Bachmann Says She Would Eliminate Minimum Wage to Spur Growth

[somone]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/25/bloomberg1376-LNEHTY07SXKX01-2V4PAE1VSTENEF31VDPE7S26C5.DTL

Bachmann Says She Would Eliminate Minimum Wage to Spur Growth

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican planning to seek the party's presidential nomination, said she would stoke U.S. economic growth by cutting taxes on corporate income and capital gains and considering elimination of the minimum wage.

Corporate tax rates should be significantly reduced from a maximum 35 percent and capital gains taxes should be eliminated, Bachmann said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation" today. Congress should also reevaluate the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, she said.

"Whatever it takes, that's what we need to do for job creation," said Bachmann. She said President Barack Obama "doesn't seem to have an understanding of how to do the job."

Bachmann, who plans to formally announce her campaign tomorrow at an event in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, is nearly tied with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney among prospective Republican challengers in a poll of likely Iowa caucus voters published today by the Des Moines Register...

[KingFlorez]

1. That would spur something all right, but not growth

The cost of living isn't getting any better, you take away that safety net and you'll have a large percentage of the population falling deep in poverty.

[MadMaddie]

21. It would destroy what's left of the housing market

and other struggling industries. She is a fool.

[Warpy]

38. It would destroy the consumer economy, period.

Starving people don't buy anything they can't eat. If they can't make it, they do without.

[sakabatou]

2. Bachmann wants a plutocracy.

[Enthusiast]

46. Real Christianity.

:sarcasm:

[inna]

58. we already live in one

- fyi, in case you missed that

[Lost-in-FL]

3. Faith based economics...

Because it worked so well before.

[KeepItReal]

4. The GOP also wants to roll back child labor laws...

Maybe that's the ultimate goal:

Little American kids doing the jobs that adults won't do for less than minimum wage.

[nonperson]

5. Uh...Isn't that the very same economic "plan" that caused the problems we're facing?

Sounds like voodoo-Reaganomics all over again.

It hasn't worked in over thirty years of testing. What makes this dingbat think it will work this time? And why isn't anyone calling her and the rest of the Republicans who are regurgitating all this bile out on this?

[bloomington-lib]

6. If she does get elected, I hope she follows through with this.

Maybe once people see their $290 a week check drop even further, they'll wake up, stand up, and make some noise in the streets.

[aquart]

13. Championing death and destruction for others?

Because that IS what you are talking about when you say "noise." Do you really want us to get to the point where so many of us are near death that we take to the streets?

Arab spring your ideal?

[Mz Pip]

7. that's just stupid

An employer suddenly isn't going to increase his work force because he can pay less. Usually employers hire the number of people they need to get things done. More than likely the wages would just go down for the people already employed and there would be no job increases.

[LiberalFighter]

11. Absolutely. THere would be no reason to hire any more employees than necessary.

The only time an employer might hire additional employees would be when it involves management in fake or light jobs involving nepotism.

[brooklynite]

8. Unrec'd - Misleading Headline...

I reacted to her comment as well, but she did not say she would eliminate the minimum wage. She said she would consider it. There's enough to beat her up on without stretching the point.

[butterfly77]

37. When a republiCON says..

they will CONSIDER IT there will be some cutting involved or the outcome won't be good..

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

57. Just because you posted that, I recommended.

[WinkyDink]

63. Oh, WELL, then! EVER so much BETTER!

[bluestateguy]

9. If we just brought back slavery we could lower unemloyment to 2%

And if we abolished all regulation of business we could probably have 10% GDP too.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Vicious and cruel, that's what repukes are!

[madrchsod]

12. no one would have any money to buy anything...

at least the scumbag ford knew he had to pay the workers enough to afford the cars they made.

[Cleita]

14. Let's frame this argument. Although I know the math

in the right wing ideology doesn't work, my argument needs work. Here it is. In order to have growth, there needs to be a lot of people spending money buying stuff they need or want. If they don't have money to spend because they are being paid so poorly, there won't be any growth. I think this can be stated better than what I'm stating.

[no_hypocrisy]

34. Here's Bachmann's simple math.

Eliminate the minimum wage of $7.25 and an employer can hire 2 or more employees for the same amount of wages. Job growth!

[LooseWilly]

50. How about this... by cutting worker income her plan would result in LOWERED demand-

because workers wouldn't be able to buy as much. As demand declines, so too would the sales and hence need for employees... which would then lead to further cuts in wages and staff, which would induce further declines in demand... and so on.

