WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, the Democratic Party unveiled a proposal to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The Raise the Wage Act of 2017 is just one of the indications that the left’s progressive agenda — spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — has acquired a stronghold in the Democratic Party.
As the liberal site BuzzFeed put it, The Democratic Party has veered so far to the left that it makes “Barack Obama look like Al Gore.”
The minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 at the Federal level. The Raise the Wage Act of 2017 would raise the minimum wage nationwide incrementally to $15.00 an hour by 2024.
According to Politico, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and approximately 30 other Democrats joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) in releasing the legislation.
Senate Democratic leader Patty Murray (D-WA), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) were also present on Thursday.
“Now, I know it is a radical concept for our Republican friends,” Sanders said during Thursday’s press conference on the Raise the Wage Act of 2017. “But we believe that in the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, that if you work 40 hours a week or 50 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty. It must be a wage that people can live in dignity with.”
Sanders has pushed for a minimum wage hike for quite some time, and he made it one of the centerpieces of his bid for the presidency in 2016.
Nineteen states began the new year with higher minimum wages, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. They include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington.
Schumer also spoke during Thursday’s event.
“To all the workers here, we will never stop fighting for you,” Schumer said. “Today marks the day, 10 years to the last time the federal government raised the minimum wage.” Schumer, in typical fashion, did not waste any time until attacking President Donald Trump:
This president ran on a promise he’d stick up for the American worker. He tried to talk like a different type of Republican who might be willing to work with Democrats on issues that help working people, like many of your here today. But since he’s come into office, he’s completely turned his back on the American worker.
Since taking office, the stock markets rallied to heights never seen before. In February, the President signed a resolution overturning former President Barack Obama’s “Stream Protection Rule,” which will ultimately help save thousands of American jobs in the mining industry.
Also on Thursday, initial jobless claims hit a 44-year low.
Breitbart News previously reported that “[t]he economy added nearly 300,000 private sector jobs in the first full month of Donald Trump’s presidency–blowing away the expectations of economists and defying many so-called experts who predicted Trump’s presidency would lead to an economic slump.”
However, there has been strong debate focused around the negative impacts of a minimum wage hike on small businesses. Traditional fast-food jobs have recently been replaced with robots and automated kiosks, taking the place of humans.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently called for a robot tax to offset the loss of jobs done by humans as a result of this advancement in automation.
Further, a study conducted by researchers at Harvard Business School concluded that minimum wage laws increase the likelihood that non-elite restaurants will go out of business:
The evidence suggests that higher minimum wages increase overall exit rates for restaurants. However, lower quality restaurants, which are already closer to the margin of exit, are disproportionately impacted by increases to the minimum wage.
A Heritage Foundation study also confirmed that the implementation of Thursday’s potential minimum wage hike would eliminate seven million jobs and substantially raise prices for families and businesses.
What today’s bill proves is that Democrats are now beholden to a far-left-wing base that continues to push for unrealistic and dangerous policies out of touch with mainstream Americans.
According to Jeremy Adler of the America Rising PAC:
Democrats are confirming today that they are now the party of the looney left and will follow in the footsteps of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in a march towards extremism and away from the realities of basic economics. This legislation proves that their party’s leadership will embrace a policy that will eliminate millions of jobs, increase costs across the board and put an unsustainable burden on businesses, just to appease their rabid base of irrational activists.
Schumer closed his speech by saying, “And so we’re here today to ask President Trump to stick up for working people by supporting our bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.”
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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