Posted on 05/08/2015 9:42:14 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
Conservative presidential candidate Ben Carson says the $7.25 federal minimum wage should be raised.
“I think, probably, it should be higher than now,” Carson told CNBC’s John Harwood in an interview Friday.
Carson added that government assistance often provides more than the minimum wage in several states, allowing people to ignore the long-term benefits of a job.
"I don't necessarily blame people for saying, 'Look, I can stay home and make this money, or I can go and work this little chicken job that doesn't have many benefits,’ ” he said.
"However, recognize that if you go and take that chicken job, you gain skills, relationships, the possibility of moving up the ladder. So a year or two or five down the road, you're no longer in that position. This is what people have forgotten."
His stance on the minimum wage makes Carson an outlier among the likely field of GOP opponents and comes with Democrats looking to make it a key issue in the 2016 election.
Among fellow GOP contenders Carly Fiorina, former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.) and Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), Carson is the only one backing a wage hike.
Two likely contenders, former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.) and Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.), don’t back an increase either.
Bush said that the federal government shouldn’t raise the wage during an event in March. Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in October that he doesn’t believe the minimum wage “serves a purpose.”
Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), who is weighing a bid, would be the only other Republican candidate open to raising the minimum wage. His advisers told The Hill in February that his stance could help him earn support from working families.
Democrats believe the issue will be a winner for them in 2016, with senators earlier this week proposing a measure that would raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020.
That figure goes well beyond the $10.10 wage that Democrats failed to pass when they controlled the Senate.
President Obama initially suggested a $9 minimum wage before backing $10.10. The administration is now supporting the $12 push.
It's what the corrupt and greedy AH's will run from and never admit.
They don't want to talk about the real issues.
The corrupt U.S. Gov backed and supported by big biz is adding the equivalent of 1 or 2 *major* cities of nothing but foreigners every single year.
WTF did people think would happen?
Import the equivalent of nearly 2 major cities per year of low wage green carder's, illegal's, Muslims and others from who knows where and they turn around and export tens of hundreds of thousands of jobs to off shore low wage labor land.
People think things are bad now? They have no idea what's coming.
Maybe his handlers haven’t informed Carson that price controls (minimum wage) isn’t a conservative position, as if a conservative would need to be told.
He’s no rocket scientist.
He lost my vote, but at least Mr. Carson gives honest non-poll tested answers.
This just doesn't work. The steel industry tried this and managed to get imported steel to just about stop. The estimate is that this saved about 5000 US jobs. Unfortunately, everyone who bought a car, refrigerator, or anything else made from steel paid a higher than necessary price because of it. The result is a transfer payment from all consumers to about 5000 steel workers.
Japanese steel was cheap because we bombed their capital stock into oblivion during WWII and then replaced it after the war. Yet, US producers tried to compete with factories still using 1890's technology. If you buy into the United Steel Workers argument that Japan was selling steel in the US below their cost, we should have bought all we could and driven the Japanese firms into bankruptcy. The arguments offered by the companies and the unions were specious and without merit, other than flag waving. The real motivation was to forestall modernization which would have lowered the demand for labor, but at a fairly high capital cost.
Tariffs and quotas simply don't work. They almost always benefit some small segment of the economy at the expense of some much large segment.
And yet it works.
Heck, it could be applied to federal agencies — call the head of each one in for an interview and if they can't give you a one-paragraph justification of their agency derived from the Constitution, shut the agency down. It works with government programs as well, like, say, ethanol subsidies.
In short, I fail to see how simple
is a bad thing in this case.
Simple is a NECESSARY thing in this case. We have strayed from Constitutional government, and amassed an enormous debt, and have nothing but misery to show for it.
Show this man some mercy & dignity. Tell him to leave the race.
BUMP
But hey, why stop at $12 minimum? Why not make the minimum wage the same as a congressional representative? Put it to a vote; every American must be paid no less than what their congressional representative receives. And shoot, make it have the same benefits too. Flop that on the table and make the liberals eat their words by voting it down.
And when liberals launch attack ads about how Republicans don't want to lift people up, point to the great bill sent that would reward every hard working American with salary and benefits fit for a congressional representative. Blast back that liberals voted it down, once more cementing their hold on the 1% where they constantly go to for fundraising events on the taxpayer dime.
Yet I do not see “conservatives” arguing that it needs to be deleted, as it is against natural rights.
Just like SS, MW is some kind of sacred cow that no one dares touch. All from FDR era and thinking.
An open border gloBULList progressive income tax lover has spoken.
Well his education and experience is in medical. He needs some good advisors and brush up on the issues (best to be done before he runs).
Thank you.
“An open border gloBULList progressive income tax lover has spoken.”
LOL. Mr. Alinsky has spoken!
Ben Carson is indeed a fine man, and I would not hesitate to vote for him if he was actually the GOP candidate.
My mother LOVES him.
There is a reason. We have personal connections to him. He fixed my nephew decades ago, and he was truly like a saint to my family. I don’t mean he was just a great surgeon - he was very humble and comforting to them.
I’m not sure that is a bad thing.
Carson needs to BACK out of this election season.
I’d do SO much more than touch the sacred cow, I’d make hamburgers outta it!
Not to mention that most of the USW membership works outside of the
steel making business So, they (Bush) actually hurt more steelworkers, than they(he) helped.Not only was the Jap,Korea , Dutch steel less expensive, the quality was better, more consistent .
Oh yeah and the “quality” of imports has never been better. LOL
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