New Democrat Network | Title: "Two Jobs"

V/O: “Dear President Bush: It’s been a long day. My kids are in bed, and I would like to rest, too. But with a minimum wage of five fifteen an hour, it’s impossible. I have to go to my second job. The Democrats want to raise the minimum wage to $7 an hour. But you and the Republicans oppose it. What a shame. Sincerely, a hardworking Latino.”

Economy Improving Under Bush

Democrat Commentator Said Bush Economic Policy “Stunning Empirical Success.” “I’m a Democrat … But I’m also an objective financial commentator. With stocks at two-year highs and interest rates … near all-time lows, I can’t help [but] reach a different conclusion from Mr. Bush’s critics: The economic policies pursued by this president have been a stunning empirical success. … The Bush economic policies have worked beyond what anyone could have hoped for. Or, to put it in parlance my party might understand, This time it’s not the economy stupid.” (James J. Cramer, Op-Ed, “Bush’s Rising Stock” The Wall Street Journal, 1/15/04)

Economy Has Created More Than 1.5 Million Nonfarm Payroll Jobs In Last 10 Months. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics Website, “National Employment, Hours And Earnings,” www.bls.gov , Accessed 7/15/04)

ü Factcheck.org Says Economy Creating More Jobs In High-Paying Industries. “Now that the economy is growing and creating new jobs, John Kerry has been saying that the quality of those jobs is ‘much lower’ than the quality of jobs that have been lost. A recent ad by some Kerry allies even shows a middle-aged man reporting for his new job wearing a paper hat at a seedy-looking burger joint. Well, hold on -there’s strong new evidence to the contrary. A new set of numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually shows solid growth in employment in relatively higher -paying occupations including construction workers, health-care professionals, business managers, and teachers, and virtually no growth at all in relatively lower-paying occupations including office clerks and assembly-line workers. It’s the most detailed breakdown yet - looking at 154 different job and industry groupings. These statistics are a FactCheck.org exclusive - supplied to us by BLS at our request and not previously published.” (“Economy Producing Mostly Bad Jobs? Not So Fast,” Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Factcheck.org, 7/9/04)

Gap Between Rich And Poor Narrowed Between 2001 And 2002. “Using money income only, income inequality - the gap between rich and poor - showed no change … However, using the four alternative income definitions, income inequality declined over the 2001-2002 period.” (United States Department Of Commerce, “Poverty, Income See Slight Changes,” Press Release, 9/26/03)

Editorial Criticizes Plan To Increase Minimum Wage. “John Kerry says he wants to raise the minimum wage to $7 an hour from $5.15, and his proposal has us thinking: Why stop there? … The reason, as Mr. Kerry well knows, is that wage floors aren’t manna from heaven. Here on Earth, they tend to price certain kinds of labor out of the job market. … This is one of the most settled propositions in economics, second only perhaps to free trade. Sure, Mr. Kerry has found a few economists willing to lend their credibility to his proposal, but even they don’t deny that some people may lose their jobs – which is why they don’t want to raise the minimum too high. The debate is over how many poor people Mr. Kerry would throw out of work. … The minimum wage gambit sends a bad signal about the direction of Mr. Kerry’s economic policy. It is one of the mustier items in the liberal playbook and suggests a candidate who dances to the tune of unions rather than thinks creatively about how to reduce poverty.” (Editorial, “The Wages Of Politics,” The Wall Street Journal, 6/24/04)

Minimum Wage Has Harmful Effects On Poor. “The fact is that the vast bulk of economic research demonstrates that the minimum wage has extremely harmful effects on the very people it is designed to aid - the poor.” (Bruce Bartlett, Op-Ed, “Minimum Wage Hikes Help Politicians, Not The Poor,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/27/99)

And Minimum Wage Increases Result In Employment Losses. “Increases in the minimum wage add almost nothing to the incomes of poor families. There are two reasons for this. First, employment losses reduce the incomes of some workers more than the higher minimum wage increases the incomes of others. Second, the vast bulk of those affected by the minimum wage, especially teenagers, live in families that are not poor. Thus a study by economists Richard Burkhauser and Martha Harrison found that 80% of the net benefits of the last minimum-wage increase went to families well above the poverty level; almost half went to those with incomes more than three times the poverty level.” (Bruce Bartlett, Op-Ed, “Minimum Wage Hikes Help Politicians, Not The Poor,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/27/99)

