Orrin Hatch: “let me just say that this is ``business as usual.'' I do not blame the President. It is a tough job for him, and he…”

“let me just say that this is ``business as usual.'' I do not blame the President. It is a tough job for him, and he knows he has to deal with the people up here, so he is trying to do the very best he can. But even doing the best he can, he is talking about $190 billion deficits for all of the next decade and then he does not know where it is going to go from there. That is assuming that all of his economic assumptions of low interest and low inflation rates are kept constant for that full 10 years. Anybody who believes that has just not listened to some of those who have been talking about increases in the minimum wage. There are good arguments for increases in the minimum wage and excellent arguments against. But there is no doubt in anybody's mind if we increase the minimum wage 90 cents, to $5.15 an hour, that it is going to be an upward push on interest rates and inflation, and a lot of young people are going to lose jobs. A lot of small businesses are going to go out of business because they just cannot afford to pay that. A lot of young people who need the discipline that comes from work who are uneducated, unskilled, and do not have jobs currently are going to be left as the welfare poor for the rest of their lives because business people cannot afford to hire them. So they pull in their horns, and they make do with less. They work longer and harder hours, or they go out of business.…”