa had those same skills I would hire her.
I'm sure you are an honorable man and want the best for our fellow man, it hurts you to see people in need. Me, I want everyone to succeed at the highest level. It pains me to see people trapped in economic slavery. I've hired enough, fired enough, and had enough quit to know, some are going to be at the low end of the bell curve, some will be at the high end and most of us will fall in the middle. It will always be that way.
I am sure, too, that you harbor no nefarious intent in your POV. I know so many people who work hard, but no matter their skill set, or lack thereof, there are only so many higher paying jobs to go around since American corporations shipped millions of them overseas. Sadly, too many American workers can not find a job paying a wage that gives them a sustainable future.
At the very least, people should be paid enough to provide for themselves and their families without assistance from the taxpayer. Period.
And that's it exactly. People do wind up making a "living wage" one way or the other because they get government assistance to stay alive.
Just like we actually do have universal healthcare because the indigent don't get left to die outside hospital doors. It's simply the most expensive least efficient form of universal healthcare on the planet, leaving us paying more than those of any other well off nation for increasingly lower quality care.
Earning less than a living wage just means people who make 60K a year have to pay the difference between a dead worker and a living one.
Sadly anyone in the income bracket Pair describes who votes Republican because they buy the snake oil of thoroughly discredited conservative voodoo economic dogma is being played for a sap.
If you aren't in the top .1% and you still vote Republican in the era of the 21st century GOP, a party that stopped bearing the slightest resemblance to the Party of Lincoln, TR or Ike long ago and now hopefully imploding, you're being had.
Not only have we lost jobs to globalization. We have lost many more to advancements in automation. Every manufacturing company who wants to be in business tomorrow is automating their processes. You can expect it to continue even faster.
On top of globalization, automation we now have an a fire hose of unskilled labor coming across the boarder competing for jobs. The one law Obama can't change is the law of supply and demand. All advocated by Chambers of Commerce and other globalist buying influence in both parties to our detriment.
The government will never give anything of lasting value. We are living in tyranny, disguised as freedom.
Apparently a reply to another comment.
I hereby dub thee the powerless pair. If you ever grow a real pair, put down your copy of Atlas Shrugged and join the real world.
I've read your comments. Most of them said in anger and mean spirited. Sorry not interested.
Of course your not interested in the real world. Fact based reality has been considered a liberal conspiracy ever since Karl Rove proclaimed that Rs create their own reality. Enjoy! Don't bother to send us a post card.
Not that you'll read it or care, (after all, they are the evil Federal Employees whom you think should take a 10% job loss- how's that jobsjobsjobs thing working out, btw?), but the Department of Labor has a "Minimum Wage Mythbusters" page answering the most common rightie scary memes on raising the wage to one people can live on.
From the Obama Dept of Labor.
Myth: The minimum wage stays the same if Congress doesn't change it.
Not true: Congress sets the minimum wage, but it doesn't keep pace with inflation. Because the cost of living is always rising, the value of a new minimum wage begins to fall from the moment it is set.
How is Melissa to get ahead if inflation eats away at the minimum? Nothing has been solved for Melissa.
If you actually read the prloposal, powerless pair, ypu will find that it phases in the $12 and then indexes it to the CPI. It turns out Melissa doesn't lose to inflation.
Phases in…….if it's worth doing why a phase in, Melissa can't make it on $8.31 per hour. Do it now.
How often is the CPI adjusted? Business will raise prices ahead of cost increases or timed to cost increases. Melissa is once again left behind. She can't make it on the CPI adjusted minimum wage. Nothing has changed.
Cpi is an annual adjustment, stupid one. Next time read the proposal before commenting and you won't look quite so dumb.
So every year the CPI adjusted. Do you suppose that businesses increase prices to compensate for the additional cost and raise prices? Poor Melissa is back where she started and nothing has changed.
if you work for minimum wage you will live a minimum lifestyle no matter what the wage level. Why do you promote economic slavery?
Why are you dumber than a box of rocks?. Melissa goes from $8.36 an hour to $12. Cpi keeps the value of her increase intact. In pearworld, all employees get minimum wage and wages are the only cost of goods and serices. In the real world the minimum wage covers a minority of woorkers while costs of raw material, caital, health care. Ins. Etc @are major items. Nobody gets rich on mimum wage but Melissa's real income rises almost 50 percent. To pay for that, mcdonalds bumps the price of a quarter pounder from $3 to $3.25. Her cost of living goes uo 8 percent, her income is up by 50 ercent and protected by a cpi. Yes, she is much better off.
Sorry about your powerless pair problem. Have you tried Viagra?
You'll get nowhere with Pair, V.
Remember. With conservatives these are articles of faith without reference to evidence or reasoning. It's a religious belief. They view evidence the way Born Agains view dinosaur bones…. planted by God to test our faith.
Have you ever had an economics class or do get all your whisdom from Bernie Sanders?
Earlier you said this phases in so while these phases are taking place what do you think is happening to prices?
Raise the minimum wage today to $12. Why are you ok with people making $24,960 a year. No where in this discussion have you ever wanted something better for Melissa. But advocating to keep keep them on the plantation is fine with you.
I certainly don't get my economics from conservative think tanks pushing malarkey that's been proved wrong for decades.
If lack of regulation and lowering taxes for those at the top were the key to prosperity than the GW era should have been a golden age with taxes on the top tier at historic post gilded age lows (still are, much lower than under your St. Reagan) and banks pretty much free to dream up whatever schemes they wanted to.
Hmmm…. wonder why it is that historic graphs going back through most of the 20th century show economic valleys under Rs and peaks under Ds?
Wonder why it's always a D government cleaning up after the economic collapses and downturns occurring under R governments. Including the Obama administration under which, much as you hate to admit it, the country has made all the progress it could in the face of R obstruction from the mess GW left, which happens to be quite a lot by all metrics?
Wonder why the Golden Age of unions that brought living wages to the masses for the first time coincided with the Golden Age of middle class expansion and prosperity? Could it be because what you think you know about economics is trickle down voodoo, regardless of how it's taught?
Well you got me there. Bernie Sanders certainly can not be accuse of being a think tank, with the operative word "think".
Oh dear. Cut to the quick by your razor sharp wit! Wonder how long it took you to compose that brilliant sally! I dare not even attempt to match it but must retire in ignominious defeat.