This is the sort of "free market" system that would spark another Great Depression... and once the Owners find that they have to cut prices to sell anything... then they too will see profit margins shrink—at which point the US will be a Third World Style economy and Wall St. expectations of ever increasing rates of return on investments will simply ... evaporate.

Poof.

[Cleita]

55. Well said. I like the way you connect this to a

downward spiral in profits.

[LiberalFighter]

15. Boy... that is a bad picture of her. Or is it the result of high definition photo?

[Rex]

16. She looks completely unhinged...perfect GOP puppet.

[Peregrine Took]

17. Not looking so hot now. Hair and makeup people must have called in sick

that day.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

18. She needs to be fired and given one of those great "None Minimum Wage " job.

What a tool.

[City Lights]

19. Time for her to take a huge pay cut! nt

[MadMaddie]

20. She says whatever it takes yet she has not voted for ANY

jobs bills put on the table. Curious isn't it?

[LiberalFighter]

22. What is her husband's profession?

Is he a psychologist, psychiatrist, or counselor? His profession seems to described in a murky way on their website.

I also noticed that he received his education from Regent University. That would explain why he hasn't diagnosed Michele with any psychological problem.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. Regent U rears its ugly head again,

Remember all those Bush leeches in the Justice Dept that were Regent grads?

[misanthrope]

40. I just covered a trial where the assistant prosecutor...

...was a Regent grad. They gave the initial closing argument and to call it unimpressive would be kind.

[dixiegrrrrl]

42. We need to tent the WH and run fumigation.

[LiberalAndProud]

23. Bachmann believes it is possible to survive on less than minimum wage?

God help us. Heaven forbid people might even need to support a family on less than miminum wage. There aren't as many well-to-do people in this country as Bachmann seems to believe. This will be the downfall of her if she sticks to it. Which is why I am predicting that she won't.

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. I did not know that Regent University was previously Oral Roberts University.

Wiki says....

In 1979, Bachmann was a member of the first class of the O.W. Coburn School of Law, a part of Oral Roberts University (ORU).<12> In 1986 she received a J.D. degree from ORU. She was a member of the final graduating class of the law school at ORU, and was part of a group of faculty, staff, and students who moved the ORU law school library to what is now Regent University.<14>

The whole Wiki article about her is worth a cringe-y read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Bachman

Those 23 "foster children" were/are(?) all girls, her home is a "legally defined treatment home" for which she gets/got paid per head.

and why are we NOT occupying Britain???????
According to Bachmann " "the dangers posed by Islamic terrorism in Iraq, Britain and Pakistan justified the continued American military presence in Iraq."

:silly:

[Rex]

29. Didn't know that either! Thanks!

So she got a degree from Flunkieville U? Great.

[Initech]

26. That will never get anyone elected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg2u_De8j5o

[Fuzz]

27. Great idea. Paying wages just keeps business down.

[murphyj87]

28. The average minimum wage across Canada....

The average minimum wage across Canada is $10.00 an hour (compared to the $7.25 in the United States), the Canadian unemployment rate for May was 7.4% (compared to the 9.1% in the United States), and Canada is highly unionized as well. In addition to that, the saving to Canadian business of a universal single payer health care system is much higher than any tax cut would. Most nations which have a high minimum wage and universal single payer health care systems are doing far better economically than the United States is.

[Cleita]

35. It's just common sense and we should be looking at

Canada as a lab that has successfully done those social programs and implement them ourselves. However, we are hostage to corporations running this country for their benefit and only their benefit and that's the last thing they want because it's a part of the economy that they couldn't get their greedy hands on if we did it like Canada does.

[MrScorpio]

30. This woman is an idiot

Growth in what… Shanty towns?

[Gregorian]

31. Madness.

And please post a warning next time. That face does me grave harm. :)

[pipi_k]

32. Wow. Economic genius...

yeah, because we all know that it's the poor and near-poor who are out there spending like there's no tomorrow on things like Armani suits, Rolex watches, yachts, million dollar motor homes, $200 haircuts, etc., while all those unfortunate rich bastards are dumpster-diving, eating mac and cheese four times a week, buying their pants at the Goodwill stores, and driving around in beaters they hope will survive till tax return time when they can pay for needed repairs.


Make people even poorer, and who knows how much more stuff they'd be able to buy!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Next we know she will impose the Stewart Industrial Code

the short of it... MAXIMUM wage.

