Alexander: Republicans Have a Better Way to Raise Family Incomes Than the Democrat Minimum Wage Proposal That Would Cut 500,000 Jobs

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“On the most important issue facing the country, surely we can do better than the stale, bankrupt idea that according to the Congressional Budget Office would destroy 500,000 jobs.” –Lamar Alexander

Washington, D.C., April 30 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the committee that oversees labor policy, said Republicans have a “better way” to raise family incomes than the Democrats’ proposal to increase the minimum wage by nearly 40 percent, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says will cause a loss of 500,000 jobs.

“The issue is right—it’s jobs. The American people want it to be easier to find a good-paying job,” Alexander said. “The Democrats’ proposal as the solution to the jobs problem is a proposal that will eliminate 500,000 jobs.”

In a floor speech Monday, Alexander said: “A minimum wage increase is said to benefit low-income Americans, but only $1 in $5 from an increase will go to families below the poverty line. And that is not all. In addition to cutting 500,000 jobs and providing 80 percent of the benefits to families above the poverty level, the Democrats’ jobs proposal imposes one more burden on the only Americans who are capable of solving this problem, and that is the job creators.”

Alexander continued, “On the most important issue facing the country, surely we can do better than the stale, bankrupt idea we will vote on this week that according to the office that we’re supposed to trust for advice, the Congressional Budget Office, says would No. 1: Destroy 500,000 jobs; No. 2: Concentrate most of the benefits on those above the poverty line; No. 3: Make it more expensive  to create jobs; and No. 4: Tax only some taxpayers for a policy designed to benefit the entire society.”

Noting that Republicans have not been able to offer amendments in the labor committee, Alexander highlighted several bipartisan proposals that would help create jobs:

• Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Change Obamacare’s definition of fulltime employment from 30 to 40 hours.
• Reform federal job training programs.
• Pass the “Scholarships for Kids Act.”
• Build the Keystone XL Pipeline.
• Pass the Trade Promotion Authority.

• Reform the National Labor Relations Board.
• Repeal the medical device tax.

Of the Democrats’ proposal, he continued, “This kind of thinking is right in line with Obamacare, Dodd-Frank and all of the other polices that have spread a big, wet blanket of rules and regulations over our free enterprise system and made it harder to create a job and harder to find a job in the United States of America. That’s why we have 10.5 million unemployed in America today for an average of nine months.”

Click here for video of Alexander’s remarks delivered on the Senate floor.

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