The breadth of the Republican field and their GOP pals in Congress don’t have much respect for America’s working families. They think a $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage — amounting to $15,000 a year — is just right. Of course, some of them don’t even think there should be a federal minimum wage at all:
- Ted Cruz has twice voted against raising the minimum wage. Inexplicably, Cruz has gone so far as to claim that increasing the minimum wage would actually be detrimental to workers, saying, “I think [a wage hike] hurts the most vulnerable.”
- Marco Rubio’s admitted that “you can’t live on $11 an hour,” but that didn’t stop him from opposing raising it to $9 an hour, nor from voting against increasing it to $10.10. Don’t hold your breath for Rubio to take a stand in favor of raising it, because he still doesn’t think it should be increased.
- Jeb Bush opposed raising the minimum wage back when he was governor of Florida and he continues to oppose any increases to this day. Instead, Jeb proposes American workers to go ahead and just “work longer hours.”
- John Kasich wants to make sure “we don’t raise the minimum wage willy-nilly.” And his plan is to make it a state-level issue?
- Senator Ron Johnson twice voted against raising the minimum wage. Here’s why: he opposes the concept of a federal minimum entirely.
- Senator Kelly Ayotte on two occasions voted against raising the federal minimum wage.
- What’s Senator Pat Toomey’s take on raising the federal minimum wage? “It’s a terrible idea.” Toomey’s dismissed efforts to raise the minimum wage as an attempt to “score some political points.” His votes match his rhetoric: Toomey’s at least twice voted against raising the minimum wage.
- Senator Mark Kirk has on two occasions voted against
increasing the minimum wage. - Representative Joe Heck is inexplicably confident that increasing the minimum wage would not help individuals who work full-time but are nonetheless living in poverty. Doing so, he’s argued, would lead to “decreased opportunity.” In fact, Joe Heck “doesn’t think the federal government should get into the battle over the minimum wage at all.”
Across the board, the Republican field and their GOP congressional allies just don’t seem to care about the day-to-day struggles of working families. They’re fulfilling Charles and David Koch’s wishes, going all-out to prevent hardworking Americans from getting a well-deserved raise.
Published: Jan 12, 2016