Kendrick Meek: “Thank you, Ms. Jackson-Lee. And even though you were coming down to join Mr. Larson, you are always welcome to join the…”

“Thank you, Ms. Jackson-Lee. And even though you were coming down to join Mr. Larson, you are always welcome to join the 30-something Working Group hour. When you were talking about the minimum wage, when we call ourselves the 30-something Working Group, that means we work. We come together and we meet even when we are not on the floor to talk about these issues. Mr. Speaker, minimum wage is a very important issue to 7 million Americans who are working for minimum wage, living on a minimum-wage salary, which is very difficult. {time} 2210 And one of the things that I wanted to share here, Mr. Speaker, as you know, we try to come up with charts to kind of break this down so that Members know exactly what we are talking about so they can't go back to their constituents and say, well, I didn't quite understand that minimum wage vote, but I will reconsider it next time. We call that in Washington, DC the Potomac two-step. Back home they call it hoodwinked, bamboozled. But I want to make sure that folks understand what we are talking about here. Minimum wage, and this is actually a chart that is saying the real economy changed under President Bush, while the minimum wage has not been increased since 1997, this is what has happened. Minimum wage is at zero. But the cost for milk has gone up 24 percent. Minimum wage is at zero, but the cost of bread has gone up 25 percent. Minimum wage is zero since 1997, thanks to the Republican majority.…”