Republicans Love Wage Slaves

Gallup, earlier this month:

Seven in 10 Americans say they would vote "for" raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour if given the opportunity, while 27% would vote against such a bill. The proposal, made by President Barack Obama in his 2013 State of the Union speech, is backed by over 90% of Democrats and self-described liberals, and by over two-thirds of independents and moderates. Republicans are evenly split on the proposal, while conservatives tilt slightly in favor.

House of Representatives, yesterday:

House Republicans unanimously voted down a measure Friday that would have raised the federal minimum wage, from its current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 by 2015.

Huge businesses like McDonald's and Wal-Mart can't possibly afford to raise the minimum wage in this economy!  

Even as American corporations are raking in record profits, the largest among them are shifting larger amounts of money away from the United States and into offshore tax havens that allow them to pad their bottom lines even more, according to multiple analyses of legal filings made since the beginning of 2013.

The Wall Street Journal found that the 60 largest companies moved $166 billion offshore in 2012, shielding 40 percent of their earnings from American taxes and costing the U.S. billions in lost revenue.

American workers are overpaid and lazy anyway, right?

Real average hourly earnings were up 0.1% from February 2012 to February 2013, but the average workweek was down from a year ago, so average weekly real earnings were down 0.2% from a year ago.

In other words, workers have seen no wage growth over the past year, which again is one reason why so many people are down on the economy even as most of the major stock indexes all strike record highs.

To recap, Republicans are complaining that there are too many jobless people who believe it's easier to not have a job and live off the government teat, and then turn around and say $10 an hour would destroy the economy, because it's too high an hourly wage.

To recap again, House Republicans say they believe in the dignity of hard work and the American dream of upward mobility.  And then every single one of them voted to keep Americans at $7.25 an hour.

Hey Republican voters, do you know anyone who makes less than $10 an hour?  Do you consider that person to be lazy, stupid, or parasitic?  Might want to think about that.