I could not believe it when I heard it, and still think I am in a fog and am not comprehending properly.
Am I accurately reading that Eric Cantor wants to eliminate overtime pay for employees who work of 40 hours per week? Surely, if implied he did not take such a thought to the level of specific oration. Did the words actually come from his mouth?
“Let me warn you“, FDR……(the words never really come from their mouths and when words do emanate for their mouths, the words are never direct and straight-forward.
Mother Jones Dot Com in July 2012published a pieceincluding of 11 charts that show how middle to lower income Americans are being pushed to the breaking point from people (the wealthy) and entities (that derive profits) from their toil.
Cantor’s February 2013 speech to the American Enterprise InstituteFull Text. The apparent theme of the event or Cantor’s speech was, “outlining a number of major policy initiatives designed to ‘Make Life Work’ for more people.” If that was an event theme, I can almost see how Cantor developed such an out of character dissertation.
A few Cantor speech excerpts in italics.
Excerpts
But today, I’d like to focus our attention on what lies beyond these fiscal debates. Over the next two years, the House majority will pursue an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families. And to restrain Washington from interfering in those pursuits.
The Majority leader in the House of Representatives and benefactor of GOP gerrymandering after the 2010 elections, speaks as such? First, Cantor uses the common vernacular of “Washington” when he factually fills a powerful seat as Majority Leader. Of course, as I consider the amount of time Congress spends in session I can almost see his Freudian slip distancing himself form our federal government. Not his words were carefully chosen for impact. “Over the next two years, the House majority will pursue an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families“.
It is amazing. While reading that last sentence, I reflected back on Cantor and his parties extreme opposition to all matters helpful with the “quality of life” for families. From refusal to move jobs bills to a vote, to extreme opposition to healthcare reform and bartering with unemployment compensation, I see Cantor’s words as false mantra.
We will advance proposals aimed at producing results in areas like education, health care, innovation and job growth. Our solutions will be based on the conservative principles of self-reliance, faith in the individual, trust in the family and accountability in government. Our goal – to ensure every American has a fair shot at earning their success and achieving their dreams.
If Cantor is true to his past and his 2011 majority leadership, the only truth in the aforementioned is his “….. solutions based on the conservative principles of self-reliance….” The GOP will not advance productive proposals as long as there is a Democrat in the White House. He mentioned job growth. We have not seen any instances of proposals relative to job growth since before Bush crashed the US economy. Additionally, Cantor has refused to call for votes on any jobs proposals, as I recall.
Lately, it has become all too common in our country to hear parents fear whether their children will indeed have it better than they have. And for all of us parents, that is a scary thought. Let’s face it. It has gotten a lot tougher to raise a family here in America. Our goal should be to eliminate this doubt gripping our nation’s families, and to restore their hope and confidence so that parents can once again see a better tomorrow for their children.
Pure false mantra. I suspect it has become increasingly tough to raise a family in just about all nations. Since Cantor placed no time framing in this part of his speech it is not possible to place the comment in perspective. Could his blanket reference cover many years back to the 1970s, or is he cloaking a reference to years post 2009? If you think the US financial crash in 2007/2008 did not impact the entirety of industrialized nations, you should accomplish a bit of research. Cantor was an active participant of ‘all things” Bush, thus his remarks are purely for sake of the speech. He espouses ‘austerity’ measures, when many economist are posting the danger of such policies as evident in the EURO nations and England.
Federal laws dating back to the 1930s make it harder for parents who hold hourly jobs to balance the demands of work and home. An hourly employee cannot convert previous overtime into future comp-time or flex-time. In 1985, Congress passed a law that gave state and municipal employees this flexibility, but today still denies that same privilege to the entire private sector. That’s not right.
If Congress legislated such for state and municipality governments, why hasn’t the GOP moved their desire to restrict or eliminate over-time pay (1.5 times one’s hourly pay rate) well before now? What about the current political climate makes it conducive to Cantor’s anti-employee radicalism? Does Cantor realize the administrative burden of administering such a policy? We are talking redundant payroll processes if employees are allowed to forgo proper pay for sake of banking extra time. Over what period would such a practice span? Could I bank my time for years while working myself to a nub 55 hours per week?
