Kentucky Repugs All Vote to Let Your Boss Steal Your Pay

That's not a metaphor.  That's precisely what Teabagger Thomas Massie, 4th District, Candy Barr, 3rd District, Brett Guthrie, 2nd District, Ed Whitfield, 1st District and Hal Rogers, 5th District did yesterday.

Down with Tyranny:

Remember when the GOP used to name bills that were meant to pollute the air, the Clean Skies Act? (Wednesday) Eric Cantor introduc(ed) his Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406), through Alabama puppet Martha Roby. It is meant to deny working men and women overtime pay.

SNIP

Keith Ellison (D-MN) was more succinct: "99% of Americans have seen their income decline during economic recovery. Yet Republican are pushing a bill that ends overtime pay." So was Tony Cárdenas (D-CA): "Tomorrow, we vote on letting companies stop paying overtime. Paying people less for working more? Is that what our country should be about?" Or, as Donna Edwards (D-MD) put it yesterday morning, "The only flexibility in the GOP bill is the flexibility for workers to be abused by their employers." George Miller tweeted this graphic to help make clear what the Republicans are up to:

Needless to say, the Republicans weren't enamoured of Alan Grayson's amendment, the Paid Vacation Act of 2013 and wouldn't even allow a vote. It's worth reading carefully, though, because it highlights the difference between a forward-looking progressive mindset compared to what the GOP is trying to do to further diminish ordinary working families and drag the country back in time.

UPDATE: GOP Law To Abolish Overtime Pay Passes

It'll never get taken up in the Senate, of course, but it passed 223-204, 8 Republicans voting with the Democrats and, shamefully, 3 conservative Democratic whores crossed the aisle in the other direction: Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN). Right after the vote Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) released a joint statement:

    "H.R. 1406, which eliminates the right to overtime pay for overtime hours worked, is a direct assault on one of the most important protections American workers still have. Destroying common-sense labor laws may help big business and campaign donors, but it hurts the millions of working Americans who have been getting by on less and less since the Great Recession.

    "The forty-hour work week was one of the most consequential and hard-fought victories for working people in our nation’s history. Working Americans who earn overtime pay should get it when they earn it. Employers and employees have agreed on this for decades. The bill passed by House Republicans today undermines this basic agreement.

    "The gap between the richest Americans and the rest of us has been widening for years. In the last three decades, average incomes for the top 1 percent went up 277 percent, while average incomes for middle class families only rose by 35 percent. This bill lowers workers’ wages by taking away their hard earned overtime.

    "This will hurt our economic recovery and make Americans’ lives harder. It’s time for Congress to stop wasting time and invest in putting the American people back to work. We should be increasing worker pay, not taking it away."

If you work for a paycheck, you don't count as far as repugs are concerned.  You're there to exploit until you drop dead, because thanks to the Wall Street economy, there are thousands lined up to take your place.