Angry Right’s Secret Revulsion: Why They Really Dodge Minimum Wage Questions
http://www.alternet.org/economy/angry-rights-secret-revulsion-why-they-really-dodge-minimum-wage-questions
Its no great secret that Republicans oppose increasing the minimum wage. They dont pretend its something they want to do under any circumstances. They dont even really bother disguising their opposition. They cloak their view in dated and oversimplified economic arguments about labor demand and economic growth when the real impediment is ideological, and so its a somewhat better kept secret that many Republicans oppose the minimum wage altogether.
Opposing the minimum wage isnt a politically seemly thing to do, though, and thus the great political consequence of President Obamas decision, announced during his State of the Union address, to institute a $10.10 minimum wage for future federal contracts, will be to draw the extent of this opposition out into the open.
If theres one thing conservatives agree upon with respect to Obamas executive order, its that it wont impact very many people. Theyre actually probably correct about that. Yet despite the policys marginal impact, some conservatives abruptly turned discovering the means of denying a higher wage to a tiny number of workers into a top priority.
In the days since Obamas State of the Union address, theyve attacked the order itself, encouraged Congress to block it, and scoured federal law for a reason that the courts should throw it out.