<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Following is my letter that appears in today's Galveston County Daily News. They edited out</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">everything after the sentence ". . . but the minimum wage hasn't been raised since 1997."</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times New Roman; min-height: 21px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">A Few Words on the Minimum Wage</DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">June Bennett Larsen</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>In 1920 $5.15 an hour would have been a princely sum for a working man or woman. It wouldn’t have been too bad in the late 1960’s and 70’s. But in this new millennium in the year 2006, $5.15 an hour will seldom get you a prescription filled on this Administration’s Medicare D program. Not to mention health care insurance. Or to put it another way, it takes a full day’s pay to put gas in your car.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>As an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the amendment to raise the minimum wage passed in the Senate a few days ago--but not with the help of the two Texas Senators: Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. We in Texas owe them absolutely nothing except to see them not re-elected when their terms are up. Ms. Hutchison’s is up this year. When you are casting your ballot in November, remember that Senator Hutchison did not care enough about you to raise the minimum wage, so why should you cast your vote to see her re-elected? And two years hence, the same will be true of Mr. Cornyn, a Republican with a core as hard as can be seen prancing around Washington these days.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>Although the amendment passed in the Senate with 52 Senators voting for it, it <FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#060033">fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage under a procedural agreement. Democrats have petitioned for the bill to come to the House for a vote.</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#060033">Congress constantly votes themselves a raise, but the minimum wage hasn’t been raised since 1997. Despite the Democrats’ best efforts, they are outnumbered in Congress by hard core Republicans who fight against raising the minimum wage in our country. Republicans look up to the very rich and give a plethora of tax exemptions to corporations and high income citizens, but to average folks they simply look away. Remember this in November 2006 and 2008.</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times New Roman; min-height: 21px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times New Roman; min-height: 21px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times New Roman; min-height: 21px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times New Roman; min-height: 21px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>