2013 Capitol Update - Week 1 - State of the State, Committee Assignments

George Wilson January 30, 2013 at 07:40 pm

The Republican leadership under the House Speaker David Ralston has made an ethics proposal that would stifle free speech. He does this by expanding the definition of a lobbyist to include many of the unpaid issue advocates. .These citizen volunteer advocates would be forced to pay a fee of $300.00 to register as lobbyists .the measure is objected to by Common Cause, Tea Part activists, and other conservative groups.
I Guess the Republican legislatures don't want to be bothered by the great unwashed electorate. You know the group that pays the legislators salary. Republicans can get by with this arrogance because of the gerrymandered districts that protects them from the voters' wrath.

George Wilson January 30, 2013 at 09:27 pm

Here are the numbers that show how out of touch and extreme our congressional delegation is from Georgia and our local state legislature.
Polls show that the vast majority of Americans support the president's reforms. Just check out the numbers from the latest New York Times poll: Americans support an assault weapons ban 53-44 Americans support a ban on high-capacity magazines 63-34 Americans support a national gun database 78-20 Americans support universal background checks 92-7 Given the gerrymandering of districts, it's not much you can do in Georgia except express your views on deaf ears.. Here’s what Congress can do right now to reduce gun violence: Require a criminal background check for every gun sold in this country. Stop the sale of military-style assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Make gun trafficking a federal crime with harsh penalties.

George Wilson February 5, 2013 at 08:38 pm

The right-wing ideologues who have captured the Republican Party have managed to make "union" a dirty word and politicians are afraid to show overt support for unions either in rhetoric or in policy initiatives.
According to 2010 census data, 48% of individual wage earners make less than $25K. This is the infamous 47% that Romney disparaged. Those that make less than $40K include fully 2/3 of the work force. In other words, over half the country doesn't make enough money to last past one paycheck. But yet, corporate profits are at all time highs. The DOW is bouncing off of 14,000 in the middle of a terrible economy. There are several trillion dollars of corporate profits sitting in bank accounts , and there are more millionaires and billionaires than ever. We need to raise the minimum wage in Georgia. We need to change right- to work -laws in Georgia but retain the elements that people don't like about unions. Some examples would be; protecting incompetent workers stop forcing employers to pay people to do nothing, and stop out-of-control benefits.At the same time make it easy and encourage labor to organize to obtain other things like better working conditions and higher wages. This compromise could give labor a fair shot at organizing labor in the south and Georgia. Why aren't the Georgia legislature addressing issues like this to increase jobs and raise the economy by providing more purchasing power for the average worker?