There's a big surprise. Of course, this article quotes a number of Republicans doing exactly what they accuse Obama of doing. Not that I'm a big Obama fan. I just find it fascinating that people all over see nothing wrong when they do a thing, but if someone else does the same thing, it's "another retread of lip service and liberalism," while their own comments are another retread of lip service and conservatism. Both sides are guilty of the same thing.
McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) also dismissed Obama’s call to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour. It’s something Obama said was necessary given that someone working full time at $7.25 an hour, the current minimum wage, would only make $14,500 a year. The minimum wage has been flat since 2009.If this weren't such a dysfunctional economy, I would agree with Republicans, and in fact would eliminate the minimum wage altogether. However, this IS a dysfunctional economy, employers don't recognize the contributions of their employees, employers don't recognize the fact that if they paid their employees better, employee satisfaction would increase, turnover would decrease, welfare payments would drop, and taxes could be decreased. This is the "trickle-down" theory that conservatives love so much, but in reverse. Apparently, though, conservatives don't really want to test that theory; instead, they insist that poorer people should just accept what hasn't worked in the past on faith, that this time it will be different. In the meantime, the rich are happy to reap the profits that they earn, paid for in part by entitlement benefits, but, not surprisingly, they don't want to pay for those entitlement programs.
Of course, I'm beginning to think that rich folks, and perhaps conservatives in general, actually like high unemployment. Why? Because high unemployment rates might actually help lower the turnover rate, thus lowering the costs of hiring and training new people.
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