[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MINIMUM WAGE AND RISING PRICES

  (Mr. MORAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, over the last 9 years gas prices 
have doubled; college prices are up 38 percent; food prices, up 20 
percent; housing, up 25 percent; and health care costs, up a whopping 
75 percent. But the minimum wage hasn't budged over that period of 
time.
  Over the last 5 years, we have had a singular focus in this House on 
raising revenue for those families for whom these numbers really don't 
mean much, because they have so much disposable income. But for people 
on the minimum wage, it means they have to decide between putting food 
on the table or insuring their own children. They have to work a week 
just to fill their tank with gas.
  That's not right, and isn't it time that the Republican Party stop 
blocking the Democrat's attempts to raise the minimum wage and 
recognize that it is the working class families who are providing the 
underpinning of this economy? Let's increase the minimum wage. It is 
the right thing to do.

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