Republican Candidates Wage War on Working Americans
By Samuel Warde
Three
leading Republican presidential hopefuls said they would not support raising the federal minimum
wage during
Tuesday’s debate, with the leading candidate – Donald Trump – doubling down on
his remarks the following morning.
Asked
if he was sympathetic to the cause of workers protesting for $15 an hour by Fox
News moderator Neil Cavuto during Tuesday’s debate, Trump coldly responded: “I can’t be
Neil,” later adding that: “wages
too high, we’re not going to be able to compete
against the world.“
Asked
directly if he would raise the minimum wage, Trump replied: “I hate to say it,
but we have to leave it the way it is,” adding “People have to go out, they
have to work really hard and they have to get into that upper stratum. But we
can’t do this if we’re going to compete with the rest of the world. We just
can’t do it.”
Carson
told debate moderators that raising the minimum wage only increases joblessness
in the U.S. “Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people
increases,” he said, adding: “How do we allow people to ascend the ladder of
opportunity rather than how do we give them everything and keep them
dependent?”
Rubio
said raising the wage would make people “more expensive” than machines. “If I
thought [raising the] minimum wage would be the best way to help increase their
pay I would be all for for it, but it isn’t,” Rubio said. “It’s disaster if you
raise the minimum wage. You make people more expensive than machines,” he
continued, curiously adding that “We need more welders and less philosophers.”
What about
the other candidates’ views on the federal minimum wage?
As CNBC reports,
“It’s been more than six years since Congress raised the federal minimum wage,
while many states and some cities have taken the situation into their own hands
and passed increases. As the presidential race heats up, most Republican
candidates have gone on record to discuss why they do not think now is the time
to raise the federal minimum pay level higher than $7.25 per hour.”
U.S.
Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz
In
a June appearance on PBS, Cruz explained why he opposed raising minimum wage to
a living wage. PBS host Tavis Smiley asked: “why can’t we raise
the minimum wage to a living wage? Why won’t you fight for that?”
Cruz
quickly retorted, “The people who will hurt the most… How does it impact the
most vulnerable? Every time you raise the minimum wage, the people who will
hurt the most is the most vulnerable.”
CNBC reports “Cruz
voted against a minimum wage increase proposal last year.”
Former
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
Asked whether he supported raising the minimum wage at a South Carolina event in March,
Bush responded that: “We need to leave it to the private sector.”
“I
think state minimum wages are fine. The federal government shouldn’t be doing
this,” he continued. “The federal government doing this will make it harder and
harder for the first rung of the ladder to be reached, particularly for young
people, particularly for people that have less education.”
“Politically
I’m sure it’s a great sound bite but from an economic point of view, this is
not how we need to be successful,” he added.
U.S.
Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal,
“In a visit to western Louisville, Sen. Rand Paul said he opposes raising the
minimum wage because it restricts job prospects for minorities and children.
‘It
is a fact, an economic fact, that when you raise the minimum wage, the people
that are hurt the worst are minorities and kids,’ Paul told a dozen business
owners and officials gathered at the Louisville Plate Glass Co., 1401 W.
Broadway, owned by GOP mogul Bill Stone.”
CNBC reports that
“Paul voted against a minimum wage increase proposal last year.”
Ohio
Gov. John Kasich
In
September 2015, Kasich said he backs a “reasonable” federal minimum wage
increase, making him one of two Republican presidential candidates to do so.
“Have
it be reasonable,” Kasich said to MLive, a Michigan
publication, adding: “because you could have unintended consequences if
you start imposing a high wage, which could actually lead to fast-food
restaurants putting in kiosks and middle-management people being upset that
they can’t get a raise.”
Carly
Fiorina
Fiorina answered questions about minimum wage in
August during an
appearance at the Iowa State Fair, telling the crowd: “First, I believe that
minimum wage should be a state decision, not a federal decision. Why? Because
it makes no sense to say that the minimum wage in New York City is the same
as the minimum wage in Mason City, Iowa.”
Continuing,
she added: “Secondly, we have to remember that a lot of minimum-wage jobs
are jobs where people start, and in those jobs they learn skills to move forward.
So we need to be honest about the consequences of raising a minimum wage
too high. One of the consequences is that young people who are trapped in poor
neighborhoods will have less opportunities to learn skills and move forward.”
Former
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
Dismissing
Democratic, Big Government pushes for a new minimum wage, Huckabee called for
giving state and local governments the power to help Americans reach their
“maximum wage” in an issue-based campaign video released in April.
The
video featured an unemployed Texas woman, complaining that the federal
government was hurting her efforts to find work, Huckabee responded: “Instead
of fighting over the minimum wage, why don’t we focus on solutions that help
every American earn his or her maximum wage.”
New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Speaking
to Fox News host Chris Wallace in October 2014, Christie explained that “What we need to do in this
country is not have a debate about a higher minimum wage,” adding, “The debate
we need to be having is how to have a better, pro-growth economy that’s goring
jobs and good-paying jobs.”
Asked
by CNBC about his position ten months later in August 2015 as he struggled to
raise his poll numbers, Christie appeared to soften a bit on his earlier
position, saying that he opposed raising minimum wage to $15 an
hour, but would not rule out raising it to $10, explaining: “We’d have to talk
about it,” adding: “But $15, it’s gonna destroy jobs.”
Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal
Standing outside of the White House last year, Jindal
said that: “The Obama economy is now the minimum wage economy. I
think we can do better than that. I think America can do better than that.”
Former
Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum
According to his
website, Santorum – the second of only two Republicans
supporting an increase, plans to “Increase the minimum wage by $0.50 per year
for three years to bring it back in line with historical standards.”
Former
N.Y. Gov. George Pataki
In
a May interview with Bloomberg, Pataki explained that what people fail to understand is that when you raise the minimum
wage, you also raise the unemployment rate.
He
added that: “A simple solution sounds good. It gets you a headline. It gets you
political cover, but it doesn’t really solve the problem.”
South
Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham
Graham shared an anecdote about the potential negative
impact of raising the minimum wage during the CNN debate, explaining that
it would have made it more difficult to hire new employees at his parents’
restaurant.
“If
you’re a waitress out there wanting more money, I’m not going to increase the
minimum wage,” Graham said. “I’m going to try to create an environment where
somebody else will open up a restaurant across the street to hire you away at a
higher rate, or they’ll have to pay you more to keep you.”
CNBC reports that
“Graham voted against a minimum wage increase proposal last year.”