William Helms: “in the first place, raising the minimum wage is a political issue, not an economic issue. In order to adjust the…”

“in the first place, raising the minimum wage is a political issue, not an economic issue. In order to adjust the perspective, it should be remembered that the Senator from Massachusetts may be revealing a bit of a forked tongue on this phony political issue. That is why I am supporting the Lott-Bond amendment which honestly and clearly addresses the real issues of this debate. For years, Senator Kennedy served as chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee--prior to his losing his chairmanship in the 1994 elections. To my knowledge the issue of minimum wage increase was never brought up, even once, by Senator Kennedy during the 2 previous years before he lost his chairmanship. But, Mr, President, I recall that in 1995, when the State Department reorganization bill became the pending business in the Senate, there he was, the same Senator from Massachusetts, who was the first to pop his head up and begin as the lead-off filibusterer among the Democrats who had their orders to stymie a bill that would have saved the American taxpayers billions of dollars while clearing a lot of dead wood from the U.S. foreign policy apparatus. And what was the subject of Senator Kennedy's filibuster? He was shouting at the top of his voice about the dire need to raise the minimum wage--a subject, bear in mind that had prompted not a peep out of Chairman Kennedy during those years when he headed the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.”