Trump is the most expensive illegitimate president in history. His policies have added one-trillion dollars to the national deficit in only three years. (Where are the “conservatives” now?) Most of his time in office has been spent living the life of a billionaire at taxpayer expense.

His ill-advised tariffs and “tax reform,” which gave additional tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations, have already added more than one trillion; that’s $1,000,000,000,000; to the national debt.

Trump spends more time golfing, partying at Mar-a-Lago and other resorts, and holding hate rallies than he does watching television in the Oval Office; and taxpayers pay for most of it. His daily schedule begins at eleven in the morning when he is in Washington and ends before three in the afternoon. It is easy to understand why nothing has been accomplished by Trump and his circle of sinners in three long years.

The GOP is the party of special interests; period. The federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour. In many of our nation’s cities, three times that amount would be needed to survive. Although right-wing politicians are allowing Trump and his administration to waste millions of taxpayer dollars every month, they continue to ignore the needs of working-class Americans and raise the minimum wage.

They tell us the same old lies; ‘jobs will be cut;’ ‘businesses will close.’ None of this has ever happened when the minimum wage is increased. What does happen is more of our nation’s people have money to spend at retail outlets. Fewer Americans will require state and federal assistance. The quality of the average worker and his or her contributions to their employers is greatly increased.

One other result of raising the minimum wage has been hidden by the government and the mainstream media.

Stress based on financial difficulties is one of the causes of suicide. “The latest study, in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, adds the finding that a higher minimum wage would be an especially strong suicide prevention measure during times of high unemployment.” The study revealed that for every dollar raise in the minimum wage the suicide rated decreases between 3.5 and 6.0 percent, depending on other factors. In cities and states where the minimum wage has been increased, fewer adults between the ages of 18-64 years of age choose to take their own lives.

Years of studies have proven that stress is the biggest killer of men and women between 13 years of age and 60+. I can personally report the effects of stress on even younger children.

I became comatose at the age of five. The cause was a severe migraine headache. My headaches were attributed to the turmoil in my family household. My mother and father were always fighting. He was drunk nearly every day and was unable to keep a job. Therefore, my migraines were the result of extreme stress.

I had a young man who worked for me who was afflicted with epilepsy. I watched on two occasions when extreme stress resulted in seizures.

For every living thing, security is priority number one. An insufficient income is the major cause of stress in millions of American homes. One-half of all Americans struggle with survival; they live below the poverty line or are considered ‘low-income.’ A realistic increase in the minimum wage would be extremely beneficial to nearly 200 million Americans.

Tell your GOP legislators to get off the fat, old derrieres and do the right thing. They were elected to work for us, not for their illegitimate president and their party leaders.

“The Truth Lives Here”

Op-ed by James Turnage

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