HE’S GOT A PEN, BUT IT AIN’T SO MIGHTY Have you heard? President Obama is raising the minimum wage this morning by executive order. He’s got a pen! It’s a year of action! He won’t wait for Congress! Well, kinda… In an effort to show executive relevancy and tout his remaining clout ahead of what promises to be a highly partisan State of the Union address, Obama will sign an order this morning directing federal agencies to give contracts only to those firms that pay workers a minimum of $10.10 per hour instead of the $7.25 minimum wage. But… The move applies only to employees of firms seeking new contracts. Existing wages for current contractors can even be extended if the other terms of the contract haven’t substantially changed. So how many people are really going to get a boost from Obama’s pen? Team Obama provided no estimates, but waste watchers say that relatively few of the approximately 2 million workers servicing federal contracts are earning under $10.10 per hour anyway. [Bing Pulse is partnering with Fox News to track your opinion live, during tonight’s State of the Union Address, learn how you can participate here.] Man in the mirror - From Ron Fournier: A Pen, a Phone, and a Flailing President - “Obama is right. Polls show the public is growing weary of him, which is a shame because he’s still got three years in office. There are big problems to solve, starting with the lack of social and economic mobility. But that’s the point. If it’s so hard to put a finger on the problem, if the White House seems to ricochet from one slogan to another, lurching from strategy to strategy and consumed by tactics and excuses, maybe the problem is … the man himself. If so, the only question that matters is, can Obama change?” [Watch Fox: Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., appears in the 1 p.m. ET hour to discuss what he hopes to hear during tonight’s State of the Union address] SOTU déjà vu - Gun control, tax and entitlement reform and a hike in the minimum wage were all cornerstones of President Obama’s 2013 State if the Union address. And Obama’s attacks on income inequality date back to 2012. But he has little to crow about on any of these topics. This is not, however, likely to deter Obama from revisiting them all. More. “[President Obama] apparently is going announce that he’s sidestepping Congress even more and simply going to force his agenda on the American people through executive orders -- that’s not the way our constitution works, that’s an abuse of power.”— Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren”] [The latest WSJ/NBC news poll indicates only 16 percent of respondents have an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the president’s term.] Preaching to the choir - The latest Fox News poll finds one third of respondents saying they will pay close attention to tonight’s address. Forty-one percent of Democrats said they were likely to watch or view the speech carefully, compared to 29 percent of independents and 22 percent of Republicans. Further, 28 percent said they may watch at least part of the address, while 23 percent indicated they will likely read about it after the speech. “President Obama shouldn’t be surprised that most voters disapprove of how he’s handled the economy. Likewise, he shouldn’t be surprised that trust in the federal government has fallen to historic lows. After all, the Obama Administration has repeatedly ignored or ‘waived’ laws that proved inconvenient.” –Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in Breitbart OpEd [Watch Fox: Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, discusses tonight’s State of the Union address in the 10 a.m. ET hour]
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:42:55 +0000
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