[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3396-H3397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE IS NOT A PANACEA

  (Mrs. SEASTRAND asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. SEASTRAND. Mr. Speaker, somehow liberals in this House and the 
big labor union bosses here in Washington, DC, are convinced that 
raising the minimum wage will somehow solve the world's problems. The 
belief in the effectiveness of the minimum wage is a triumph of fantasy 
over reality, of symbolism over substance.
  The proponents of an increased minimum wage argue that Americans need 
a raise. Well, if Members recall, Mr. Speaker, Republicans tried to 
give working Americans a raise by giving them a tax cut, and the 
President said no and vetoed it. Now liberals are falling, and, I might 
say, those big labor union bosses are falling all over themselves 
trying to portray themselves as

[[Page H3397]]

defenders of the poor, the economically downtrodden. But it is all an 
act, and Americans know it. Even President Clinton's top economic 
adviser, Joseph Stieglitz, wrote in an economic textbook that, ``A 
higher minimum wage does not seem a particularly useful way to help the 
poor.''
  If liberals and those labor bosses were really convinced about the 
poor and concerned about them, they would support tax relief, that $500 
per child tax credit. They would lower interest rates by supporting a 
balanced budget, and also they would seek economic growth.

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