Bush Throws a Bone to Working Families

Posted by Bob Geiger at 7:12 AM on December 20, 2006.

Here's a snippet from George W. Bush's weekly radio address on Saturday in which he tries to tell hourly workers that there's cause for economic joy this holiday season:

"America's working families also received another bit of holiday cheer this week: We learned that real hourly wages rose by 2.3 percent over the past year. That may not sound like a lot, but for the typical family of four with both parents working, it means an extra $1,350 for this year. At the same time, our growing economy continues to create jobs and that has brought unemployment down to just 4.5 percent. These numbers give all Americans a reason to celebrate: More people are working than ever before, and paychecks are going further than they used to."

And, on the subject of the minimum wage, I wonder if Bush thinks much about how much more "holiday cheer" would exist among today's working families if he had shown some leadership and insisted that his rubber-stampers in the Republican Congress support a hike in the minimum wage instead of rejected it three times in just the last two years.

But I guess that would require Bush to realize that people tend to have greater feelings of holiday joy when they're not working 40 hours a week to live in poverty.

Tagged as: bush

Bob Geiger is a writer, activist and Democratic District Leader in Westchester County, NY. You can reach Bob at geiger.bob@gmail.com and read more from him at BobGeiger.com.