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During the 2010 midterms, several far-right U.S. Senate candidates said they either wanted to slash the minimum wage or eliminate it altogether. Each of these candidates, incidentally, lost.
The Republicans’ hostility towards the minimum wage, of course, hasn’t gone away. Michele Bachmann, for example, has argued that eliminating the minimum wage would eliminate unemployment entirely. Asked this morning to defend this claim, Bachmann refused, but conceded she’s consider eliminating the policy as president as part of her efforts to crush “expansion of government.”
Campaigning in Iowa, Herman Cain was reminded of his efforts to combat minimum wage in the 1990s, and was asked for his position on the issue today.
FANG: Do you think the current minimum wage is too high or even necessary?
CAIN: I don’t think the current minimum wage is necessary because most companies are paying higher than the minimum wage. Now you can’t say everybody’s paying higher than the minimum wage but a lot of companies [inaudible].
Remember when the Republican Party used to champion a “living wage”? Its candidates don’t. (As recently as the 1970s, GOP support for wage controls, at least on a temporary basis, was not uncommon.)
I should note, in case this isn’t already clear, that going after the very existence of the minimum wage is pretty out there. I’d like to say such a radical change would be unpopular, but the idea is so far from the American mainstream, I can’t find any polls even asking the question. (Usually, polls ask whether the minimum wage should go up, not whether it should be abolished.)
So, at this point, it looks like two of the leading Republican presidential candidates are willing to do away with the minimum wage. Maybe we can get the rest of the GOP field to go on the record on this, too?
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Han's Solo on June 28, 2011 3:45 PM:
I’m starting to think that Bachman (and much of the GOP field) want America to become a third world country. And if you look at it from the perspective of a sanity impaired religious extremist it makes sense.
If there is no minimum wage poor “people” (in quotations because, come on, are “poor people” really people?) will have to turn to the Church for stupid little things like food and shelter. It will be the old, “You want a sandwich? Okay, I’ll give you a sandwich as soon as you accept Jesus as your personal savior. You don’t want to do that? Okay, then DIAF.”
I don’t think they’ll be happy until Rwanda is sending missionaries to America to spread the word of God.
kevo on June 28, 2011 3:51 PM:
Do intellectual giants wearing Republican stripes understand a healthy capitalistic society is based on continual demand, not continual supply?
The minimum wage promotes demand, and helps grow our capitalistic economy! If Michelle gets her way, wage earners will be making less, and our national economy will contract because demand will plummet as wage earners would no longer go out of their way to demand anything more than items for their refridgerators and gas tanks while trying to stay ahead of their monthly bills!
Minimum wage grows demand because it puts disposable income into the pockets of our Middle and Working Class citizens!
Drop the minimum wage, and more suffering by even more Americans will be the most pronounced outcome! -Kevo
Steve LaBonne on June 28, 2011 3:55 PM:
You're just starting to think that, Han's? They've been at it since Reagan's time.
Mudge on June 28, 2011 3:56 PM:
I await the argument that eliminating the minimum wage will make American business more competitive and jobs that are in India now will come back home. If there is a position that is business friendly and socipathic, they'll take it. I always find it interesting that they advocate social Darwinism yet reject biological Darwinism.
Seitz on June 28, 2011 3:56 PM:
Someone should ask Cain: If firms all pay more than minimum wage, what's the point of getting rid of it?
T2 on June 28, 2011 3:56 PM:
Funny isn't it. Bachmann always cites Founding Father's attempt to abolish slavery (which is untrue) but she wants to abolish minimum wage. So slavery is bad, unless it involves the busboy at Taco Bell.
slappy magoo on June 28, 2011 4:01 PM:
This issue reminds a lot of the so-called "gotcha" questions of 2008, like how much money must you have before you're considered rich" or "how much does milk/gas/bread/doctors' visits cost" "how many homes do you own?"
What I'm trying to say is that nobody is asking the Presidents the right question, the one that would well and truly render them stupid in most Americans' eyes:
What is the current minimum wage?
