[Hydroshock]

Makes me a realist. Do you think really for one minute that congress can keep not raising the minimum wage, and that when they do it will be a big one. This is slow and gradual, read not much impact. And keep in mind this is a tight election years.

[Petronski]

Makes me a realist.

Makes you a fool.

By your logic, since there's always going to be rape, everyone might as well go out and commit a bunch of rapes.

You'd've made a great collaborateur in Vichy France.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Makes me a realist.

If you had the power, where would you set the minimum wage? Do you think the minimum should enable 1 person to support a family of 4?

[Hendrix]

"Makes me a realist. Do you think really for one minute that congress can keep not raising the minimum wage"

Yes, when it is pointed out time and time again that it is bad economics, then people will eventually not care about minimum wage, which is basically where we are at now. The reason it has not been raised is because most people don't care about it because they don't make anywhere near minimum wage, so it is a non-issue. If congress keeps passing it, it makes it look like a legit policy. We should never advocate having congress pass poor policy.

[Young Scholar]

Do you think really for one minute that congress can keep not raising the minimum wage, and that when they do it will be a big one.

Conservative economic policies have been successfully sold to the electorate in the past; it would help if the Republicans would at least try here. Nothing was more pathetic than Bush's response to the minimum wage question in the 2004 debate, in which, instead of publicly making the case that the minimum wage hurt the poor and the economy as a whole, he advocated an increase--only one smaller than Kerry's proposal.

[Leatherneck_MT]

"Makes me a realist. Do you think really for one minute that congress can keep not raising the minimum wage, and that when they do it will be a big one. This is slow and gradual, read not much impact. And keep in mind this is a tight election years."

Here's a question for you.

In a FREE Country, which we profess to be.

What earthly business is it of Congress, or any State for that matter, what the hell the minimum wage is that an Employer of a Private Business, pays to an Employee that HE or SHE hires hmm?

Answer?

NONE!

Congress has every right to raise the minimum wage of a Government Employee.

It has ZERO right to raise any wage in the private sector.

But then the people in this country have listened to the lies of this government for so long that it now believes IT to be the Sovereign Power in this country and not the People as the 10th Amendment to the Constitution states.

[Badray]

And now you advocate political cowardice and expediency?

Do basic economic principles get repealed during election years?

You want to see low wage employment skyrocket? Eliminate the minimum wage altogether. Entry level workers will actually learn how to work and develop critical skills and over time earn what they are worth.

Is sweeping the floor worth $7.25 an hour (times 35 or 40 hours a week)? Maybe instead, the boss will decide that he can do it himself and not hire or keep that person, or pay another worker a small bonus for doing the job.

[TexasGunLover]

The fact that we have a minimum wage at all proves we're already on the road to socialism. Government setting controls on how private businesses are run is just plain socialism any way you slice it.

What determines the fair wage? A fair wage is whatever someone will work for... if there are people who will work for $4 a hour, what possible economic justification is there for paying them $5.15 a hour?

I don't know what profession you're in, but what if you job is only worth $4 a hour. If I'm forced to pay $5.15, that means I'm going hire fewer folks, have fewer benefits and will fight tooth and nail to never give raises so as to offset the "premium" I'm forced to pay. The freemarket will win out. If the job is worth more, I'll be forced to pay more because there won't be anyone for me to hire.

Economics drive business, not government laws that ignore economics.