George Bush blatantly raises taxes with new labor laws

[sui generis]

It occurs to me that if anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of my income (sometimes as high as 50%) is derived from overtime - and I only get paid straight time, not time and half, then I am effectively paying a regressive tax by not being compensated for a significant chunk of my time. George has just devalued my labor and education and experience and told employers that they can force me to work for free.

I personally think the "six million" number is low - and that it will actually affect tens of millions of Americans. Even so, if those six million are foregoing income so that one million get overtime, it is a tax on those six million, and a rather severe and regressive tax if you consider that anywhere from 15 to 50% of our income is suddenly used to subsidize another dumbya idea.

Yes, Mr. Kerry, I think you need to publicly address this as what it clearly is: raising taxes on the middle class.

[indepat]

1. Implementation of highly regressive schemes is the neocons' job #1:

Shifting the tax burden to the middle class and poor allows additional trillions of dollars of wealth to accumulate among wealthy patrons, including large corporations, and empire-building provides the Halliburtons of the world with hundreds of billions of dollars in mostly no-bid, unlimited-cost-overrun contracts (corporate welfare). Their pandering to a wide range of nuts gives them the necessary base of support from which to launch their regressive-tax and other corporatist schemes.

[elehhhhna]

2. Where's the data on what this will cost in Fedtax & SS contributions?

Not to mention lower overall earings' general effect on the economy, as well as social security payouts (which are based on your top earnngs.)

Chao says Ciao to Ovetime. We say Ciao to Chao.

[indepat]

5. The corporatists don't care, IMHO, how much Federal revenue is lost

as long as their patrons are earning more/increasing their cash flow on which little, if any, federal taxes are paid. Starve the beast, then welsh on promised SS & Medicare benefits.

[Skidmore]

3. We need a general workers strike. Period.

For those of us who are salaried, we have been providing free labor for quite a while now. In my place of employment, at my classification, you are required to get the job done on schedule. You can get comp time, if it is approved, but quite often it is not. When it is approved, it is difficult to find time to use it. Since you can only bank so much vacation time, then you lose it. It's a squeeze on more than one level.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. As union contracts expire, the fight will be on!

Make no mistake, EVERYONE will be hurt in the long run by this! It's another BIG step toward the "New World Order"! The Neo Cons want to equalize pay and working conditions around the world! If they are not stopped, then 20 years from now, you will be working for the same amount of money the people in China are working for! When that happens you will be living and working in the same kinds of conditions, that the people in Red China and India are! The middle class will become extinct! Then there will only be Masters and Slaves!

The more you shop at Wal-Mart, the faster these changes will come to be reality!