Introducing new bills in Congress 2 part question?

Question

1st Do you think Russ Feingold may be onto something with this idea...I do :)

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/2006/07/post_782.html

Second: Would you support a tarrif on ALL monetary transfers from the US to Mexico, to recover lost taxes. Let's say for instance a 15% added fee, of which will be divided equally between Social Security, medical treatment programs, the IRS, and the state from which the transfer emminates.

Russ advocates linking minimum wage to congressional pay raises. Congress gets a raise, minimum wage goes up by the same % Pretty neat idea.

Many businesses are losing their tax breaks. Locally, we have one business that has returned some operations back stateside :) While another of equal size, had just moved out.

Answer 1

I'm not sure what the linked article is supposed to be advocating. Does it concern linking Congressional salary raises to raises in the minimum wage or minimum wage raises to raises in Congressional salaries? It seems a bit muddled in that respect. I find the idea of linking the two rather amusing and it might even work. It sort of reminds me of the time in the UK when an unemployed person challenged a Member of Parliament (=US Congressman) to live on the unemployment benefits he received for just one week. They even swapped houses for the week. Towards the end of the week, the MP was 90 minutes late to a meeting because he couldn't afford to put petrol in his car and had to take the bus!

As to the tariff you suggest, I rather like that. However, if we are to penalize shop-floor workers (some of whom are actually legal residents or US citizens, after all) I believe we should also find some way of penal;izing senior executives of multi-national companies who outsource jobs to other countries, enjoy the profits therefrom and are also able to enjoy all the benefits of living in the USA on a high salary. after all, the principle is the same - money is being withdrawn from the American economy by people who are supposed to be working to benefit their neighbors.

Great question. I hope you get some intelligent answers.

Answer 2

I'm not sure from the article what Russ Feingold's position is. As for minimum wage, price controls (wages are the price of labor) always result in harm to the very people they are intended to help.

Regarding the tariff, it assumes all transfers to Mexico involve some form of illegal activity. If the activity is illegal, it should be prosecuted, not taxed.

Answer 3

Yes, and Yes .