Minimum Wage Increases Reduce Education, Training, Increase Long-Term Unemployment For Low-Skilled Adults. “The minimum wage reduces education and training and increases long-term unemployment for low-skilled adults. Messrs. Neumark and Wascher found that higher minimum wages cause employers to reduce on-the-job training. They also found that higher minimum wages encourage more teenagers to drop out of school, lured into the labor force by wages that to them seem high. These teenagers often displace low-skilled adults, who frequently become semipermanently unemployed. Lacking skills and education, these teenagers pay a price for the minimum wage in the form of lower incomes over their entire lifetimes.” (Bruce Bartlett, Op-Ed, “Minimum Wage Hikes Help Politicians, Not The Poor,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/27/99)

National Federation Of Independent Business (NFIB) Says Mandatory Wage Increases Hurt Small Businesses, Their Employees. “Mandatory wage increases hurt not only small businesses, but their employees as well. Big corporations do not have to absorb the cost because most minimum wage jobs are offered by small businesses. Government manipulation of the starting wage has failed as tool of social and/or economic justice. It has not been proven to reduce poverty or narrow the income gap, and puts a stranglehold on America’s top job creators: small businesses. The overwhelming majority of economists continue to affirm the job-killing nature of mandatory wage increases. Mandatory minimum wage increases end up reducing employment levels for those people with the lowest skills.” (National Federation Of Independent Business Website, www.nfib.com http://www.nfib.com, Accessed 11/7/03)

Kerry Out Of Touch With American Workers

In 1990, One MA Union Leader Said Kerry Had “Demeaning” Attitude And Treated Workers “Like Schoolchildren Coming In For Recess.” “Domenic Bozzotto, head of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Local 26, said that Kerry exhibited a ‘demeaning’ attitude in dealing with the union on housing trust legislation pending in Congress, which would enable unions to bargain for housing assistance from employers. As a result, the leadership is opening up endorsements to Republican candidates for statewide office this fall. Bozzotto, describing a visit by union leaders to Kerry’s office last fall, said, ‘He treated us like schoolchildren coming in for recess.’” (Steve Marantz, “Workers: Kerry Demeaned Us,” The Boston Globe, 3/1/90)

In 1994, President Of MA AFL-CIO said Members Were “Quite Perturbed” With Some Of Kerry’s Actions. “‘We’ve got a lot of questions for Senator Kerry,’ said Joe Faherty, president of the 400,000-member Massachusetts AFL-CIO … ‘Some of us are disappointed about what we’ve heard from him lately,’ Faherty said. ‘And some of our other members are quite perturbed.’” (Bob Hohler, “Kerry Defining Voice, Vision While Looking Ahead To 1996,” The Boston Globe, 12/11/94)

In Late 1990s, Kerry Called For Ending Teacher Tenure, Attacking “Stultifying Collective Bargaining Agreements.” “Kerry’s supporters at the teachers’ union were aghast when, during the course of proposing a program of education reform, he called for ending teacher tenure. In a speech, Kerry attacked the school bureaucracy and ‘stultifying collective bargaining agreements’ with teachers’ unions.” (David Corn, “Defining John Kerry,” The Nation, 7/16/01)

ü Teachers’ Union Official Questioned Kerry’s Convictions And Said He “Leans More Elitist Than Populist.” “‘This is how he paid us back,’ says a teachers’ union official. ‘He leans more elitist than populist, and he tries to be ever-enigmatic. He defies people to clarify him as a traditional liberal. Makes you wonder where his convictions are.’” (David Corn, “Defining John Kerry,” The Nation, 7/16/01)

In 1999, Another MA Union Leader Said Kerry Displayed “Detachment From The Everyday Worker.” “In a sign of the high stakes of the overhaul plan, a Massachusetts union leader reacted angrily yesterday to reports from Washington lobbyists that Kerry had suggested to Democratic colleagues that softening their pro-labor stance could help overcome Republican opposition to the measure. ‘I suggest to the senator that he negotiate on somebody else’s back, not on ours,’ said Rich Gambino, business manager of Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. ‘He has once again shown his detachment from the everyday worker.’ Kerry denied suggesting in a closed-door meeting with Senate Democrats that they consider restricting labor’s ability to help fund federal elections. He noted that he has voted regularly against measures that would curb political contributions from unions. ‘I’m telling you point-blank, that is not accurate,’ Kerry said of the assertions about his remarks to Senate Democrats. Kerry said he spoke only abstractly about labor issues.” (Bob Hohler, “Game Plan To Ban Election ‘Soft Money’ Blocked By Ky. Senator,” The Boston Globe, 10/14/99)

