Frank Pallone: “I am sometimes asked what does it mean to be a Democrat, and what it means to be a Democrat is that you care about…”

“I am sometimes asked what does it mean to be a Democrat, and what it means to be a Democrat is that you care about working people and their concerns and whether they are going to be able to earn a decent wage. That is what this vote is all about today. All of a sudden the Republican leadership is forced to bring up a vote on the minimum wage, but instead of bringing it up in a clean fashion, what they are really doing is repealing it and making it so that a lot of people right now, who would be getting a minimum wage, even at the low amount that it is, are going to be not eligible, unfortunately, for the minimum wage. So instead of bringing up a clean bill, where the minimum wage is increased and people have a decent wage, now we see the Republican leadership actually trying to repeal the minimum wage. That is what they are all about. Just like they talked about repealing Medicare or letting it wither on the vine, now they want to let the minimum wage wither on the vine because they do not care about working people.”