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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Senators Warren and Durbin, Fighting the Good Fight

Senators Warren and Durbin, Fighting the Good Fight

by Anne Laurie|  February 11, 20144:51 pm| 21 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Don't Mourn, Organize, Proud to Be A Democrat, Warren for Senate 2012

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Have I mentioned recently that I love being able to say “my Senator, Elizabeth Warren”? From Boston.com:

Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Dick Durbin of Illinois stopped by a burrito chain restaurant in Boston on Monday to advocate for an increase in the state and federal minimum wage.

‘‘No one who works full-time should live in poverty,’’ Warren said at a Boloco restaurant…

Warren and Durbin were joined by John Pepper, a founder of Boloco. The restaurant pays workers a minimum of $9 an hour — a dollar more than state law requires. Pepper said he rewards workers by paying them a more dignified wage…

Durbin and Warren also are trying to build support for raising the national minimum wage. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour….

From the WWLP (Western MA) site:

… Warren and Durbin were in Boston together to push for a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, with increases for tipped-wage workers as well. Warren also supports the efforts underway in Massachusetts to go even higher.

“We are in this fight to win and we are going to win this fight. Businesses, workers and the people who represent you in Washington, we’re going to get out there and do the right thing. Full-time work should not be full time poverty,” Warren said…

“This used to be a bipartisan issue. It used to be that Democrats and Republicans said with frequency we’re going to raise the minimum wage. Sadly, whether it’s unemployment benefits or minimum wage, it’s become too partisan, so we have to ask a very hard question in the Senate. Will there be five Republican senators who will join us to get this done?” Durbin said.

Calling the House “death valley” for a lot of proposals that clear the Senate, Durbin said, “If Speaker John Boehner won’t touch it the American people get the last say in the elections.”

In Massachusetts, the state Senate last year passed a bill raising the minimum wage to $11 an hour and advocates are waiting to see how high House Speaker Robert DeLeo might be willing to go. Lew Finfer, of the Raise Up Coalition, said if the Legislature can’t pass a bill or passes a “weak” bill, his organization is prepared to go to the ballot in November with a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour…

There’s video from WCVB (Ch5), but I can’t embed it. My only wish is that the camera crew had also fronted some low-wage workers who weren’t people of color/immigrants (you know that’s what the ‘wingers are going to whinge about), but it’s still a good clip.

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Reader Interactions

21Comments

  1. 1.

    srv

    February 11, 2014 at 4:54 pm

    The People’s House will keep We The People in the poverty line.

  2. 2.

    c u n d gulag

    February 11, 2014 at 5:00 pm

    Paying people a “livable wage,” leaves no one for Conservative sociopath’s to mock!

    If the “moochers, takers, and parasites,” can make a reasonable living, then there will be no one to cast aspersions upon!
    Who, then, can they feel superior to, if people earn a livable wage?

    And what are Conservatives, without people to mock, and cast aspersions upon?
    SOCIOPATH’S, and PSYCHOPATH’S – THAT’S WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    With, or without, people to mock and cast aspersions upon.

  3. 3.

    the Conster

    February 11, 2014 at 5:12 pm

    I hope this gets done in MA while Deval is still in office. I think Charlie Baker will probably be the next gov and I don’t trust him not to veto.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    February 11, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    My congressional rep is Jan Schakowsky. Hard to beat.

  5. 5.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    February 11, 2014 at 5:22 pm

    I went to my local “Nicks and Dents” store the other day which promises prices at least 50% off grocery store prices. It was the first of the month. They accept EBT. The place was absolutely packed with people filling up their carts because their cards had just be refilled. I love shopping there because I like bargains, and I know the true story behind the “expiration date” hoax. These people were shopping there because it is the only way they can make their EBT benefits last a month. I didn’t see a single “moocher” or “taker” in the place.

