Unemployment is High? Blame Pelosi.

So, the American People supposedly "sent a message" in the 2006 Congressional elections by putting Democrats in control. The Democrats basically claimed that they were going to fix everything, ever wrong, everywhere. With all the promises and all the hype, it turns out that the Democrats did very little to address anything. No surprise there. (I'll save the rant on them bugging out instead of voting on energy policy while Gas is nearly 4 bucks a gallon)
One "accomplishment" they tout was that they increased the minimum wage. Woo hoo! Now you are forced to pay an unskilled employee, no matter what the job, 6.55/hr. By 2009, it will be 7.25. On the face of it, that always sounds great. Especially since the media and Liberals have made phrases like "living wage" and "working families" (no matter how meaningless they are) part of every sound bite regarding wages or taxes.
Right-thinking folks have always warned against raising the minimum wage because of the unintended consequences. A wage is an agreement - the employer is willing to pay it, and the employee is willing to work for it. Forcing one side to pay an arbitrarily set rate ruins the market force of supply and demand. It's economics 101.
Now, the Democrats have been crowing about this wonderful victory for "working families"... however, if you look in recent economic news, you'll see that jobless claims are at their highest point in four years. Huh? What? How can this be?
Well, what happens in the Summer? Tons of students try to find Summer jobs. Think some of those are minimum wage jobs? As an employer, can you hire the same number of students for the summer if you have to pay them more? Let's see. Gas costs a fortune. That, coupled with other factors, has caused the prices of supplies, raw materials, etc. to increase. Again, as an employer, with ALL of your costs skyrocketing... can you hire all those kids you were going to?

Umm, no.

When wages are artificially, and arbitrarily increased by our lovely Congress, it makes for great sound bites. They can talk about how they have the interests of the "working class" or "working families" at heart. How they have provided (as if by magic!) "a living wage".

Except, they haven't. All they've done is contribute to higher unemployment, lower profits for small businesses, higher prices for consumers, and even lower tax revenues for local and state governments when people buy less.

Oh, but the Democrats are the party of "the little guy". Not like those "evil Republicans" who are "in the back pocket of the evil corporations"...

It makes me want to puke. Seriously, next year, when some teenage kid (who's basically looking for iTunes money) applies to take out trash and sweep the floor in your tiny restaurant that barely allows you to pay rent... is that job gonna be worth 7.25 an hour? Are you going to be able to pay that? And keep your doors open? Or not have to raise your prices? Hmmm?

And we're supposed to elect one of these geniuses to the Presidency? A boob who is now touting "A 1000-dollar energy credit" to "working families" to be paid for with... wait for it... "Windfall profits" of the oil companies. What is this, Venezuela? 1940's Italy? Since when does the government get to "take" profits from anyone? Sure, they do it through taxation (BTW, the oil companies pay more in taxes than the lower third of EVERYONE in the United States), but Barry O. has even dropped the euphemisms. He wants to "take the profits" of... now, to be fair, Hillary was the first to use that rhetoric back before the primaries. You didn't think Obama actually had an original idea, did you? But seriously, folks... if they can come after oil companies because their profits are "obscene" (their percentage of profit is so low that it would be considered an abject failure in most industries), who's next? WalMart? McDonald's? You?

I can only hope and pray that by November, people have paid enough attention to realize that if the Dems reach a 60-40 majority in the Senate AND get the presidency... the downhill race for socialism will be ON. And God help us all should that happen.