MINIMUM WAGE….The LA Times has a pair of op-eds today about the minimum wage. The first is by a Republican state senator who supports a modest increase but opposes a Democratic proposal to index the minimum wage to inflation and accuses Dems of “political posturing.” The second is by a Republican state senator who opposes any hike in the minimum wage and declares Democratic arguments in support of an increase to be the “soothing and smarmy rhetoric of leftist populism.”
Some balance, eh? But speaking of smarmy rhetoric, you can tell when minimum wage opponents have completely run out of steam when they make the following argument:
If a simple legislative act increasing the minimum wage to $7.75 is all that is needed to improve the lot of the working poor by just a little, then why not raise it to $10 an hour and get them to the poverty level? For that matter, why not raise it to $50 an hour?
Good question, Tom. Likewise, if cutting taxes is good for the economy, why not get rid of them entirely? If three strikes send you to prison, why not one? If business is too tied up in regulations, why not ditch them all?
How tired and threadbare. If this kind of juvenile flailing is the best that opponents can come up with, there truly must not be any arguments left against raising the minimum wage. So how about if we stop listening to fatuous stuff like this and just give the working poor a helping hand instead? Raising the minimum wage a buck or two is the least we can do for them.
