Todd Tiahrt: “We are talking about raising the minimum wage because it is at a 40-year low? Well, we have raised the minimum wage…”

“We are talking about raising the minimum wage because it is at a 40-year low? Well, we have raised the minimum wage several times, and yet it is still at a 40-year low. I do not think it is working. Common sense is not working, because historically it does push inflation. Unions tell me that purchasing power is at an all-time low because of inflation, and yet that is what the problem is and we want to raise the minimum wage. Well, 75 percent of the people on minimum wage are students. Most of them in minority communities. That is the area that is hit the worst when we increase the minimum wage, the minority communities--6.5 percent of the people on minimum wage are heads of households. Now, we have tried to help the working poor, the heads of households on minimum wage, with an earned income tax credit, actually putting more money into their pocket, and it is not inflationary. That was vetoed by Mr. Clinton. We also had a $500 per child tax credit, which would have put more money in the pockets of the working poor. Mr. Clinton vetoed it. Neither of them inflationary, neither of them eating into the wages of working Americans and the working poor. It is time for Congress to do the right thing for the working poor and the working families. Oppose the minimum wage.”