CONSERVATIVES ARE CONFUSING INDIVIDUALS…?

 

…Confused Republicans?????????

 

 

 

So many times I wish that the Republicans would just stop and listen to themselves.

 

Do you feel as I do about those people that don’t believe in having a minimum wage?  Or the ones that don’t believe in raising the current minimum wage, even though it’s been 4 years since the last adjustment?

Well, if you listen to these individuals, mostly conservatives, they all do seem to support the goals of promoting:

·       Work over dependency

·       Reducing the cost of social welfare programs

·       The fostering of economic growth

·       The strengthening of America’s families.

Guess what?  Raising the minimum wage to a level of over $10.00  an hour would do more than that.

And for your information, according to a recent study, Wal-Mart’s base employees could all have their wages increased to $18.00 per hour, and it would only cause Wal-Mart’s prices to increase by 2%.

But of course, Wal-Mart management has refused to even comment on the study.

And as expected, the House Republicans recently voted unanimously against raising the federal minimum wage up from the current $7.25.

A December Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 53% of self-described conservatives supported a minimum wage increase, (while only 38% disagree). But just as most Americans, and most Republicans, do not want to repeal Obamacare, they just want it fixed and improved, the GOP is once again just ignoring their own party’s members regarding the minimum wage.

Now, here in Silicon Valley, a Mr. Ron Unz, is a multi-millionaire Republican that had founded a mortgage software company that was acquired by Moody's, the securities ratings company. But Mr. Unz is not one of the anti-minimum wage Republicans. 

In fact, today, Mr. Unz is supporting an initiative to raise California’s minimum wage to $12 an hour.

His reasoning is that Unz argues that a minimum wage hike, “would function as a massive [California] stimulus package.” He told ABC News that if the national minimum were increased to $12, “probably between $150 billion to $175 billion a year would go into the pockets of the lower-wage families that spend every dollar they earn. It would cause a tremendous boost in economic demand.”

Mr. Unz is a man that thinks well beyond the basic issue of the wages themselves. 

His point about raising the minimum wage is that it takes the focus off of the government making up the difference with today’s social programs.  He points to the fact that the US government, “through wage subsidies in the tax code, Medicaid and food stamps, is now conferring substantial benefits on employers of low-wage labor”.  And this government support would diminish with a major increase in the minimum wage.

“One of the strange things in our society right now is that we have all these low-wage workers…..,” Unz said, “and because they earn such small wages, the government subsidizes them with billions or tens of billions of dollars of social welfare spending that comes from the taxpayer. It’s a classic example of businesses’ privatizing the benefits of their workers while socializing the costs.”

But do the rank & file Republicans have the ability to think beyond their noses about the broader effects of increasing the minimum wage?

Apparently not.

House Speaker, John Boehner, House Budget Chair, Paul Ryan and Florida Senator, Marco Rubio, all key Congressional House Republicans, say that “Increasing the minimum wage will cause job losses.”

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) does agree that there will be an initial job loss for new employees.  This will be for making up for the initial increased expenses of the employers.  What the Republicans do not say is that it will immediately raise over 1 million working people out of poverty.  In addition, after the market adjusts to the increased wages, new jobs will start opening up again, and these will be jobs at the higher wage levels.

The GOP seems to always forget that the nation’s situation is the following: 

·       Inflation and the “cost-of-living” does not stop increasing as wages stay stagnant.  Just to keep up with inflation, the minimum wage today should be $10.10.

·       However, also per the CBO, as the US employees are the most productive in the world, if the minimum wage had kept pace with today’s American productivity, it would be $21.72.

So, “How many people would a minimum wage increase help?”

Well, a study by the White House Council of Economic Advisers found that a fully phased-in $10.10-an-hour minimum would give 28 million workers a raise, “including 19 million making less than $10.10 and another 8 million with wages just above $10.10 who would benefit from the ripple effect.”

Nearly half of the benefits would go to households making under $35,000, and, contrary to the claims of many opponents, “only 12% of minimum wage beneficiaries are teenagers.”

E.J. Dionne this week wrote: "Conservative politicians really need to ask themselves: If they refuse to raise the minimum wage and at the same time insist on cutting health care and wage-support programs, are they not consigning millions more of their fellow citizens to live in poverty?  Most Americans reject this view, and that includes most of those conservatives who believe in work, family and personal responsibility."

Copyright G.Ater  2014