St. Louis Economist Said Kerry Tax Plan Will Hurt Job Creation. “How exactly would Kerry’s job-creation campaign, which begins by repealing the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $200,000 a year, work? ‘A tax increase in the short run acts as a near-term drag on aggregate demand and slows the rate of increase in jobs,’ said Chris Varvares, president of Macroeconomic Advisers, a St. Louis-based consulting firm that maintains one of the large macroeconomic models of the U.S. economy.” (Caroline Baum, “Kerry’s Tax Plan To Create Jobs Doesn’t Add Up,” Bloomberg.com, 2/24/04)

Kerry Advisor Says Plan Would Create Few Jobs. “[P]eter R. Orszag, an economist at the Brookings Institution whom the Kerry campaign consulted about the plan … [said] the proposal would probably not create many U.S. jobs … ‘In terms of short-term employment growth, there’s very little effect,’ he said.” (Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Kerry Offers Plan Designed To Curb Outsourced Jobs,” The [Baltimore] Sun, 3/27/04)

Plan Wouldn’t Stimulate U.S. Hiring. “As for the Kerry plan, David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor’s, says … it [is] unlikely that Kerry’s tax policy changes would bolster hiring here, even with major changes in the tax code.” (Peronet Despeignes, “Candidates Offer Competing Plans For Job Creation,” USA Today, 3/26/04)

ü Former Clinton Advisor Agrees. “[C]hristian Weller, senior economist for the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said he doesn’t know if the Kerry proposal will have much impact on a company’s decision about where to base a job. ‘Tax cuts typically are a very small component in company’s hiring decisions,’ said Weller, whose colleague Gene Sperling is a former National Economic Advisor in the Clinton administration and a key economic adviser to the Kerry campaign. ‘It won’t necessary [sic] slow the move of companies and jobs overseas,’ said Weller …” (Chris Isidore, “Economists Mixed On Kerry Plan,” CNN.com, 3/26/04)

The same Democrats who oppose outsourcing jobs to cheap foreign countries want to raise the Minimum Wage here.

Only, guess what, raising that wage here makes outsourcing *more* attractive...

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

"Minimum Wage Has Harmful Effects On Poor, Leads To Employment Losses"

Okay, I'll ask again - where is the empirical data that supports these claims (I don't mean op-ed articles - those are opinions, not facts). For that matter - when was the last minimum wage increase, how many jobs were lost because of it, and where were those jobs lost? I've searched for the data & can't find it - leads me to treat these claims as 'urban myth'.

The old hat trick like clinton used-stun 'em with big numbers ploy!!!!
Remember he said among other "big" numbers, that 10 million less teen-age pregnancies since he was pres?
And he was always throwing out non-referenced numbers in the millions!
22 million jobs "created", yet no proof.

Other than a long list of dem lies by the RNC, I HOPE AND PRAY they can put out a huge, hard campaign of truth to counter all the lies, a vivid and colorful statement of truth.
Wish they would explain WHY France "hates" us, because of the money connections thru the French banks OIL for Food program fees charged!!!
I think if a lot of the "whys" were explained EXTREMELY SIMPLISTIC, could halt some of the lies.
And all the other dem talking points used now, that is theri best ddefense, instead of the usual rhetorical, broad words.

As always, time to pull out the old Rush Limbaugh strategy for deabte on minimum wage. If $7/hour is good, why not $8? If $8 is good, why not $10? $20? $100? Where do you draw the line?

The same Democrats who oppose outsourcing jobs to cheap foreign countries want to raise the Minimum Wage here.

Hey, it worked in France, didn't it?

OK, I once had a job which I would have given to a pair of out of work hispanics for $5 per hour. This would clearly have led to them having more money.

They insisted that they could not do the job for less than $7 per hour. So I put my gloves on and did the job myself.

This same scenario could be played out in industry, with the law stipulating that the higher pay is mandatory and the employers having the role of this humble homeowner with a job to be done. This is not rocket science.

In olden times one used to get oneself financially/materially established (at least to a degree) before getting married and generating progeny. This old tradition has always made a ton of sense. When was it lost, in the 60s or much earlier?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.