[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5386-H5387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE POISON PILL IN RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. WYNN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WYNN. Mr. Speaker, by now it is abundantly clear that the 
Republican leadership wants to kill the minimum wage with a poison 
pill. Let me explain. Right now 80 percent of the American population 
wants a raise in the minimum wage. There is bipartisan majorities in 
both Houses who support an increase in the minimum wage. Today we will 
have a bill to increase the minimum wage. So what is the problem? Where 
is the pill?
  Well, in this bill there is an amendment that would exempt two-thirds 
of the companies from the requirements of the bill. That is to say, 
two-thirds of the companies would not have to pay the minimum wage, 
which means up to 10 million workers would not get the minimum wage. So 
we are witnessing today a sham, a minimum wage bill that the people 
want, that the majorities in Congress want, but that the Republican 
leadership refuses to bring forward.
  They will not bring forward a clean minimum wage. They would rather 
perpetrate this sham and undermine real minimum wage increases.

[[Page H5387]]



                            RUBBER PRESIDENT

  (Mr. BASS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I bring to your attention an editorial which 
appears in today's New Hampshire Union Leader entitled, Rubber 
President, Here's Bill Clinton, Contortionist Extraordinaire.
  The editorial discusses the fact that the President has twice vetoed 
welfare reform and yet, if I may quote, it says, ``Knowing Bob Dole has 
scheduled a major speech today on the subject of welfare, Mr. Clinton 
did an about-face over the weekend to declare his support for 
Wisconsin's Republican welfare reform plan. Unbelievable.
  Governor Tommy Thompson's innovative Wisconsin Works program embodies 
more reform, a lot more reform, than either of the two bills Mr. 
Clinton vetoed. But now the President says he thinks Governor 
Thompson's approach is just peachy.
  Republicans should call Mr. Clinton's bluff. They should not let him 
get away with telling the voters he is for welfare reform while vetoing 
sensible reform bills. Congress should present him with a welfare 
reform bill based on the Wisconsin plan and dare him to veto what he 
says he supports.
  That is what we will do today, Mr. Speaker. We are going to introduce 
a sensible welfare reform bill.

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