Nancy Pelosi: “Mr. Speaker, today is a good day, not a great day but a good day for the American worker. It is a day that the…”

“Mr. Speaker, today is a good day, not a great day but a good day for the American worker. It is a day that the Republican leadership has finally been dragged kicking and screaming in support of raising the minimum wage. Democrats can be proud that at long last the pressure that we have brought to bear on Republicans has finally produced real results for 12 million working Americans. The Republicans have finally caved after months of staunch opposition-voting five times to defeat Democratic efforts to bring up an increase in the minimum wage. Even with polls showing over 80 percent of the American people support increasing the minimum wage, the extreme Republican majority tried to kill the bill or gut the bill and blunt its impact. These delaying tactics cost American workers $5.6 billion. Faced with the failure of their extreme agenda, moderate Republicans finally have embraced this Democratic initiative, but in the meantime the American worker has paid the price for Republican extremism. By refusing to take action on the minimum wage sooner, Republicans have cost American workers, as I have said, $5.6 billion in lost wages.”