Tell Congress: It's Time for a REAL Vote to Raise the Minimum Wage

Minimum wage workers have been waiting a decade for a raise that can help lift their families out of poverty. The only thing stopping minimum wage workers from getting a $2.10 an hour pay raise is the unwillingness of the Republican leadership of Congress to allow consideration of a clean minimum wage bill with no poison pills and no strings attached. I urge you to stop the political games we've seen and see to it that Congress holds a REAL vote to raise the minimum wage.

America's working families will not tolerate the cynical political ploys congressional leaders have pulled to block a minimum wage increase. Dooming the minimum wage increase by tying it to budget-busting estate tax breaks for the very rich was an outrage. Minimum wage workers should not have to get in line behind Paris Hilton and the Wal-Mart heirs to receive the long-overdue pay increase they rightly deserve. The Republican estate tax proposal would blow a $753 billion hole in the federal budget, and working people like me would have to pay that price--with budget cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, veterans programs and unemployment insurance--so the 8,200 wealthiest estates in America could get an average tax break of $1.3 million.

It is far past time to raise the minimum wage. No more games. No more poison pills. No more cynical maneuvers. Raise the minimum wage now.