Lately the President has been talking about extending unemployment benefits again. Of course, he also talks about how strong the economy is now; Obama says that it is fixed. Now, we hear that another large number of Americans have given up looking for work. Then, they tell us that the housing starts are still rising, and that produces jobs. Okay, which way is it -- good or bad?
When will our free press in the USA go into a press conference and call the president on this dichotomy? Everyone knows that a Republican would never be allowed to have it both ways. Why does the press constantly allow the Democratic narrative that the Republicans are the party of "no?" They say that the Republicans don't want poor people to have health care. How many times have you heard that "Republicans don't have a plan to fix health care in America?" I know I've heard it a lot, but it still makes no logical sense. Why would anyone want to deny health care coverage to anyone at any economic level? What would the Republicans have to gain by sending jobs overseas? Why don't we hear more about how the Republican led House passes bills, but they aren't even brought up for a vote by the Democrat run Senate?
Now the President is saying that Republicans need to extend the unemployment benefits to Americans that are hurting instead of giving tax breaks to their rich buddies. Why don't the Republicans just snap back with a retort like "hey Mr. President, why don't you stop crippling the economy with your policies and regulations and Obamacare so that they can find a job?" We wouldn't need to extend unemployment benefits if the unemployed weren't unemployed! DUH!
The Democrats are also bringing up a drastic increase of about $3/hour in the federal minimum wage. They say that middle class folks can't get a raise that they really need. This is being touted as helping the economy and helping the regular folks out there. The unions are supporting this initiative. Why would the union workers that make much higher wages care about the minimum wage? It is because many of their contracts are indexed off of the minimum wage. Yes, they get paid a differential above the prevailing minimum wage. Isn't that interesting. Are they about to cut off the head of the goose that lays the golden eggs?
Anyone with a basic knowledge of the law of demand knows that raising the price of anything, including labor, reduces the demand for it. Raising the minimum wage doesn't get anyone a real raise. There will be jobs that can't be moved overseas like fast food restaurants for example. Those employees will get raises, but the customers will see prices rise. That will reduce demand and cause some restaurants to close or at least they will need fewer workers. The higher prices will be inflationary, and all of us will have reduced spending power. On average, the collective increase in wages will be met with an equal inflation rate. That means we will be at a stalemate at best. Glenn Beck probably said it best in his book Arguing with Idiots. I can't give you an exact quote, but his statement went something like this: "the minimum wage makes everyone unemployable whose labor is worth less than minimum wage."
The fact of the matter is that Democrats don't care if you are unemployed and your life sucks. They just know that they can do something like raising the minimum wage that kills jobs, and they will end up "smelling like a rose." They can claim that they fought the Republicans on behalf of the little guy and won. They can also blame any lost jobs on the evil rich guys that are taking your job away to line their pockets. If you think I'm wrong about the MessAPolitico doing this and not caring, what is the alternative? Either the MessAPolitico doesn't care about you, or they are ignorant of basic economics like I learned in high school and in college. I don't know about you, but I don't think either choice is very good for the Democrats.
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