Tom Coburn: Abolish minimum wage and let ‘free market’ decide how little workers make

[LuckyTheDog]

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on Thursday touted the fact that he was the only remaining Republican member of Congress who voted against a minimum wage increase in 2007 because he believed the ban on low wages should be completely repealed.

During an interview on MSNBC, Willie Geist asked the Oklahoma Republican if he “turned his back” on his own state by voting against raising the minimum wage to $10.10 on Wednesday.

Coburn argued that the “benefit is small, the cost of lost jobs is great, it goes against free market principles.”

“How did they pick $10.10?” he said. “Why not $22? Why not $100? That makes everybody make $200,000 a year. The fact is, what we have is an economic system on its butt right now because we have poor leadership and poor policy.”

MORE HERE: http://wonkynewsnerd.com/tom-coburn-abolish-minimum-wage/

[Historic NY]

1. I say Tom lets start with your 174k salary...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. It makes my head spin to know how fast we would return to being =

slaves
serfs
indentured servants
child labor.

It would happen overnight.

on edit = Fuck You Tom Coburn ... you are one of the reasons that Old White Men have a bad name.

[onethatcares]

3. why don't we start by

voting on congressional salaries instead of them being able to sit back, not vote and express surprise when they get a raise for themselves?

that asshole can't even tie his own tie presentably.

[frylock]

4. what, exactly, is congress contributing to the free market?

let's start with these fuckwads who are barely scraping by on 180K.

[warrior1]

5. let's reduce their wages to the current federal min. wage.

fuckers

[MissMillie]

6. notice... he said "how little"

and not "how much."


That's the mentality: keep the wages low

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. Was this just about the worst Morning Joe show in months?

It was like 3 hours of RWNJ full court press. So bad the regulars felt the need to punch back against Joe here and there.

[Paladin]

8. Tom Coburn has never had a tough financial day in his entire life.

He grew up the son of an optician, and his father founded a sizable optics firm. So his anti-minimum wage, "free market" bullshit can and should be ignored.

[Sheepshank]

9. This is just singing another tune to "Trickle down"

and we all know how well that has been working.

[moondust]

10. Let them eat cat food!

I mean cake!

[LuckyTheDog]

11. And if you can't afford cat food...

SCREW YOU!

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Coburn is a bigoted nut, but I worry that our 'Moderate Centrists' would vote for him because

Obama so frequently praises Coburn and says those he represents are very lucky and that they are fellow Christians and their wives are close friends. They also share with Coburn a distrust of liberals and a good dose of healthy homophobia, these moderate voters, so it seems like they could very easily be persuaded to vote for a Coburn endorsed candidate or Coburn himself, all that common ground will blind them and they will go vote Republican!!!!
I see lots of 'Moderates' claim that gay people and cannabis activists would 'easily' be duped into voting for Rand Paul, and I bet their own lust for Coburn is why they project such crazy thoughts.

[lordsummerisle]

13. I also unfortunately saw this

this morning, and it's the closest I've come in years to destroying a TV. I can't remember anyone I've disagreed with more about virtually everything.
Once they get rid of the minimum wage, repeal of the 13th amendment would be just around the corner...

[Robbins]

14. This doesn't surprise me

He admitted what i have thought for years if republicans had their way they would ablosh minuem wage so corporations could pay as little as possable.

Wal mart workers have to go on food stamps and medicaid to survive.

[Make7]

15. Why didn't he believe that the 'free market' should have decided whether banks should fail?

He voted for TARP.