Steve Benen - The year of the NutJob

[Mass]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_10/025965.php

PUTTING THE MINIMUM WAGE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK.... In recent years, the debate over the minimum wage has largely been limited to two camps: those who want to keep the rate where it is, and those who want to increase it.

This year, with the Republican Party moving sharply to the far-right, the debate has added a third contingent that wants to see the minimum wage shrink, if not be eliminated altogether.

...

We asked him, for example, if there should be a federally mandated minimum wage, something that has existed since Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.

"That is clearly up to the states," Miller said. "The state of Alaska has a minimum wage which is higher than the federal level because our state leaders have made that determination. The minimum level again should be the state's decision."

So there should not be a federal minimum wage?

"There should not be," Miller answered.
...

Pundits often apply overly broad labels to various election cycles, in the hopes of capturing some key overarching trend. It's what's given us phrases like the "Year of the Woman," for example.

Can reasonable people agree now that this is the Year of the Nutjob?

[RandomThoughts]

1. Ask him if there should be a law against assult or theft.

What would be his defense for those laws?

Then move his argument to the minimum wage, and it is the same argument. He would argue for minimum wage if it was meant to be an argument and not just a rationalization for what he wants.

[lunatica]

2. Does he really think States would give minimum wage if the Fed Gov didn't set a minimum?

Bitter irony is that the minimum wage laws were passed to protect women and children from being exploited. It was a federal law so they could get paid more than they would be otherwise. But like all protective measures the sociopathic assholes in this country find a way of twisting it into an obscenity.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Add two words to that --

Year of the Nutjob- Teabags and Republicans