Democrats Turn to Minimum Wage as 2014 Strategy

C

CaseyJones

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2007
Messages
7,564
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/30/us/politics/democrats-turn-to-minimum-wage-as-2014-strategy.html

Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage.

The effort to take advantage of growing populism among voters in both parties is being coordinated by officials from the White House, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In a series of strategy meetings and conference calls among them in recent weeks, they have focused on two levels: an effort to raise the federal minimum wage, which will be pushed by President Obama and congressional leaders, and a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the ballot in states with hotly contested congressional races.

With polls showing widespread support for an increase in the $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage among both Republican and Democratic voters, top Democrats see not only a wedge issue that they hope will place Republican candidates in a difficult position, but also a tool with which to enlarge the electorate in a nonpresidential election, when turnout among minorities and youths typically drops off.

“It puts Republicans on the wrong side of an important value issue when it comes to fairness,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser. “You can make a very strong case that this will be a helpful issue for Democrats in 2014. But the goal here is to actually get it done. That’s why the president put it on the agenda.”

Top Republicans assert that a wage increase would dampen the economic recovery and indicated after Mr. Obama mentioned the issue in his State of the Union speech this year that they had no intention of bringing a minimum-wage increase to a vote in the House, which they control.

“Why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?” Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said.
Click to expand...
 
Well yeah, if the other side doesn't exactly have a strong argument, they come out looking like the bad guys. Thing is, people who make the claim of 'Well why don't we make the minimum wage a thousand dollars' or something like that ought to realize that people who work minimum wage a. shouldn't make that type of money to begin with and b. given the lack of actual experience needed for low paying jobs, it wouldn't make sense to make it very very high. Plus, good question to ask is where does the money come from to pay workers and maintain an increased minimum wage?
 
Raise it high enough to eliminate ALL WELFARE... then lets see how the moocher class feels when they have to spend their own money to live, on top of being pushed into the higher tax brackets and not receiving all the discounts for government stolen money. How will Marxists, Fascists, and Communists in government, survive... how will they then, buy votes with crumbs?

welfare%20cliff.jpg
 
If congress is going to seriously consider it, why not just raise min. wage to a partial adjustment to inflation? Or would that be showing that the value of the dollar has decreased too much in recent times...?
 
Raising the minimum wage is harmful to the economy because it destroys jobs. Maybe the Democrats will understand this someday. If I were the leader of the Democrat party and I wanted to make some kickass moves, I would call for 2 things:

The first would be for lowering, not increasing, the federal minimum wage significantly, to maybe 75% - 80% of what it is now.

The second would be for a law that gives employers the right to pay their employees anything within the federal minimum wage.

If they did that, they'd pwn the Republicans in elections like they never have before. But alas, I'm not the leader of the Democrat party, or even a Democrat in general, so I don't advocate for such things & I suppose they'll never happen.
 
philipped said:
If congress is going to seriously consider it, why not just raise min. wage to a partial adjustment to inflation? Or would that be showing that the value of the dollar has decreased too much in recent times...?
Click to expand...

No. Inflation erodes the effect of the minimum wage by making the government set minimum so low in real terms that it becomes meaningless since most by that time will be paid more than minimum.
 
gwax23 said:
No. Inflation erodes the effect of the minimum wage by making the government set minimum so low in real terms that it becomes meaningless since most by that time will be paid more than minimum.
Click to expand...
Oh so basically I was thinking inflation should raise min. wage when it actually lowers it?
 
So, their solution to the consequences of printing up too much money is to print up even more money!

/sigh
 
....so they lose the middleclass with barrycare, and think they'll get them back by paying the cashier at the drive-through more? Or maybe they figure that the former middle class will all be working a register at Target for this election cycle?
 
In response, Republicans should offer a brand new jobs bill. The bill would abolish the minimum wage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Occam's Banana
Did Newsom protect campaign donor from minimum wage hike?
Replies
6
Views
956
susano
susano
Swordsmyth
Wave Goodbye To Biden's Minimum Global Effective Tax Rate Of 15% Deal
Replies
0
Views
164
Swordsmyth
Swordsmyth
Brian4Liberty
$20 Min. Wage In California To Bring Higher Prices, Layoffs & Automation
Replies
4
Views
2K
Occam's Banana
Occam's Banana
tebowlives
Back when Kansas Cut Spending and Taxes - UE Rate?
Replies
0
Views
482
tebowlives
tebowlives
DamianTV
Senate Democrats Introduce Bill to Abolish Electoral College
Replies
6
Views
2K
Occam's Banana
Occam's Banana
Back
Top