http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ack-democrat-push-for-10-10-minimum-wage.html President Barack Obama supports an effort by congressional Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage to about $10 an hour, higher than the rate he called for earlier this year, according to a White House official. Proposals from House and Senate Democrats would boost the rate to $10.10 over two years, up from the current $7.25 an hour and more than the $9 proposed by Obama in his February State of the Union speech. The president backs the increase as a way to help working families, according to the official, who described Obama’s support yesterday on condition of not being identified. While Democrats, who control the Senate, overwhelmingly favor the change, it stands little chance of passing in the Republican-led House of Representatives, said Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois. That’s because House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, opposes such efforts, he said. “It’s going to that same room, that little dark room, where Boehner puts all of the bipartisan measures out of the Senate,” Durbin told reporters yesterday after a meeting of Senate Democrats. In a politically divided Congress, the House and Senate have refused to take up certain bills approved in the other chamber. An increase to $10.10 an hour is in measures proposed earlier this year by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Representative George Miller of California, both Democrats. Senate Democrats are packing the legislative calendar this month with bills that appeal to the party’s core supporters, which includes unions, proponents of boosting workers’ hourly pay. Labor Support The wage legislation and a bill passed yesterday by the Senate to bar employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation have strong support from the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor group and a top contributor to Democratic Senate campaigns. Democrats are defending 21 Senate seats in 2014, compared with 14 for Republicans, who need at least a six-seat net pickup to gain a majority in the chamber for the first time in eight years. Labor political action committees have given 87 percent of their $12.1 million in contributions for the 2014 elections to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group that tracks campaign giving. Max Gleischman, a spokesman for Durbin, said that Democrats attending yesterday’s meeting heard from Jason Furman, Obama’s economic adviser; Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute; John Arensmeyer, chief executive officer of the Small Business Majority; and Adam Looney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Raising the minimum wage is “an important economic issue” that sends “a message to working families struggling paycheck to paycheck that we can help them,” said Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat. The Senate bill is S.460 and the House bill is H.R.1010.
This is one of those things that won't happen, so I think it's easy an way to make a political point without any risk.
it can happen in 2014. i know everyone talks about gerrymandered districts, but as long as the healthcare act doesn't really blowup and a lot of premiums come down due to options, this can happen. we have a whole election year before his term is up
He basically gave any efforts to raise the minimum wage the kiss of death by saying he supports raising the minimum wage. It wasn't going to happen, but now it is even less likely because he put his name on it. Thanks Obama.
Because one would barely get you approved for a one bedroom apartment in a small town, and the other could get you a three-bedroom ranch.
"After working full time at Walmart in Paramount, Calif., for 10 years, Martha Sellers, 55, makes $25,400 a year. In the last few years, she said, her managers have been cutting her weekly hours, sometimes to as few as 12 hours a week. With that income, she said, she has to pay her rent in pieces. “If I pay all my rent at one time, then I have $12 to live on and put gas in my car until I get paid again,” Sellers, who attended Thursday’s protest, said." Yeah, increase in minimum wage really helps.
Immature economic proposals such as this one are just intended to stoke the flames of class warfare. This is not a proposal intended to boost our economy, or increase the standard of living in this country in any way. This is a distraction technique and an attempt to reinforce the base of voters (poor people, youth) that form the bedrock of Obama's political coalition. Expect to see countless diversion attempts, such as this, coming out of the White House in the coming days and weeks. Anything to distract from the Obamacare nightmare, the bungled Syria diplomacy where Iran/Russia cleaned our clock, and the deteriorating foreign relations after the NSA revelations. Did you see Jay Carney's press conference on Monday? The press conference was intended to answer questions on Obamacare's failed rollout. The first two points that Carney led out with were both distraction attempts: the employment non-discrimination act and immigration reform. How can anyone trust this administration anymore? It's all about distracting and deceiving.
GAYS! AMNESTY! MINIMUM WAGE! SQUIRREL! Obama should worry more about people getting jobs rather than what jobs pay.
at what point do conservatives realize their economic simplifications taught to them over the last thirty years are wrong?
Free market capitalism is the foundation of the economic miracle that is the United States. Proposals such as this minimum wage distraction chip away at the strength of our economy. Which was stronger, East or West Germany? How are the socialist policies of Europe doing for the economies of Spain, Greece, Italy, Ireland, etc? Why did China's economy start growing at a rapid pace when they began embracing free market reforms? There really is no argument here. It's amusing that people would believe otherwise. Actually, it's just ignorance.
Slaves were used globally, and quite honestly, the cost of providing room and board to slaves probably wasn't less than what sweatshop labor is paid in countries like Bangladesh, on an inflation adjusted basis. Isolation hurts us, in making gains from trade more difficult (transportation cost differential). Where were you educated, if I may ask?
The United States was one of the last western industrialized nations that used slave labor. The U.S. was the only western democracy to use slave labor during the industrial revolution.
