Kennedy Pledges His “Damn Best” To Get Minimum Wage Hike Out in 24 Hours
EmailABC’s Karuna Seshasai reports: If Democrats win control of the House of Representatives, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the woman in line to be Speaker of the House, has said that raising the minimum wage would be her "first priority." On a conference call with reporters Monday, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the Democrat in line to head the Senate’s Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, said that if Democrats win control of the Senate, he will "do my damn best to get this out" in the first 24 hours.
Kennedy blamed "President Bush, Karl Rove, and the Republican leadership" for sinking previous efforts to raise the federal minimum wage. The Massachusetts Democrat predicted, however, that if Democrats capture control and pass a wage hike, President Bush would sign it into law, "or we’d override his veto, I don’t think there’s any question on that."
Kennedy was joined on the conference call by former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) as well as several labor leaders who are promoting ballot measures to raise the $5.15 minimum wage in six different states – Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Missouri, Nevada, and Ohio – this November.
Calling the current national minimum wage an "embarrassment," Edwards described "efforts by Republicans to block the minimum wage" as "offensive." The 2008 presidential hopeful said that he will spend the next three days traveling to Nevada, Arizona and Colorado to rally with Democratic candidates pushing for a higher minimum wage.
Sounding optimistic about Democratic chances in general, and Sherrod Brown’s chances in Ohio in particular, Kennedy said of Democrats taking control, "Six months ago it was just a dream for about a half-dozen of us."
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There is some solace to the idea of Pelosi becoming Speaker. At least the Republican party will have someone from the radical left of the Democratic party to run against in ’08.
Posted by: YAFer in Jerusalem | October 24, 2006, 4:50 am 4:50 am
Its been nine years, since there has been an increase in the minimum wage. Shame on on you GOP!! How many raises have you got in that time? I think its time for both parties to get in touch with the real America and start moving this country toward the greatness we once had.
Posted by: Jim Mancini | October 24, 2006, 2:01 pm 2:01 pm
Why can’t it be 20.00 dollars an hour. So you can shop at wal-mart
Posted by: larmar | October 24, 2006, 6:20 pm 6:20 pm
“Its been nine years, since there has been an increase in the minimum wage. Shame on on you GOP!! How many raises have you got in that time? I think its time for both parties to get in touch with the real America and start moving this country toward the greatness we once had.”
Back to Econ 101 for you. Hey, let’s just raise it to $50 an hour and everyone will be rich! Right? Right? That’s how economics works isn’t it?
Posted by: Bill | October 24, 2006, 7:28 pm 7:28 pm
Why don’t the Democrats say what they’re going to raise it to? Don’t they want us to know until after the election? And since they’re so gung ho about it, why didn’t they do it under Clinton? Oh, I forgot, it’s all Bush’s fault.
Posted by: Eric Bystrom | October 30, 2006, 12:01 am 12:01 am
When Clinton was in office, is when he did raise our minimum..Eric you must be still wet behind the ears.The minimum wage was 3.35 for many years and when Clinton became president he raised it to 5.15
Posted by: Bert | October 31, 2006, 9:57 pm 9:57 pm