President Obama loves himself some minimum wage banter. The man who never ran so much as a lemonade stand knows more than you about how micro- and macro-economics work, especially as it pertains to small businesses around the country. After all, he went to Harvard. He’s a lawyer. Magazines told me he was the smartest fella ever to become commander-in-chief. He’s a pragmatist. A great orator. And very good at basketball.
So that’s him. But what about the rest of us?
As my pal Andrew Johnson reported at NRO, the president is never one to let direct questions about the real-world impact of Obamacare get in the way of a prime chance to extol the virtues of raising the minimum wage:
“During a Google Hangout session on Friday, fry cook Darnell Summers told President Obama that his hours were cut due to the Affordable Care Act. “We were broken down to part time to avoid paying health insurance,” he said. Summers explained that he makes $7.25 an hour and has been on strike four times seeking a wage increase. “We can’t survive, it’s not livin’,” he said.
The president responded by urging states to increase the minimum wage. “I am working to encourage states, governors, mayors, state legislators to raise their own minimum wage,” Obama said. “Obviously, the way to reach millions of people would be for Congress to pass a new federal minimum wage law. So far, at least, we have not seen support from Republicans for such a move.”
The president did not address Summers’s comments about the healthcare law.”
There is nothing the left enjoys more than to characterize any number of policy positions held by conservatives—especially religious conservatives—as “outlandish,” “un-scientific,” or “backwards.” And yet when the leader of the free world runs his mouth in support of something so provably detrimental to the economic growth he claims it will generate, we’re all supposed to make our legs tingle or keep our mouths shut (for fear of being called a “racist”).
Follow me on the president’s logic: He forces new health care laws on small business owners. These small business owners cannot afford to keep the same number of employees on a full-time basis directly due to Obama’s new health care laws. When asked about this inevitable outcome, the president’s suggestion is that more states should force employers to pay their employees more. Even though the lack of money on the part of the employer was the problem to begin with. Oh, and Repbulicans hate you, old people, and kittens.
And this is progress?
You’re heroes, all of you who mindlessly champion higher and higher minimum wage laws. Your disconnected-from-math compassion knows no bounds. Let’s toss in a good old fashioned “It’s all for the kids” and call it a day.
