Richard Gephardt: “in a few short moments I believe this House of Representatives will vote to raise the minimum wage, which is at a…”

“in a few short moments I believe this House of Representatives will vote to raise the minimum wage, which is at a 40-year low. It is severely impacting, in a negative way, American families. I realize that for many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle this is a difficult vote to cast. Even for some who will support this increase, this is a vote of resignation, not one of joy. But while this might not be an easy vote for some of you, I believe with all my heart that this is the right vote and probably the most important vote of this Congress. Let us put aside this morning all the ideology, all the partisan differences, all of the political argument, and let us put one thing and one thing only in our mind today, which is what the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] talked about: That is American families that are living day-by-day today on the minimum wage. I had a woman in my district recently, as I went door-to-door, tell me that she had two minimum wage jobs, worked 16 hours a day, two children. She said, ``Congressman, I cannot pay my bills. But that is not what I am worried about. That is my problem.'' She said, ``What I am worried about is that I am never home to raise my children.'' She welled up as she talked about her failure of responsibility to raise her children to be productive citizens. She said, ``I am not worried that they will be victims of crime, I am even worried they will commit crimes.'' It went through me like a knife.…”