Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle announced they will soon bring to the floor the Raise the Wage Act, a bill to increase the Federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. While supporters of this legislation have good intentions, the repercussions would spell disaster for our economy, for small businesses, and the very same low-wage workers who they intend to help. Nonpartisan estimates of the Raise the Wage Act expect it could cause up to 3.7 million people across the country to lose their jobs. Mr. Speaker, that is almost as many people as in the entire State of Oklahoma, the entire State of Oklahoma unemployed. Cities that have already imposed a $15 minimum wage have been the first to see the negative effects of this initiative. Recently, the University of Washington conducted a study on the efficacy of Seattle's newly mandated $15 minimum wage, and the results were very clear. Costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by 3-to-1, and the average low-wage worker lost $125 a month. While most of the discussion regarding the Federal minimum wage is focused on major metropolitan cities, what about the rural areas across the country where the cost of living is much lower? This bill would effectively eliminate small, rural businesses and skyrocket costs for goods and services. Finally, let's look at who is currently making minimum wage in the U.S. Half are under the age of 25, and almost a quarter of them are teenagers.…”