Will My Daughter Really Have To Scrub School Toilets And Maintain The Boiler?

Newt Is Nuts

If it were up to Republican Presidential hopeful New Gingrich, my eight year-old would be doing just that . . . 

. . . Gingrich recently said at a Harvard Kennedy School of Government seminar that, “It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, in child laws, which are truly stupid." Newt continued, “Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash. . ."

First of all Newt, if my daughter wants cash, she can either wait until she receives her birthday cards in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa, or she can do her chores around the house - not work in her elementary school. Those jobs are for men and women trying to raise their own children. 

According to fresh Bureau of Labor Statistics data, school janitors in the US earn a mean wage of $13.74 an hour, or $28,570 per year - a fair wage for scraping boogers and old gum from desks, cleaning up puke from the floors, maintaining the school grounds and ensuring the school doesn't explode from the inside by cause of faulty boilers. School janitor may not be the highest job in the social ladder, but those people have my respect, unlike Newt, who earned $30,000 per month over almost a 10 year period working as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac, helping to cause the mortgage crisis and the general big fat dump the economy took in 2008, when Newt was advising FM. http://www.thenation.com/blog/164781/newts-cruelest-campaign-replace-school-janitors-child-labor

The man is King Fool amongst a group of amateur court jesters currently courting gullible and fearful conservatives across the country for their vote.

My daughter stayed home sick today - I know it is only parent-teacher conference day here in Greendale, but none-the-less, we missed it because she has the flu. Does that mean she would be docked a days worth of pay? What would the pay be for 8 and 9 year-olds? A candy bar? $2 per day? Who knows? What would low wages for children do to already low and stagnant wages for blue collar workers across the country? Newt doesn't care, as long as he can maintain his credit at Tiffany's and pay a measly 15% on his long-term capital gains tax - that is all that matters to a man like Newt, who feeds off of fear, hate and ignorance.

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Tax The Many, Not The Wealthy

With the "congressional super-committee" failing to come to any deal before their Thanksgiving deadline and going on VACATION it appears that the current payroll tax holiday for workers will expire Dec. 31, and unemployment benefits will run out for nearly 2 million Americans right after the holiday season - but at least those hard-working members of congress get a much-needed vacation after NOT doing their job.

What does it mean for people like you, me and probably every person reading this blog to lose the payroll tax holiday in 2012? Well, if you earned $50,000 in 2011, your taxes will increase by 2%, or about $1,000. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-us-deficit-panel-fails-to-reach-deal-20111121,0,4046832.story

The Republicans refused to budge on raising taxes for the "misfortunate" earning more than a MILLION dollars a year, so about 120 MILLION WORKING-CLASS PEOPLE will have their taxes raised next year. How about that for a trickle-down effect? Sounds more like a "Piss down your back" effect to me, but what do I know, I only went to college for 7 years, work my butt off 55 hours per week and am trying to raise two children with my under-paid, over-worked, under-appreciated public school teaching wife who just saw her salary take a two year freeze and our health insurance go up $4,000 this year.

And all that after she paid $4,000 to receive her Master's Degree in Education (because that is what teachers have to do in order to keep their license current).

So if any of you fiscal conservatives want to lecture me about millionaires being job-creators and trickle-downers, you can kiss my blue-collar, hard-working, clenched-up in anger butt! I am not in the mood.

I will be out most of the weekend, working at my job(s), then collecting signatures to remove that unwanted growth on the hairy backside of Wisconsin known as "Scott Walker".