House GOP Kills Rise In Minimum Wage

The Republican Party doesn't care much for poor people. They call them "takers", and make fun of them for not paying federal income taxes. They give the impression that poor people just lay around and live off a government paycheck. Of course, that's an outrageous lie!

The truth is that the huge majority of poor people work hard and work full-time. They are not lazy. They simply aren't paid enough for their hard work to be lifted out of poverty. And believe me, these low-wage workers would love to be paid enough for their hard work to have to pay income taxes.

The Republicans know this. They just don't want the American people to know it, because that would expose their own economic plan -- to keep wages low so the rich can continue to hog increases in productivity, and then lower taxes on the rich so they can keep more of that wage theft (while complaining that our budget deficit is because the poor don't pay taxes). So it should come as no surprise that the House Republicans once again showed their disdain for poor workers (actually all workers) this last week.

As the chart above shows, minimum wage workers have lost a significant amount of buying power since the late 1960s. At that time (in today's dollars), minimum wage workers had the same buying power as a person making more than $10 an hour today. But the current minimum wage is only a pitiful $7.25 an hour, meaning workers have lost about $3 an hour in buying power -- a sizable amount.

Rep. George Miller (D-California) tried to restore the minimum wage to a decent level -- about the same level of buying power it had in 1968. He introduced an amendment to the SKILLS Act, which would have raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over the next two years (and raise the minimum wage for tipped employees to about $7 an hour).

This was a good amendment. It would have lifted many low-wage workers out of poverty, helped to raise the wages of all workers, raised consumer spending throughout the economy (thus creating more demand and more jobs), and raised government revenues (without raising taxes). It would have been good for everyone in America -- not just low-wage workers.

But the Republicans aren't interested in helping workers at any level, and they certainly don't want the economy improved (because they think that would hurt them in the next election). So they voted Rep. Miller's amendment down -- unanimously. Not one single Republican voted to raise the minimum wage, but 184 Democrats voted to raise it. That should make it clear which party supports American workers, and which party doesn't care about workers.

At the same time, the Republicans showed who they do care about -- the richest Americans. Their new budget proposal would cut the top tax rate from about 39% to only 25% -- a big boon for the Americans who need help the least. The GOP truly is the party of the rich.