At one point in the campaign, Donald Trump argued that America had lost its competitive edge in part because wages got too high. In fact, not only did he make that declaration during a November debate, he doubled down the next day on the argument, as Allahpundit noted at the time. Note well that the debate statement came as a direct answer about whether Trump would support raising the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and Trump insisted he opposed it...
On Tuesday, Trump reversed himself and told Bill O’Reilly that he’d push it to $10 an hour, along with an eyebrow-raising shot at (supposedly) fellow Republicans not wanting to help people out. Yesterday, Trump confirmed that position at a press conference:
So … what prompted this change now, and what will Trump propose to effect it? The Hill’s Peter Schroeder reports that even his campaign advisers aren’t really sure:
Trump’s latest position puts him at odds with conservative thinkers and most of the business community, which argues that a government-mandated wage hike would just mean fewer workers as businesses cut costs to meet the new requirement.Even Trump’s own economic brain trust could not explain how the GOP nominee decided $10 per hour should be the new standard.“I saw the statement that he made on TV, but I haven’t had the chance to talk to him in the last couple weeks about this,” Stephen Moore, an economist at the Heritage Foundation who is advising the Trump campaign on economic issues, told The Hill on Wednesday.“I don’t know exactly what he was endorsing. The $10 minimum wage, that was the first I’d heard of that …Sometimes he says one thing, and sometimes he says another about this, so I’m not exactly sure where he’s at on this.”
This is a calculated move to steal Berners from Hilldawg. He knows she is unpalatable enough to most Republicans that he can take this risk. Further evidence that people who claim True Knowledge of what a Trump presidency would be like are deluded.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little shocked you think he is endorsing a FEDERAL minimum wage. He clearly said in his remarks on Tuesday (as he did in the primaries) that he wanted states to figure out what was best for their state. He also told the reporters that raising the minimum would actually HURT some jobs and said that should be accounted for.
ReplyDeleteThe man's a genius. he's taken the #1 liberal weapon against the "greedy capitalist Republicans" and completely disarmed them. He's for it but takes no responsibility to get it done all while beginning the education of a uninformed media that it actually hurts jobs.
He's wrong on a lot of things - but this is pure political genius to me.
(PS. Not a single person on his economic team endorses a federal min wage.)
It seems to me he is endorsing the $10 minimum wage which could indeed be above the market wage. Just because the proposed $15 minimum wage is higher than the $10 minimum wage does not mean that a $10 minimum wage is low. What it means is that it is lower than $15 but higher than the present $7.50. The smartest thing to do is not affect the minimum wage because certain jobs might require a wage lower than $10, which in that case would mean he is indeed causing a scenario of deadweight loss. It's the free market stupid, Trump doesn't get it.
Delete2016 is such a crazy election year!
DeleteIt's good he at least said "yes it'll be bad for the economy, but we should raise it anyway." Sort of like reverse psychology. Instead of saying it'll be bad for the economy and that's why we shouldn't do it, which is true but has been a losing strategy, he says yes it will hurt the economy and that's why we should do it.
ReplyDelete