Frank Pallone: “again I do not understand what the argument is about which Congress tried or did not try to raise the minimum wage. The…”

“again I do not understand what the argument is about which Congress tried or did not try to raise the minimum wage. The bottom line is we know now we have a majority in both Houses, mostly Democrats, but also enough Republicans, so that we could pass the minimum wage if it was only brought up for a vote on the floor right now. The problem is that the Republican leadership, Speaker Gingrich and the others, do not want to bring it up for a vote. They had a meeting yesterday and all the newspapers today say they refuse to bring it up for a simple up or down vote. The reason they will not bring it up is because they know it will pass. The American people favor this, four out of five in all the recent polls, and the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate and the President of the United States. So why not bring it up? Very simple: They do not want to do it. Instead, they have come up with some bureaucratic cockamamie proposal to essentially use a government subsidy to help certain families, but not everyone. Why in the world are we talking about a government subsidy to employers so that they do not have to pay a higher wage, a living wage? It makes no sense.”