  6. 6.

    the Conster

    February 11, 2014 at 5:28 pm

    @efgoldman:

    He’s smooth, and I don’t trust him. He’s a CEO type through and through, and yes, Coakley is a terrible campaigner. She’s too diffident.

  7. 7.

    ruemara

    February 11, 2014 at 5:29 pm

    @Litlebritdiftrnt: Some of us don’t eve get the EBT, since our poverty wages are too high. Those outlet/99¢ stores can be a godsend.

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    February 11, 2014 at 6:18 pm

    Have I mentioned recently that I love being able to say “my SENIOR Senator, Elizabeth Warren”?

    Even better. Although I wish Teddy were still around, she’s done a great job so far, and it would be super-dee-duper awesome if there were more like her.

  9. 9.

    kindness

    February 11, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    Lucky you. I have two Democratic Senators but one of them is DiFi. She’s only nominally a Democrat. But I love Barbara Boxer. She’s great.

  10. 10.

    SFAW

    February 11, 2014 at 6:23 pm

    @efgoldman:
    I don’t think Baker’s a closet TeaHadi, but as with Conster, I don’t trust him.

    ETA: Do we think Coakley could possibly run such an awful campaign, again?

    1) Go with what you know.
    2) Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice … teenage wasteland won’t get fooled again
    3) She won’t make the same mistakes. (But the new ones will be awesome.)

  11. 11.

    Cervantes

    February 11, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    No discussion about raising the minimum wage is complete without this.

  12. 12.

    Cervantes

    February 11, 2014 at 6:30 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Do we think Coakley could possibly run such an awful campaign, again?

    We don’t think that. We know it.

  13. 13.

    Sophist

    February 11, 2014 at 6:40 pm

    My only wish is that the camera crew had also fronted some low-wage workers who weren’t people of color/immigrants (you know that’s what the ‘wingers are going to whinge about)…

    Whatever the hell for? The wingers were always going to whine about it, and giving them a chance be racists as well as classists while they whine is never a bad move.

  14. 14.

    mclaren

    February 11, 2014 at 7:17 pm

    Counting down to the moment when the usual kooks and cranks and crackpots (eemom, burnspbesq, mnemosyne, Yutsano, Omnes Omnibus, martin) proclaim that Elizabeth Warren is a “grifter” and a “professional grievance collector” and “a paid Chinese agent” just like Glenn Greenwald, Ed Snowden, Naomi Wolf, et al. in 3…2…1…

  15. 15.

    Chyron HR

    February 11, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    @mclaren:

    Any moment now! It’s inevitable! mclaren is definitely not a shrieking psychotic halfwit with no discernible grasp on reality!

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 11, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    @mclaren: FWIW I think Warren is doing very well and is likely to be a fantastic senator, but please proceed, mclaren.

  17. 17.

    Ripley

    February 11, 2014 at 8:49 pm

    @mclaren: You’re thinking of that other blog you frequent, Barely Legal Juggfucklers.

  18. 18.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 11, 2014 at 8:54 pm

    @mclaren: Please link to any time I have called anyone a professional grievance collector or called Greenwald, Snowden, or Wolf a grifter or stand revealed for all time as a liar.

  19. 19.

    Cervantes

    February 11, 2014 at 11:50 pm

    @mclaren:

    the usual kooks and cranks and crackpots (eemom, burnspbesq, mnemosyne, Yutsano, Omnes Omnibus, martin)

    Leaving aside the (apparent) fact that you do not like what all these people write, can I ask for some objective basis upon which I should conclude that they have something in common? Or did you not mean to suggest as much? (Thanks.)

  20. 20.

    taras

    February 12, 2014 at 4:45 am

    why so many sad faces,cowboys and cowgirls??you gotta learn to see the trees. I’m very impressed with what little I’ve seen/read/heard from her. and then someone got me he hella geyed last night so I ended up watching

  21. 21.

    Sasha

    February 12, 2014 at 1:55 pm

    Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlor, a fixture in South Florida, will be raising its minimum wage to $10.10 at the end of the month.

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