A visit to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), do not find impetus for Cantor to move in the stated direction for sake of ‘the family” and raising kids. The BLS search yielded a recent table of information indicating average overtime hours worked by industry seems to eliminate Cantor’s point as it related to mothers in the home. In fact, on closer scrutiny on a per industry basis, the link reveals overtime pay is simply not a significant experience for employers. If it is not a significant issue for employers, the same data does not support Cantor’s thoughts on working extra hours as a family destroying phenomena.
I can, however, speculate Cantor’s real motive. If he was not delivering speech rhetoric for rhetoric sake, his motive could have been to appeal to business. I can only imagine as a business owner the gleeful prospect of being rid of time and one half for over 40 hours work. In an age where business are squeezing employees for every bit of productivity and pushing jobs overseas for more profitability, should we assume, business owners and CEO will do the right thing towards people?
Imagine if we simply chose to give all employees and employers this option. A working mom could work overtime this month and use it as time off next month without having to worry about whether she’ll be able to take home enough money to pay the rent. This is the kind of common sense legislation that should be non-controversial and moves us in the right direction to help make life work for families.
No, Majority Leader Cantor I cannot imagine your scenario. As stated previously, such a prospect can only increase administration cost for most employers, potential for abuse for poor record-keepers, and possible scheduling issues as people decide they need to use their time on an emergency basis. I can no more ‘imagine’ your scenario than I can privatizing Social Security reducing Medicare Benefits, and continuing to live in a world insensitive to accepting 47 million people without any medical coverage. I dread to wonder where the GOP gets its polling data. Polling that indicates eliminating over-time pay must be polling straight from the annuls of ALEC or the Koch Brothers.
Long term, controlling health-care costs will require smarter federal investments in medical research. Many of today’s cures and life saving treatments are a result of an initial federal investment. And much of it is spent on cancer research and other grave illnesses.
This comment from Cantor is an obvious speech filler. If you read it carefully, the comment makes no rational sense beyond that of a filler.
Cantor’s posit is simply ridiculous. The full Cantor speech is posted above. Additional source: The Daily Kos
Frankly, I could not wait to visit the sitethe day after the Academy Award presentations. As I do not watch the Academy Awards (For that matter, I watch “No” awards show) based on my personal thoughts on my ticket purchases or intellectual property purchases. Yes, I am a frequent purchaser who draws the line shy of accolades after helping to contributing to millions in their back accounts.
Mario did not let me down. His comments about Michelle Obama and the announcement of the award for Best Picture are absolutely apropos. If I may take it just a step or two farther. It is well known that George Clooney has a great affinity for President Obama and the Democratic Party. They have met on more than one occasion. Clooney has hosted a fundraiser during campaign 2012, they have played basketball together and Clooney may have been a (non-government) facilitator of our incursion into Mali, Why leave any room for cronyism regarding potential advance knowledge of the winning movie project and privilege regarding the announcement of the winner? While we know the Right will scream about all things Obama, the following sentence with link makes my point. Wing-nut reactionto Michelle Obama and the Academy Awards.
I do not feel that Argo is in anyway truly representative of a high artistic achievement with recognition at the level of Oscar.
I don’t usually watch awards ceremonies but movie buff that I am, I do watch the Academy Awards. My thoughts on last night’s ceremony.
1. Lose the Jaws music they used to cut off anyone going over their allotted time for acceptance speeches. Dumb.
2. If Argo was the best film of the year, than it was a less than stellar year for movies. Argo is the type of film you watch once, enjoy and then forget about…certainly not in the class of The Godfather, Schindler’s List or, my all-time favorite, Casablanca.
3. Seth MacFarlane can be funny and witty. Last night he wasn’t. His “joke” about John Wilkes Booth being the actor who “really got inside Lincoln’s head” was tasteless and humorless. And that entire opening bit with William Shatner was a dud from beginning to end.
4. Michelle Obama at the Academy Awards? Really? Does every damn thing have to be politicized these days?
Yes, she didn’t say anything that could be deemed political but there was no good reason to have her there. Liberals might want to consider what they’d be thinking if six years ago Laura Bush presented an award at the Oscars ceremony. They’d be bitching and howling about Republicans needlessly politicizing the ceremony…and they’d be right. The same could be said here about the decision to have Michelle Obama up on a giant screen presenting the Best Picture award from the White House. It was unnecessary and smacked of Dems shoving the Hollywood/liberal connection in conservative’s faces.
