House Democrats are daring Republicans to kill a proposal that would immediately raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to just over $10.00 an hour. Introduced by Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), H.R. 5901 indexes the minimum wage “to the Consumer Price Index, allowing it to rise automatically above $10 an hour as inflation rises” essentially creating a living wage.
According to The Hill, Jackson says the bill “would give these workers more income and boost overall demand for the struggling economy,” and would “affect more than 30 million workers.”
ThinkProgress reports that “if the minimum wage had been indexed to the Consumer Price Index since 1968, it would be approximately $10.40 today,” which would make a huge difference to every single middle class and poor household in America and the economy as a whole.
This proposal, of course, makes perfect sense if you’re not a Republican trying to sabotage the economy in order to make President Obama fail. Raising the minimum wage allows millions of struggling Americans to have more spending power which helps families and stimulates the economy. The increase in income also means an increase in tax revenues which are sorely needed to solve America’s debt issue. After all, the more income a person makes, the more taxes a person has to pay. This isn’t a bad thing though. It just means more people are leveling up on the income tax bracket.
This proposal obviously isn’t going to garner any support from Republicans, whose only goal is to see that CEO incomes rise while worker incomes fall to slave level wages. So far, Republicans have been successful in that regard. But Democrats could make this a central campaign issue and the centerpiece of any economic legislation in Congress, especially in the Senate where they have control. If Republicans don’t want to raise taxes, they should be forced to vote on whether or not worker pay rises at the same pace CEO pay rises. The two should most certainly be connected. Right now, Republicans are seen by millions of Americans as not caring about the welfare of the poor and middle class. They can either prove to Americans that they care about them by pushing through the bill or they can continue to act like uncaring pricks and block the bill. It’s their choice, but we all know which choice they’re going to make. Democrats are smart for forcing Republicans to make this kind of decision.
This would be a huge releif for so many people. Everybody com;plains that if we could have just that little more of a raise we would be ok,and actually have some money to go out and spend and that would really have our economy to take off and we would be back on our feet as usual. This is what the world is been waiting for. Its way long over due. So please dont have us suffer no longer. There is way too many families in need. please think of our children, elderly, and beloved pets. were all human.