[indepat]

36. Guess wages below what Henry Ford paid in the 1920s are needed with little or no

corporate taxes nor any stinkin' taxes on capital gains. Is Madame Bachmann bat-shit crazy or just manifesting pure de evil incarnate like a good little pub? :shrug: :patriot:

[Urban Prairie]

39. The only thing that "President" Bachmann could eliminate is about 2/3rds of the nation's population

If every far rightwing policy that she wanted to implement while in the Oval Office would come to fruition.

[spanone]

41. hey michy, why don't we just reinstate slavery? ask god about that and get back to me, okay?

[TheKentuckian]

43. Slavery is too responsibility intensive for modern capitalists.

It is far less bother and cheaper to pay a few pennies and let the serfs work out how to eat, shelter themselves, and transport themselves back and forth to work.

Slaves are an investment, a bit of responsibility, and tend not to be as motivated and compliant as wage slaves desperate to maintain some level of income to care for themselves and their families.

Slavery is an outmoded paradigm that modern owners have realized is inefficient and a fair bit of hassle.

[moondust]

65. Yep. The new feudalism will be worse than slavery.

With the exception that you are free to quit your job and move to another "plantation" if you can afford it.

If you get injured or sick they'll just give you the boot and hire a replacement tool (for pennies) because they have no investment in you like they did with slaves. And no more "free" room and board like those lucky slaves got!

[Taitertots]

44. This economics student can't find any data that would support that position

Where is the mechanism by which they expect cutting wages and giving tax breaks to billionaires will help the economy? Everything I have ever seen proves that her opinion is diametrically opposed to reality.

1) Destroy the middle class
2) ????
3) Profit

[SoDesuKa]

49. Austrian Economics

The minimum wage is a government-imposed price control. You might want to dig out a copy of The Road to Serfdom from the college library. It's a fairly well-known book.

[Enthusiast]

45. Good picture.

It captures the madness in her eyes.

[Vinca]

47. So no minimum wage, most likely no benefits, any free tents in the offing?

Republicans won't be satisfied until we're a bona fide third world country.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

59. FREE tents? The tents will be rented for US$ Graham's Number per nanosecond.

[Odin2005]

48. This woman is pure evil.

[AsahinaKimi]

51. All the jobs you can work at 25 cents an hour!!!!

um, gee thanks Michele... :sarcasm:

[AlinPA]

52. She looks like a deranged person in that picture.

[liam_laddie]

60. Because she IS...and looking OLD, too.

:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: for MB

[MouseFitzgerald]

53. The dems need to go postal over this

If the dems had any political or strategic sense, they would take her to task over this. I'm sure if you did a poll you would get something like 97% of this country being in favor of a minimum wage. They could effectively end her bid for the presidency if every democrat started talking about this non-stop.

This is an indefensible position that is so easily demolished using the smallest amount of critical thinking.

[BOG PERSON]

54. postfordism has pulled the rug out from underneath us

[jmowreader]

56. Eliminating the minimum wage would kill job creation

The current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Although way too many people are attempting to survive on it, minimum wage is basically walking-around money.

If Bachmann eliminates it, employers will have NO problem whatsoever cutting all their minimum wage employees back to $4.50 per hour, or even less, or even eliminating their pay and making people work for tips. "If you won't work for tips, there are 20 people on the other side of that door who are begging to be allowed to." Given two years, I would expect employers to charge people to come to work--if you're making $10 per hour in tips, obviously you're able to share half of it with your boss.

The effect of this is very simple: people will be doing a lot less walking around. If they're not walking around, they're not spending along the way, and people are going to be let go to help the boss survive.

Besides, Michele, what you guys on that side of the aisle say about tax cuts (that they increase economic activity) is true about increases in the minimum wage. We don't know what would happen in a situation where it was reduced because that's never been tried, but one can only expect that if an increase in the minimum wage puts more money in the economy, a decrease in it reduces the money in the economy.

Jesus Christ is this woman stupid.

[Divine Discontent]

61. wanting to eliminate minimum wage would be the act of a flake, in this troubled economy!

[WinkyDink]

62. For any man or woman in this nation to work for one hour and earn only $7.25 is CRIMINAL.

[quaker bill]

64. One must remember things like this

occasionally a person might think there is an actual limit to the pain and destruction these people would bring to us if they ended up in control. There actually isn't a limit that they would choose to impose upon themselves. The only limit to their destructive passion would be the people rising up to throw them out, and it will get much, much uglier before this happens.

That way lies blood in the streets. One should never doubt this.

[amborin]

66. she would, too, or at least try to