And then follow up with "gotcha" questions like "what is the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment" and other cost of living type questions. Once presidential aspirants are confronted with the knowledge that most people who live on the minimum wage would be horribly screwed the moment an unknown variable like an illness or injury or calamity hit them, there's no way to support cutting or eliminating the minimum wage without looking like a completely evil douchebag to all but the 28%ers who still think W. was a great President.
Doctor Biobrain on June 28, 2011 4:01 PM:
This is what happens when friends let friends listen to talk radio. Who needs experts when you can more easily get some dude with a microphone to tell you what you wanted to hear?
golack on June 28, 2011 4:03 PM:
Instead of "growing the pie", it's only about "hoarding the pie for yourself"... Yes, a small whole pie is better than a piece of a much bigger shared pie, even if that piece is larger than the small pie.
Mr. Serf Man on June 28, 2011 4:05 PM:
These vile KochSuckers should be sentenced to live for a month on the "minimum wage"
They really do want a permanent underclass
DAY on June 28, 2011 4:06 PM:
There IS a solution to all this "minimum wage" BS- and healthcare, housing, clothing.
Do as an enterprising fellow did last week: Go rob a bank, and wait for the cops to show up. But ask for more than a dollar- apparently, in these inflationary times, you need to get a bigger haul to qualify for ALL the benefits of federal prison!
c u n d gulag on June 28, 2011 4:09 PM:
Republicans:
"Serf"ing Americans since at least 1981. *
*Yeah, I know it's been longer, but I want to tie this down to "The Reagan DEvolution."
wvmcl2 on June 28, 2011 4:11 PM:
Mudge - You know, that's actually a pretty good formulation of the difference between liberals and conservatives in 21st century America.
Liberals accept biological Darwinism and reject Social Darwinism. For conservatives, it's the other way around.
Mr. Serf Man on June 28, 2011 4:19 PM:
Oh Mr. slappy magoo what a concept. If only... If only one of them would have the guts to go on Rachel Maddow. They wont most of them will be Faux nnooze or David (I'm one of you) Gregory's soft ball fest.
Gummitch on June 28, 2011 4:20 PM:
Seitz beat me to it. If most firms are paying over the minimum wage, its removal would have no impact.
There's no point in reminding someone like that why the minimum wage came into effect in the first place. They don't care.
slappy magoo on June 28, 2011 4:24 PM:
I'm going to repeat my answer, not because I think it's just that good, but because all the typos are really steaming my ham...
This issue reminds me a lot of the so-called "gotcha" questions asked of the Presidential candidates in 2008, like "how much money must you have before you're considered rich" or "how much does milk/gas/bread/doctors' visits cost" or "how many homes do you own?"
What I'm trying to say is that nobody is asking the Presidential candidates the right question, the one that would well and truly render them stupid in most Americans' eyes:
"What is the current minimum wage?"
And then follow up with "gotcha" questions like "what is the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment" and other cost of living type questions. Once presidential aspirants are confronted with the knowledge that most people who live on the minimum wage would be horribly screwed the moment an unknown variable like an illness or injury or calamity hit them, there's no way to support cutting or eliminating the minimum wage without looking like a completely evil douchebag to all but the 28%ers who still think W. was a great President.
Trollop on June 28, 2011 4:32 PM:
More monetary terrorism and elitism from the Grand Old Fuckups..
These people need a firing squad..
Redshift on June 28, 2011 4:47 PM:
Instead of "growing the pie", it's only about "hoarding the pie for yourself"... Yes, a small whole pie is better than a piece of a much bigger shared pie, even if that piece is larger than the small pie
I can't remember which blogger wrote this, but it's still great:
"Today's conservatives would be perfectly happy to be living under a bridge eating pigeon roasted on a stick, as long as they could be sure that the people under the next bridge didn't have a pigeon. Or a stick."
Blue Girl on June 28, 2011 5:08 PM:
I wrote something pretty close to what you are referencing about 2 1/2 years ago, Redshift.
