In brief remarks Wednesday morning Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins said any suggestion of raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour is “a job killer.” CONGRESS is infected with a disease called “elector-alitis,” as coined by author Adolph Reed Jr., in a recent article published in Harper’s Magazine. This is a condition that limits the attention span of legislators to an election cycle. Anything of a serious nature that requires long-term organizing — tax reform, immigration, entitlement programs, and public transportation — does not fit into the mind/time frame of today’s politicians.
The theory goes that if employers are forced to pay more they will reduce their rolls.
Let it be known that in 2013 corporate profits were at an all-time high. While CEOs reaped their biggest-ever share of the pie, the percentage of profits that went to wages was at an all-time low.
In a report issued Tuesday by the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office, data showed raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would indeed cause a reduction in jobs, maybe as many as 500,000.
But the number who would see an increase in pay, 16.5 million, and be raised out of poverty, 900,000, would more than offset that reduction and provide a flood of spending into the general economy. People who have money, spend it.
Jenkins also said immigration reform was a non-starter because current proposals do not adequately address the number of illegal immigrants crossing U.S. borders. Unless illegals can be kept from infiltrating, any legislation having to do with the 12 million already here is for naught, she said.
The stance is an about-face for Republicans. Just two weeks ago, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, unveiled a long list of principles critical to reform.
Jenkins also said she didn’t trust the Obama administration to enforce any legislation passed and gave the impression there was no use to proceed on such issues until this administration has been retired by the 2016 election.
Republicans would rather sit out the current administration rather than tackle important reforms in the hopes the 2016 election will yield a transfer of leadership.
When the shoe is on the other foot, Democrats are just as intransigent.
Instead of being willing to seek compromise, their default is to insult the other party and throw up their arms in feigned exasperation.
Think if families, businesses or local governments acted this way.
If that were the case, marriages would dissolve at the first argument. Parents wouldn’t bother to teach manners.
Businesses wouldn’t plan for technical upgrades, transitions in management, or even taking a product into the next decade.
And city and county governments wouldn’t address long-term infrastructure needs with their roads and bridges, or look for efficiencies with combined services.
Good leadership takes time and commitment, not kicking responsibility down the road or to the other side of the aisle.
— Susan Lynn
Election cycle keeps Congress, compromise as oxymorons
