The Minimum Wage Took a Beating Last Night

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Nobody was in favor of raising the minimum wage last night:

Trump: Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world….People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum.

Carson: My first job working in a laboratory as a lab assistant, and multiple other jobs. But I would not have gotten those jobs if someone had to pay me a large amount of money….I would not raise it. I would not raise it, specifically because I’m interested in making sure that people are able to enter the job market and take advantage of opportunities.

Rubio: If I thought that raising the minimum wage was the best way to help people increase their pay, I would be all for it, but it isn’t. In the 20th century, it’s a disaster. If you raise the minimum wage, you’re going to make people more expensive than a machine.

So we have a billionaire who says people just have to suck it up and work harder; a neurosurgeon who doesn’t realize he got paid minimum wage for his jobs as a kid; and a senator who thinks it’s still the 20th century. But one thing is for sure: they’re in favor of cutting taxes on the rich and keeping wages low for the poor. Sweet.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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