"...The malkinite types would rather live under a bridge and roast roadkill on a curtainrod - so long as the person huddled by the next oil-drum-fire over doesn't even have a curtainrod. "
Schtick on June 28, 2011 5:23 PM:
Steve Benen; Remember when the Republican Party used to champion a “living wage”?
This was before big business was lining the pockets of repubs and some dems, and before repubs and some dems lined the pockets of big business.
Han's Solo, Poor people are already begging for food at churches. I've donated to a couple food pantrys at local churches. Maybe the repub churches will require they accept their repub Jesus, but even though this is a very repub area, they don't do that here yet.
Trollop, You've said something I've been wanting to say, but haven't because I'm scared to death the jackboots will kick down my door and drag me off to Gitmo as a terrorist. Course, if they shave my medicare anymore, I just might try it for the healthcare benefits.
crapcha....Kaishu Dentrin...who?
thebewilderness on June 28, 2011 5:56 PM:
Having positioned China as the competing superpower to defeat it naturally follows that minimum wage and child labor laws as well as the entire social safety net must be scrapped in order to compete on a level playing field.
�That�s not the way the world really works anymore,� the Bush aide told the journalist. �We�re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you�re studying that reality � judiciously, as you will � we�ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that�s how things will sort out. We�re history�s actors � and you, all of you, will be left to study what we do.�
Doug on June 28, 2011 8:56 PM:
Republicans sure are counting on the effectiveness of those voter suppression laws, aren't they?
"Do intellectual giants wearing Republican stripes understand a healthy capitalistic society is based on continual demand, not continual supply?" kevo @ 3:51 PM.
No. But then, many famous/infamous money-makers in the 19th and early 20th centuries probably didn't either. When the Indutrial Revolution hit the US, it wasn't so much trying to FIND customers (demand) as it was keeping customers provided with whatever you were manufacturing/distilling/whatever.
With the possible exception of oil providing kerosene for lamps (as well as lubricants, of course), most of the big industries got that way by providing services to OTHER big industries. Iron and steel went to railroads, buildings and steamships. While railroads, assisted by subsidies from the Federal and various state government, did provide passenger services, first and foremost they moved bulk cargo. Coal was used by ALL businesses, only eventually becoming a major factor in heating homes.
Banks catered to businesses. They provide service for the middle and upper classes too, but the number of people in those two catergories, at least until after WWII, was never more than 15-20% of the total population. There was no FDIC, so many people kept any savings at home. Generally, home mortgages or farm loans were the only contact an "average" person would have with a bank before 1940.
Someone wrote of the Bourbon kings of post-Revolutionary France: "They have forgotten nothing and have learned nothing." For Republicans today I guess it would be: "They have forgotten everything and learned nothing."...
craig whynock on October 24, 2011 10:39 AM:
i don't understand all u idits? the minimim wage is killing america. i work at walmart and there good to me. if im short on cash i just dont eat that day. america is to fat anyway. all i need is JESUS to help me & if im a good christan hell provide my spiritul nurishment...u r all socialist!!!
Richie Rich on October 24, 2011 10:45 AM:
I can't understand y'all. The min wage would kill poverty by eliminating poor people that drain the system by forcing them to starve which equals less poor people. we need to return to 1911 cause' 2011 is too futuristic. The Rich EARNED THEY'RE $ the hard way...they were born RICH. The next thing y'all will say is killl the Rich babies...u people are sick...glad my husbands a cop...he tickets u pauppers & lets the rich off without even a warning cuz THEY pay his salary..not some poor moron that works at TacoBell
Thomas Pain on October 24, 2011 10:53 AM:
REVOLUTION is the only way to change...tha's T.Jefferson said & it holds true today. America will continue to decline. We all already in a depression & that "idit" Craig that works at walmart is proof that some, but not all, of the poor are against poor people and want to promote, perpetuate, and prosetylze their own demise...and as for the wife of that cop, i bet he beats her, maybe she has a traumatic brain injury because her post sounds like the ramblings of a syphalitic brain
jamie on November 14, 2011 2:03 PM:
I dare eny of them to live solely on minimum wages. no saveings or other income not only would thay change thare minds but thay wound save tax payers money