JOHN LINDER: “Let me just say, leave it to the Democrats to suggest that elected officials can give people raises. If they want to…”

“Let me just say, leave it to the Democrats to suggest that elected officials can give people raises. If they want to give these people a raise, hire them and put them on their payroll, and then they can pay them anything they would like. Of course 80 percent of America agrees other people should have raises, in the abstract. Ask the 250,000 people that the President's leading economic adviser says will lose their jobs over this how much they like it. Raising the minimum wage is income redistribution among poor people. For every four people who get a dollar raise, one person loses his job. I wanted to tell my colleagues some of the bad effects of the minimum wage. Studies by Professor Masanori Hashimoto of Ohio State and Llad Phillips of the University of California at Santa Barbara both show increases in the minimum wage increase teenage crime. A study of professor William Beranek of the University of Georgia found the minimum wage increases employment of illegal aliens. Research also shows the minimum wage increases welfare dependency. For example, a study by Peter Brandon of the University of Wisconsin found the average time on welfare among States that raised the minimum wage was 44 percent higher than States that did not.”