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Weekly Address: President Obama – Congress Needs to Act on Minimum Wage

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The President’s Weekly Address post is also the Weekend Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

 

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President highlights small business owners across the country acting to raise wages for their workers, and calls on Congress to give America a raise so more hard-working Americans have the opportunity to get ahead.

Transcript: Weekly Address: Congress Needs to Act on Minimum Wage

Hi, everybody.  In my State of the Union Address, I talked about pizza.  More specifically, I talked about a pizza chain in Minneapolis – Punch Pizza – whose owner, John Soranno, made the business decision to give his employees a raise to ten bucks an hour.

A couple weeks ago, I got a letter from a small business owner who watched that night.  Yasmin Ibrahim is an immigrant who owns her own restaurant – Desi Shack – and plans to open another this summer.

Here’s what she wrote.  “I was moved by John Soranno’s story.  It got me thinking about my … full-time employees and their ability to survive on $8 an hour in New York City.”  So a few weeks ago, Yasmin put in place a plan to lift wages for her employees at both her restaurants to at least $10 an hour by the end of this year.

But here’s the thing – Yasmin isn’t just raising her employees’ wages because it’s the right thing to do.  She’s doing it for the same reason John Soranno did. It makes good business sense.

Yasmin wrote, “It will allow us to attract and retain better talent – improving customer experience, reducing employee churn and training costs.  We believe doing so makes good business sense while at the same time having a positive impact on the community.”

Yasmin’s right.  That’s why, two months ago, I issued an Executive Order requiring workers on new federal contracts to be paid a fair wage of at least ten dollars and ten cents an hour.

But in order to make a difference for every American, Congress needs to do something.  And America knows it.  Right now, there’s a bill that would boost America’s minimum wage to ten dollars and ten cents an hour.  That would lift wages for nearly 28 million Americans across the country.  28 million.  And we’re not just talking about young people on their first job.  The average minimum wage worker is 35 years old.  They work hard, often in physically demanding jobs.

And while not all of us always see eye to eye politically, one thing we overwhelmingly agree on is that nobody who works full-time should ever have to live in poverty.  That’s why nearly three in four Americans support raising the minimum wage.  The problem is, Republicans in Congress don’t support raising the minimum wage.  Some even want to get rid of it entirely.  In Oklahoma, for example, the Republican governor just signed a law prohibiting cities from establishing their own minimum wage.

That’s why this fight is so important.  That’s why people like John and Yasmin are giving their workers a raise.  That’s why several states, counties, and cities are going around Congress to raise their workers’ wages.  That’s why I’ll keep up this fight.  Because we know that our economy works best when it works for all of us – not just a fortunate few.  We believe we do better when everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead.  That’s what opportunity is all about.

And if you agree with us, we could use your help.  Republicans have voted more than 50 times to undermine or repeal health care for millions of Americans.  They should vote at least once to raise the minimum wage for millions of working families. If a Republican in Congress represents you, tell him or her it’s time to give the politics a rest for a while and do something to help working Americans.  It’s time for “ten-ten.”  It’s time to give America a raise.

Thanks, and have a great weekend

Bolding added.

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Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 15 Comments

15 comments

  2. HappyinVT

    There are quite a few issues that will sit until the cows come home (or roost on federal land): immigration, climate change are two.

    That $10.10 is remotely controversial makes me sad.

  3. JanF

    Ukraine: International Observers Arrested, More Sanctions Approved

    The leaders of the world’s largest economies are poised to punish Russia over its role in Ukraine’s crisis with a new round of sanctions the Group of Seven approved Friday. The same day, a team of European monitors was arrested in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists.

    The G7 leaders say the sanctions are a response to Moscow’s lack of action on pledges made during recent talks in Geneva that were meant to calm the tense situation in Ukraine.

    Will new sanctions work? I guess we will find out. There are really no alternatives. Even if we had a standing army to send halfway around the world, what would we do? Who would John McCain like us to bomb?

    Putin is trying to rebuild the Soviet Union, a governing model that fell apart because the people were harmed economically by the military infrastructure necessary to sustain an empire. They are being harmed economically now by the sanctions and one wonders how long they will put up with Putin’s machinations. Change will have to come from within and I am not even sure how that happens. Making war on his own people? One thing for sure: he will not back down unless he has some way to make it look like he is not backing down. His ego will not allow him to do otherwise.

  4. JanF

    Hey, Conservatives: Obama Is Trolling You on the ACA

    Last week, when Obama announced that signups for open enrollment had exceeded 8 million, he declared, “the repeal debate is and should be over. The ACA is working and I know the same people don’t want us spending the next two-and-a-half years fighting the settled political debates of the last five years.” Republicans and their allies were apoplectic. Sean Spicer, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, promised that Obamacare “is still the number one, number two and number three issue going into this election.” It’s the same way they reacted the last time Obama said something similar-in early April, when signups climbed past 7 million. “No way, Mr. President,” Bill Kristol responded in the Weekly Standard. “We do not accept, we do not acquiesce in, this deplorable piece of legislation. The debate is not over.”

    Sorry, guys. It really is over. You run against the ACA at your own peril in 2014 because what you “see” in your echo chamber is NOT what the people who are benefiting from this law see in The Real World™. The party that won in 2010 on the theme “Hands off my Medicare!!” is forgetting how powerful threatening people’s health care can be. “Hands off my Obamacare!!!”? Probably not. But how about “Leave my newly affordable health insurance aloooooone!!!”.

  5. princesspat

    Signature drive to start for $15-wage vote

    Members voted to begin gathering a target of 50,000 signatures in support of amending the city’s charter so it would require: big corporations to pay a $15 minimum wage effective Jan. 1, 2015, with no reduction in pay to compensate for tips or benefits; a three-year phase-in for small businesses and nonprofits; and a yearly raise tied to cost-of-living increases.

    ~snip~

    Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has voiced support for a $15-an-hour minimum wage, but on Thursday he announced that his income-inequality committee has failed to submit a proposal for such a measure, due to a lack of consensus on several issues.

    15 Now is centered in Seattle, but wants to create momentum nationally for increasing the minimum wage.

  6. JanF

    Sen. Pryor Bashes Rep. Cotton Over Medicare In New TV Ad

    Sen. Mark Pryor’s (D-AR) re-election campaign rolled out a new ad on Monday highlighting his support for Medicare and attacking his Republican opponent over supporting changes to the program.

    The ad, obtained first by TPM, features Pryor touting his own efforts to make it more difficult to raise the eligibility age for Medicare. Pryor specifically mentions the Medicare Protection Act, which he introduced in March.

    “I wrote the Medicare Protection Act to stop politicians from destroying Medicare,” Pryor said in the ad. “My legislation makes it harder to raise the eligibility or to turn Medicare over to the insurance industry. My opponent voted to withhold benefits until age 70, and I’m trying to stop that.”

    Nearly every Republican in the House of Representatives voted to voucherize Medicare and to repeal the Affordable Care Act. These chickens are going to come home to roost.

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