Americans are subjected to politics on a daily basis and there are few places where the divisive face of politics does not show up. Whether Michelle’s presence last night had political intent or not, the fact remains that there are enough reasons for one to believe there could have been…and for that reason alone, it was a bad decision.
With that said, let’s introduce a bit more politics into the Oscars…this one a little funnier.
CPAC self-worship and accolades from the throngs of minions in attendance.
A modern day charlatan-money grabber and his latest ploy. Rush Limbaugh digs deep to re-invigorate his audience.
First a look back at a sampling the core of his demagogue.
“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble (African American) Jesse Jackson?” -Limbaugh Short video segments
Limbaugh on Micheal J. Fox and Parkinson’s Disease… Link
Rush Limbaugh “we need to return to segregated buses… Link
Limbaugh: Sandra Fluke is a slut, free govt, condoms….Link
Now let’s fast-forward to last week.
Towards the middle of last week, Rush Limbaugh decided to give his audience a new “hook”, new mantra, and reverse marketing never before sprinkled across his sycophants.
Audio 2:38 seconds… (At the 1:10 minute mark, the groveling rambling comes to some degree of order and clearly recognizable as audience- centric mantra. Of particular note, was a subsequent show that found Limbaugh speaking of the ‘low-information’ and implies about uneducated supporters of the Left. (See below)
As is the case with all money grabbers, lets take a strategic look at the environment facing Limbaugh and his staff. Strategic assessment includes analyzing the environment: internal strengths and external threats; recognizing weaknesses and opportunities. In the case of Limbaugh, the multi-millionaire whose fruit is his listener supported contract from Clear Channel, the following has to be a concern.
The demagogue entertained his audience last week with declarations of “ashamed of his country” and the following double down.
“[T]he left has beaten us,” Limbaugh said during his Friday show. “They have created far more low-information, unaware, uneducated people than we’ve been able to keep up with.”
“….low-information, unaware, uneducated…?”
We will not argue with Limbaugh’s demagoguery related to ‘low-information, unaware and uneducated. The irrefutable proof of Limbaugh’s false prophecy is there for all to see. If one simply reflects back on early tea party rallies, Limbaugh’s descriptive phraseology resonates someplace between that of mirror reflection and a good deal of reverberation from an echo chamber.
Now, take another look at those pictured (tea party rallies) above. The following chart shows how many may have evolved away from the movement as they realized their beloved tea party was a mere front for money-grabbers with designs on federal and state governance.
The developers of the images and their subjects, including those just above, are certainly very much alive and well in America. Thus, one should question the veracity of Limbaugh’s comments. Question the comments with a mind towards a marketing horizontal integration strategy.
After the summer of 2011, the tea party was far less visible. We have to think the tea party had served its purpose via infestation of the US Congress. The very congressional infestation that has contributed to GOP obstruction against all things Obama with subsequent harm to a slowly improving economy.
Limbaugh’s “less informed, unaware and uneducated” also has roots in his own political party. Mediaitepublished a piece in December 2012 in which Joe Scarborough related to a The Weekly Standard Op-Ed written by Bill Kristol. (Video)
On February 19, 2013, Huffington Postran a piecein which Scarborough again spoke frankly about how Right -wig media are hurting the GOP. He also alludes to some of the more vocal mouth pieces as “money grabbers” (my phrase).
All things considered, It is easy to see why Limbaugh is deploying a form of horizontal integration as new strategy. His cache of demagoguery may need a bit of an upgrade. Let’s face it, when noted right-wingers start to identify Limbaugh, and other money-grabbers, and delineating their deleterious influence on the poli/social Right, even General MacArthur would develop new strategy. Limbaugh is the ideology leader of the Right with Beck running a distant second. Each consistently run a muck with “demagoguery Ben Franklin C notes” escaping their money bags. They demagogue along with others (Hannity, O’Reilly, Maulkin, Coulter et al) trailing behind for ‘C-notes’ that fall from their bags.
Do you think these folk did not care that Donald Trump had announced he was not going to run for the GOP nomination the day before.
The Pardu's Scroll 