Opinions
4
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Tuesday, September 3, 2013
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Obama’s choice to seek congressional approval is wise A U.S. military strike targeting Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons has been delayed, pending a congressional vote on the use of military force, according to the Washington Post. The decision to seek congressional approval was made ur iew public when President Barack Obama spoke to reporters at the White House Saturday. “While I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course,” Obama said. Although we are split on whether U.S. involvement in Syria will see significant results, we applaud Obama for seeking congressional approval. Consulting one of the world’s most powerful legislative bodies before an act of war is a wise move. Although Obama never specified what legal precedent he would have used to justify a military strike, we assume it would have been something like the War Powers Resolution of 1973. According to the resolution, a president can send troops to a foreign country without congressional approval for up to 60 days, as long as he reports to Congress. But we are glad that Obama did not resort to justifying military action in Syria with the War Powers Resolution. While Obama has yet to publicly lay out the case for intervention in Syria, we are concerned by the disparity of evidence concerning chemical weapons use in the country. According to the L.A. Times, Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. has evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria.
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“These are facts,” Kerry said. “The primary question is what are we ... going to do about it?” Kerry’s comments are in stark contrast to those of the United Nations, who has yet to release a report saying whether chemical weapons were in fact used. Because the U.N. has not revealed its report, we are pleased that Obama decided to err on the side of caution and consult Congress. But we also acknowlege that even though his decision to wait may be popular, it can lead to negative consequences.
According to USA Today, Congress isn’t scheduled to return from summer break until Sept. 9. Given the time gap, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may be able to prepare for a possible U.S. strike. Even with that possibility, though, we’re glad that Obama has shown he’s trying to avoid a hasty U.S. intervention in Syria. The U.S. may see a more prepared Assad later, but at least we won’t go into Syria without a unified decision. Syria is in the middle of a civil war. We should step carefully before leaping into the chaos.
Obamacare will hurt fast food workers’ minimum wage strike Fast food workers in more than 60 cities decided to strike on Friday. Many corporate chains, including McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King, saw workers set up a picket line to promote a $15-an-hour minimum wage as well as the right to unionize. At a glance, it would appear the strike is a legitimate concern on behalf of the workers to push for increased wages. However, with the looming healthcare registration, trying to raise the minimum wage would be a two-pronged blow to businesses everywhere. With a federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, many Americans are feeling the pinch of underemployment. In short, there are too few minimum wage jobs for the amount of people applying. Visa Inc. released a chart designed to teach
Daily 49er Kristine McGowan Editor in Chief eicd49er@gmail.com (562) 985-7998 Courtney Tompkins Managing Editor Rabiya Hussain News Editor Daniel Serrano City Editor Donn Gruta Asst. City Editor Andrew Spencer Asst. City Editor Shane Newell Opinions Editor Asst. Opinions Editor Jovanna Madrigal Asst. Opinions Editor Nicolas Rodriguez
McDonald’s employees how to live on minimum wage, and the chart clearly shows the corporate disconnect from the top. The figures provided by Visa included $600 in rent, $0 in heating costs and $20 in monthly health insurance costs. These figures also account for the prospective worker to have icolas a second job, which at $7.25 an hour would amount to 74 hours a week, according to the monthly total of income earned in the chart. The average McDonald’s worker at an entry level position would have to work approximately one million hours to match the compensation package of former McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, according to Bloomberg. With this difference in pay scale, the argument
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to raise the wages earned by entry level fast food workers is compelling. On the other hand, with the changes coming in the Affordable Care Act, the push to increase living wages comes at an awkward time as businesses frantically try to include the added costs of providing health care to its employees. According to NBC odriguez News, Delta Airlines will pay out more than $100 million to provide health care for its employees in 2014. As companies continue to feel the sluggish economic recovery, the question remains of whether the added costs to health care will break the fragile economy and create another recession. While it’s understandable that many fast food workers want to see their wages doubled,
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increasing the wages when the economy is slowly returning to pre-recession levels may be ill-advised. The added burden of including comprehensive health care coverage for millions of Americans will lead to even more struggle in the economy. Still, this doesn’t mean that the low wages fast food workers face should go unaddressed. One area that corporations could look to to provide savings is to reduce the amount of profits earned by shareholders rather than workers. As shareholders bear virtually no duty in the day-to-day management of running the corporation, compensation should be diverted more to workers. Nicolas Rodriguez is a senior political science major and an assistant opinions editor at the Daily 49er.
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