Amy Klobuchar - 2020 Presidential Candidate

I will base my vote on a candidates agenda, experience, and ideas...not their management style, their family's ethnic confusion, or whether they listened to Tupac in college.

We have a president in office who has paid off porn stars he cheated on his wife with, won't release his tax returns and has been lying about having business all around the world...in addition to all the crass, childish, immature, and race-baiting things he's said, and continues to say.

There won't be a perfect Democratic Party candidate. There is NO COMPARISON to any of the likely candidates and Donald Trump. Let's not conflate them. Lightyears apart. The President won't even denounce the latest #MAGATerrorist. The guy is a mushroom.

Some people think it’s silly to vote for the character — or what they think they know about the character — of a political candidate, but if you have proof that a candidate is a liar for expediency, or an abuser of people they consider beneath them, it speaks volumes about whether or not they intend to accomplish the things they’re promising you and their actual feelings about you, people obviously beneath them.

If character didn’t matter, Bernie Sanders would be an old crusty Vermonter who’d once put his hat in the ring back in 2016.

In this corrupt American political scene, character coupled with a plan to make life livable for the majority of Americans is what should confront Donald Trump.

Here’s how to treat your staff.

https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-call-living-wage-starts-office

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a ‘living wage’ starts in her office
New York Democrat will pay staffers no less than $52,000 a year

Stephanie Akin
Posted Feb 22, 2019 5:04 AM

Claudia Pagon Marchena, like so many Hill staffers, moonlighted at a Washington, D.C., eatery to pay her rent until she took a job with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She celebrated her last day at her coffee shop job that same week.

That’s because Ocasio-Cortez, who has called on fellow lawmakers to pay their staffs a “living wage,” is making an example out of her own office. The New York Democrat has introduced an unusual policy that no one on her staff will make less than $52,000 a year — an almost unheard of amount for many of the 20-somethings whose long hours make House and Senate offices run.

I remember not too long ago (last 6-9 months) how progressives on this board were pleading to not consider anything but the candidates positions and agenda.

What happened?

It became too much fun to crap on your shitty candidate.

The lowest median salary for staffers is $49.7k, $52k is no where near unheard of.....but kudos to her for setting the floor above the lowest median.

https://www.legistorm.com/salary/analysis.html?utm_source=Registered+LegiStorm+Users&utm_campaign=7a390491de-COE_Wkly_2018-03-22_non_hill_non_pro_non_trial&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_aa20686cb5-7a390491de-83866313

I read today that some interns are actually unpaid, but that was in passing. I’d have to verify it....

I'd say so. There may be an answer in that vast site....but to see a lot of their analytics you have to register.

Could be, but interns are often unpaid. I think there's a distinction between interns looking for good resume stuff and staff.

I was an unpaid intern nurse for almost a year when I was trying to get more eperience in a hospital that couldn’t afford more staff but had great teaching programs. The unpaid internship was even supported/designed by the nurses labor union. It was to the unions benefit as much as it was to the hospitals and my own.

My corporate job has 6 month unpaid internships for college students. The company does pay for these kids housing though, plus they are almost shoe ins for career positions after college.

No idea if the congressional internship is the same but I’ve seen internships pay off very nicely in several career fields. A buddy of mine just graduated law school and is at an unpaid internship at a law firm in DC.

Apprenticeships are similar. My brother was an apprentice for a plumber for many many months learning the trade. He eventually got into their union before leaving after a couple years to deal cards at a casino believe it or not.

Monica Lewinski profited to the tune of about 12 million dollars.

I understand the unpaid intern rationale in for-profit business - which is why I have extreme respect for AOC recognizing that paying her interns a living wage is the only ethical option for a member of Congress.

I also think it’s appalling that in this particular job, with millions swimming through those halls - and those being the halls of the people of the United States of America - these interns are not paid a living wage - and some aren’t paid a dime.

It is disgusting with all the perks those people get that they would either berate and belittle them like that horrid Amy monster or take advantage of practice of non-payment of interns like the profit-making business community.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/09/01/politics/house-interns-unpaid-struggle-trnd/index.html

A link from Lash's link shows a long overdue salary study was due because salaries are all over the board. No central hiring office for staffers(no real oversight) so inequality in salaries abound also. Her link also confirms some staff unpaid.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/398467-congress-demands-new-study-on-staffers-pay

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/klobuchar-harris-need-win-iowa-caucuses-2020/583558/
Iowa Will Make or Break Both Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris



She's not attacking any candidates; not calling them unfit to lead. Just trying to convince voters why she's the best candidate.

WTF is a “living wage?”

Do people without such a thing die?

Nonsensical jargon.

Internships only last about 3 to 6 months and I don't think they receive a salary. Staffers are a different story, they are considered government employees. A salary of $49,000 - $52,000 is considered in the GS 7 step 5 pay range in the D.C./Balto/Arlington area.......Thats entry level at DOD for a 4 year college grad......sounds like great money unless you have to live near your place of employment and plan to buy groceries.

That doesn’t sound like great money at all. And that’s making ~$25/hr.

I do agree that it isn’t good optics to be advocating for a $15 minimum wage and then paying your interns $12/hour like Bernie does or making them work for free like other Congress people. Although I think even the $15 minimum wage programs people have been advocating for include unpaid internships still.

Still in the DC area and other large cities, $15 is not a “living wage”. But it is better than nothing.

I think the real crime of unpaid internships is how it denies opportunities to the poor and middle income. It takes money to work for free. I know that I could never have worked an unpaid internship after graduating college. I had debt and bills and I needed an income. Requiring an unpaid internship as the cost of admission effectively blocks out average Americans from moving into roles that promote rapid advancement.

Some interesting reading: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Maybe Love the $15 Minimum Wage

Craptastic that you say you don’t know what a living wage is. You’re sinking pretty low on the Human Meter there, John Wayne.

I've obviously heard the term before but it's used very loosely.

It's supposed to be a wage that covers basic essentials: food, shelter, clothing, healthcare and "other necessities." This last one is the kicker.

Are cell phones, flat screen tvs, computers, i-pads, bikes, alcohol, ice cream, a trip to the movies, an SUV etc necessities?

Sorry but until it's a lot better defined it's just political jargon to me that is used primarily to misrepresent economic status.

It's similar to lamentations about hunger in America. The statistics are all over the place and misleading to the point where the term "food insecurity" had to be coined to make the discussion somewhat rational.