[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1148
                              MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. KNOLLENBERG asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, last night we heard President Clinton 
call for an increase in the minimum wage. Leon Panetta claims such an 
increase will ``keep people interested in work rather than in 
welfare.''
  It must have been a busy week for the writers over at the White 
House. Not only did they have to write a State of the Union Address, 
but they had to rewrite basic economic theory as well.
  Last Wednesday, Mr. Carlos Bonilla, an economist at the Employment 
Policies Institute, testified before the Opportunities Committee. He 
argued that low wage jobs, not job training programs, provide the best 
means to break the cycle of dependency. He also warned that raising the 
minimum wage would deprive many welfare recipients of the opportunity 
to work their way off welfare.
  I urge my colleagues, who believe that raising the minimum wage rate 
will help the poor, to review Mr. Bonilla's testimony. The President's 
intentions may be good, but raising the minimum wage is bad policy.
  As the House begins to consider legislation that will move welfare 
recipients toward self-sufficiency let us not lift the bottom rung of 
the occupational ladder beyond their reach.

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