Posted on 01/23/2015 5:46:33 AM PST by reaganaut1
President Obama’s penultimate SOTU was notable for its audacity in demanding an even more expansive role for the federal government. Although trust in government has plummeted during his relentlessly statist administration, the president wants Americans to rally behind his belief that more federal mandates and spending will “turn the page” and make the country great.
I would like to single out one especially wrong-headed idea – that Congress should amend the Fair Labor Standards Act, requiring employers to pay many workers more.
Obama supports increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. In his speech, he argued for it this way: “And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.”
There is much to be said against raising the minimum wage, or even having such a law at all.
...
Pretending that their supposedly compassionate programs have no adverse effects is a well-worn part of the political playbook. Barack Obama can look you straight in the eye and say that everyone gains from following him on the minimum wage, just as he asserted that passage of the “Affordable Care Act” would help millions and hurt nobody.
But what I want to focus on is the way Obama made his pitch: It’s hard to support a family on less than $15,000 per year, therefore politicians should give them a raise.
Those four words illuminate the appeal of minimum wage laws to “progressives.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Straw man. Who said that they could work full time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year?
If FORBES so believes in earning things then shouldn’t they also believe in illegals going home and coming to this country legally and EARNING their citizenship?
That truly is wrong-headed. It suggests that the government is the boss of business, and that is corporate socialism. The government owns the businesses and tells them what to do.
I have no love lost on many of our businesses, however, when they undercut the free market by bringing in illegal immigrants and undercutting prevailing wages. That is just as big an attack on workers as is the government forcing a minimum wage.
The truth is that we have a group of free market small businesses that are trying to make it on their own, but the government kills them with wage laws and competition kills them by hiring illegal help to undercut prices on them.
Combine that with the so-called 'free trade' deals that also enables foreign companies to undercut their prices, and American businesses trying to do it the right way are between a rock and a hard place. Workers get hurt from those same directions.
Whatever it takes to support a true free market is the direction we should be going. That's what's best for our economy.
The fact that so many people are willing to look to the Federal Government, and not their own initiative, to increase their income proves to me that the battle is pretty much lost.
How many of Obamites live on $15K a year, and don’t work hard?
I thought the ‘we turned the corner’ or however he phrased it was insidious: WHO turned WHAT corner!?!
It’s hard to support a family on less than $15,000 per year, therefore politicians should give them a raise.....Fine. Politicians MUST pay the difference out of their salaries, perks, retirement, health care and time off. All government employees will make $20-25,00 a year. Problem solved.
Just another expression of ø’s enemy islamism.
Minimum wage jobs get you by as you allegedly acquire real-world skills and experience that prepare you for a better job, better career choice. You want a nice place, nice car, maybe start a family? Then you need to do more, work harder and smarter in life. You need to do more than punch a time-clock and just show up for a minimum wage job.
There was no audacity in the SOTU.
It was the gasping of a lame duck who was playing to his core Progressive supporters and the Liberal press and historians who will be the ones who get to pass judgment on his Presidency and legacy.
Which he knows, at this point, will at best be summarized as “Could have been one of the greats of history, if it weren’t for those evil obstructionist Republicans”
And political martyrdom being acceptable, he’ll take that judgement gladly.
:: If you truly believe you could work full time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.” ::
(1) This is the modern day version of Marie Antoinette’s famous phrase.
(2) by using the term “give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise” exposes the fascist concept that all wages are controlled, primarily, by the central (federal) government.
Indeed, here is evidence that Mugabe IS a fascist. That the media is carrying his water??
Lets look back to CNN’s Susan Roesgen in Chicago, circa 2009:
http://chriscommons.blogspot.com/2009/04/cnn-reporter-challenges-chicago-tea.html
It’s true. And really never mentioned. It’s like when they say that they support education, in a way. What’s really said is they support the NEA.
“Aren’t many union workers paid X times minimum wage according to their contracts?
If so, all of them gets a raise for doing nothing extra.”
Give that man a kewpie doll. That’s exactly what Obama is doing, trying to give unions a big, fat present in return for all their donations!
The lie that a minimum wage has no harmful economic effect can be revealed by proposing to raise it from $10/hr, to $10,000/hr. Why stop there, why not $10 Trillion per hour?
The single worst line of the SOTU was when Obama referred to his oath to “do what he thought was best for the American people”, to to faithful execute the laws of the U.S. and protect the Constitution.
THIS!!!! My jaw dropped when I heard hem say this.
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