[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. BAKER of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BAKER of California. Mr. Speaker, in his State of the Union 
Address, President Clinton made the point that a Member of Congress 
earns more in a month that a minimum-wage worker earns in a year. Well, 
perhaps a more interesting statistic is the Federal Government spends 
more in less than 4 days than all the 3.5 million minimum-wage earners 
make in a full year. Yet in his new budget, the President proposes that 
we spend $50 billion more next year than this year, $50 billion we do 
not have.
  While the President has taken some small, positive steps, it is clear 
he is not up to making the tough decisions on the budget. So we in 
Congress, yesterday, voted to give the President a new tool, the line-
item veto. We would like to have the President as a partner, but we are 
prepared to go it alone in balancing the budget.
  We are going to improve the lot of minimum-wage earners and middle-
income Americans and the best way to do it is to get the Federal budget 
under control and grow the economy.
  Our Contract With America will do precisely that by lowering taxes, 
reducing Federal regulation and Government spending and increasing 
incentives for work and investment. The results will be a balanced 
budget by the year 2002, the sooner, the better.


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