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Ralph Nader: Where is Obama’s promised minimum-wage hike?
Reuters' The Great Debate ^ | July 24, 2012 | Ralph Nader

Posted on 07/24/2012 2:24:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

During the 2008 campaign, presidential candidate Barack Obama made a pledge to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2011. Promises like this one inspired a generation of young voters, excited long-neglected progressive voters and gave hope to millions of his supporters across the country.

President Obama ran a campaign of soaring rhetoric and uplifting ideas. Amidst two unpopular wars, a rapidly deteriorating financial crisis and the wildly unpopular presidency of George W. Bush, Americans were desperate for a change. He was viewed as a “transformational” candidate, a president who would turn the page on the stagnant politics of Washington.

It is now four years later, and there has been no increase to the minimum wage. There has been no congressional vote, much less a whisper from the White House on the minimum wage.

President Obama understood the importance of this issue in 2008. The merits of raising the minimum wage haven’t changed since then, but his political courage has. The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage has been in decline since the 1960s, losing over 30 percent of its value and leaving hard-working Americans struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. At the same time, the cost of living has continued to rise steadily, further eroding the value of a minimum wage. Had the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since 1968, today it would be at $10.57 per hour, instead of the current federal minimum wage of $7.25....

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: congress; economy; minimumwage; obama; ralphnader; recession
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Magical thinking is like a virus these days.
1 posted on 07/24/2012 2:24:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Nice to have Nader point out the broken promises, tho.


2 posted on 07/24/2012 2:31:18 PM PDT by bboop (Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? St. Augustine)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Obama has expanded welfare, food stamps, disability etc. who needs a minimum wage hike.
3 posted on 07/24/2012 2:35:44 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3 (Obama is everything Oklahoma is not.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama lied.

If he was telling the truth, it would have gotten done in his first two years—no problem.

Obama lied. He had no intention of raising the min wage.


4 posted on 07/24/2012 2:38:21 PM PDT by Brookhaven (Obama Admits He Can't Fix What Bush Broke, So Why Reelect Obama?)
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To: bboop

Barry went on and on and on about that hike. He was going to raise it every year...

http://change.gov/agenda/poverty_agenda/

Raise the Minimum Wage to $9.50 an Hour by 2011: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that people who work full-time should not live in poverty. Even though the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour by 2009, the minimum wage’s real purchasing power will still be below what it was in 1968. As president, Obama will further raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers can earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs such as food, transportation, and housing — things so many people take for granted.


5 posted on 07/24/2012 2:41:12 PM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The minimum wage is the worst thing that ever happened to blacks.

Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams on the minimum wage

The last year in which the black unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate was 1930. That was also the last year in which there was no federal minimum wage law.

The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 was in part a result of a series of incidents in which non-union black construction labor enabled various contractors from the South to underbid Northern contractors who used white, unionized construction labor.

6 posted on 07/24/2012 2:41:53 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Geez, Ralph...ya callin’ the guy a liar?


7 posted on 07/24/2012 2:45:02 PM PDT by gundog (Help us, Nairobi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yeah man! We wan’ de monee!


8 posted on 07/24/2012 2:45:12 PM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama has a lot of crack on his plate.


9 posted on 07/24/2012 2:45:28 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Don't work for people who don't pay what you want!

Problem solved.

The government has nothing to do with this issue as well as many others.

10 posted on 07/24/2012 2:46:02 PM PDT by FixitGuy (By their fruits shall ye know them!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
So ...

"Corvair Ralph" is pissed because Bam-Bam isn't communist enough!

11 posted on 07/24/2012 2:48:24 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Anybody who paid the slightest bit of attention during ECON 101 knows what a terrible idea the Minimum Wage is. Nevertheless, when a candidate makes promises, even ill-advised ones (like closing Gitmo,) and fails to follow through, it demonstrates his mendacity. In other words, even the left understands that Obama is a liar.


12 posted on 07/24/2012 2:52:31 PM PDT by TruthShallSetYouFree (I didn't write this by myself. Obama helped me. Everyone helped me.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Obama has a lot of crack on his plate.


zer0 has a lot of crack in moochelles pants.


13 posted on 07/24/2012 2:54:15 PM PDT by Hogblog
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Minimum wage hikes discourage hiring
Obama policies encourage work-avoidance

Same result, Ralphie-boy.


14 posted on 07/24/2012 2:57:12 PM PDT by kidd
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Ralph Nader: Where is Obama’s promised minimum-wage hike?

hey Ralph, can't you see it, it's right there with all his other lies, next to his most transparent administration in US history

15 posted on 07/24/2012 2:57:16 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This A$$hole is still around?


16 posted on 07/24/2012 3:01:46 PM PDT by New Jersey Realist (America: home of the free because of the brave)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Nothing worse than a 78 year old man who never grew up out his teenage years.


17 posted on 07/24/2012 3:02:45 PM PDT by Clock King
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hey, Ralphie - just wait until you see what happens to your chocolate ration.


18 posted on 07/24/2012 3:05:01 PM PDT by Noumenon (I will not pay the Obama jizya.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Ralph Nader: Where is Obama’s promised minimum-wage hike?

Ø's min wage hike is the EBT card.

19 posted on 07/24/2012 3:06:07 PM PDT by libertarian27 (Check my profile page for the FReeper Online Cookbook 2011)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Studies show that the minimum wage could help jump-start the economy and increase consumer spending. A 2011 study by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank found that for every dollar increase to the hourly pay of a minimum wage worker, the result is $2,800 in new consumer spending from that worker’s household over the year. And a 2009 study from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that simply by raising the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour, $60 billion in additional spending would be added to the economy over a two-year period.

Higher money wage rates which increases consumption spending leads to increased sales revenues which leads to higher profits for evil rich businessmen and capitalists. And higher wage rates also leads to higher unemployment.

So higher wage rates ends up with the usual libtard perversity of result of hurting the people they are trying to help and helping the rich have higher profits.

20 posted on 07/24/2012 3:42:06 PM PDT by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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