Frank Riggs: “this has been, I think, an enlightening and constructive debate. I want to point out that I expect the vote that will…”

“this has been, I think, an enlightening and constructive debate. I want to point out that I expect the vote that will occur on this floor will be very much a bipartisan vote. About an hour ago we had a procedural vote, with 76 Republicans joining 190 Democrats to support that motion, so I anticipate the vote for the minimum wage will also be equally bipartisan. In the spirit of bipartisanship, I want to remind my Democrat colleagues again of yesterday's USA Today Gallop poll indicating that 83 percent of the American people support the balanced budget amendment and 83 percent of the American people support raising the minimum wage. Seventy-one percent support a 2-year cutoff for welfare without work. I would ask the Members, in the same spirit of bipartisanship, to stop fighting us tooth and nail in our efforts to balance the budget and reform welfare, and join us in a bipartisan manner to help us pass those critical legislative reforms in the waning days of this session of Congress. In just a moment, Mr. Speaker, we are going to hear a very distinguished economist, who himself happens to be an extraordinarily capable majority leader, speak to close the debate. A few moments ago he spoke about the perverse employment effect of raising the minimum wage. But I want to respectfully suggest that raising the minimum wage allows us to address the perverse incentive that we have in American society today that makes welfare more attractive than work.”