On the recordMay 15, 1996
My colleagues, minimum wage first came into law in 1938, and congressional Republicans were against it back then, those almost 60 years ago. Since that time, under the insistence of the American people, the Congress of the United States has raised the minimum wage 18 times, only 18 times in those 60 years, and every single time the Republicans in the Congress, not necessarily Republicans in America, please understand, but the Republican majority in the Congress, has been against the minimum wage. Why, Republican Presidents have even vetoed the minimum wage, the last being former President Bush, who vetoed a minimum wage that passed after 3 years of struggle that passed the Congress during his Presidency. What is it about these Republicans, so frozen in the ice of their own indifference to the working poor, that they cannot support a proven benefit fiscally to those people?
Source
govinfo.gov
