In the GOP response to the President's bold speech, Rubio complained-he did a lot of complaining-that the President unfairly has labeled his party of being only about the interests of the rich. He then claimed to have neighbors of all kinds of levels of wealthy-yes, I'm sure you have people struggling on $12,000 a year in his neighborhood. He's not counting the bums he walks over on his way to the Capitol is he?
The GOP is very sensitive to the need to be seen as a party that has the broad interests of the average American in mind. There were a few major surprises in the President's speech: universal preschool, and a call for a raise in the minimum wage to $9. Of course, the GOP hates this idea. Yet how do you give this populist appeal? Boehner claims it actually hurts those at the bottom of the economic ladder:
"I've been dealing with the minimum wage issue for the last 28 years that I've been in elected office," he told reporters. "And when you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it. At a time when Americans are still asking the question 'Where are the jobs?' why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?"
"He argued that raising the minimum wage makes it harder for low-skilled workers to enter the workforce and acquire skills to advance up the ladder."
"Listen, I've got 11 brothers and sisters on every rung of the economic ladder. I know about this issue as much as anybody in this town. And what happens when you take away the first couple of rungs on the economic ladder -- you make it harder for people to get on the ladder," Boehner said. "Our goal is to get people on the ladder and help them climb that ladder so they can live the American dream. And a lot of people who are being the paid minimum wage are being paid that because they come to the workforce with no skills. And this makes it harder for them to acquire the skills they need in order to climb that ladder successfully."
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/boehner-shoots-down-obamas-minimum-wage-hike?ref=fpa
Note how his brothers and sisters are all at different income levels. Like Rubio, he knows people at different economic levels. Apparently this is a new GOP branding strategy.
The argument however, is pretty standard anti minimum wage boiler plate. If you raise the minimum wage then lots of people will be deprived the chance to earn $7.25 an hour. Yet do conservatives like Boehner actually think that anyone can live on $7.25 an hour? As White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in response to Boehner, if they're opposed to raising the minimum wage what's their plan to ensure people who work full time don't live in poverty?
If this were to happen-Obama also called for it to be indexed to inflation-it would give us the highest minimum wage in terms of purchasing power since 1981 and lift millions above the poverty line. Of course many GOPers have found something not to like besides Boehner:
"RYAN: I think it’s inflationary. I think it actually is counterproductive in many ways. You end up costing job from people who are the bottom rung of the economic ladder. Look, I wish we could just pass a law saying everybody should make more money without any adverse consequences. The problem is you’re costing jobs from those who are just trying to get entry level jobs. The goal ought to be is to get people out of entry level jobs into better jobs, better paying jobs. That’s better education and a growing economy. Those are some of the things he talked about and I don’t think raising minimum wage — and history is very clear about this — doesn’t actually accomplish those goals."
"RUBIO: I want to see people making a lot more than $9 an hour in the United States. And the way do you that is through rapid economic growth where people are being paid a lot more than that. $9 is not enough. I think we all would want that. The question is is a minimum wage the best way to do it? And history has said the answer is absolutely not. In fact, the impact of minimum wage usually is that businesses hire less people. That’s the impact of it. They’ll just hire less people to do the same amount of work…We have a lot of history to prove that the minimum wage , raising the minimum wage does not grow the middle class."
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/13/1587381/top-republicans-oppose-minimum-wage/
Yes. Lots of history, none of which either GOPer cites. The idea that minimum wages or higher ones deprive the poor of some great very low paying jobs has a long storied history. The nadir was in the 1980 election when Reagan actually defended his civil rights record at the tv debate with Jimmy Carter by pointing out that he thinks there should be a separate, lower minimum wage for African-Americans.
P.S. Did I not call it? Sumner is so bent out of shape about this that he has already devoted an entire post to denouncing the proposal.
http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=19392&cpage=1#comment-227181
Here's where I predicted this-I didn't necessarily know it'd be this fast:
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-state-of-union-is-good-as-president.html
I just left a comment for Sumner to cheer him up, pointing out that, hey, elections have consequences and that if the American people wanted a low minimum wage they would have voted for Romney.
Jared Bernstein has a great piece in support of the hike
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernstein/obama-minimum-wage-state-of-the-union_b_2674257.html
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