Class Warfare GOP Style: Millionaire Republican Senators Block Bill To Raise The Minimum Wage

Senate Republicans Speak To The Media After Their Weekly Policy Meeting

Republican style class warfare was on full display today as just one Senate Republican millionaire broke with his party to vote in favor of advancing a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

By a vote of 54-42, Republicans were able to block the bill that would raise the minimum wage. Only Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee voted with the Democrats.

The debate on the Senate floor before the vote was riddled with Republican myths and inaccuracies about the minimum wage. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “Every senator who votes ‘yes’ is voting with an absolute certainty that hundreds of thousands of workers, including a great many African-American teenagers and a great many Hispanic teenagers, will be laid off as a consequence of their vote. I would challenge any of the senators in this chamber to look in the eyes of those African-American teenagers, those Hispanic teenagers who are looking for a better opportunity.”

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Sen. Cruz was lying. 78% of the people earning minimum wage are white. The average age of the worker affected by the minimum wage is 35. 56% are women. 35.5% are at least 40 years old. 55% of those earning minimum wage work full time and 28% have children.

The reality of who is earning minimum wage reveals the true Republican agenda. Raising the minimum wage would have an impact on the wage structure that would boost more people into the middle class. Republicans are actively working to eliminate the middle class, because they want an oligarchic society of haves and have nots.

Republicans always try to make the minimum wage a race issue, but it is a fairness issue. Is it fair for people to work hard, and not be able to make ends meet while those at the top continue to get richer?

There are plenty of Democratic millionaires in the Senate who voted to do the right thing. The Republican millionaires, minus Sen. Corker today, felt compelled to let the country know that they don’t think people who work hard deserve to earn more money.

The entitled millionaires in the Republican Party are using their congressional positions to wage war on working people. The millionaire is screwing the little guy/gal, but the little people who the GOP feels aren’t worth $10.10 an hour can get their revenge in November.



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