Im all for increasing the minimum wage but I am a big believer in bipartisanship and compromise. And I mean that in a Republican way where I make all the compromises and they give nothing. Well almost nothing. I want a minimum wage increase. In return I am willing to cut welfare benefits and end wasteful tax payer subsidies that pick winners and losers instead of letting the market decide. Now thats something even Paul "Dignity of Work" Ryan could support, no?
First off, while I like $10.10 I want to honor Veterans and the military so lets go with $11.11. Its really not that much more and it supports the troops. I know all Republicans support the troops so that should be easy.
Raising the minimum wage is not revenue neutral so that is a problem. Everything has to have an offset. In this case since the government gets 13% of pay in the form of social security tax and 2.9% in Medicare tax the government will get more money. But since most minimum wage earners are going to make too little money to pay income taxes they don't pay taxes and that is a problem. We need offsets to make up for people not paying taxes. I say cut welfare.
We have a serious problem with "welfare queens" - people making money hand over fist and still collecting welfare. Time to cut them off. As part of raising minimum wage we will enact the following:
Within 180 days of the increase in minimum wage no one making the new minimum wage can receive any state or federal income assistance.
You can't have dignified work AND welfare. Its one or the other. So, if you get minimum wage, no welfare.
Now Im not stupid. Someone is going to just pay their workers $11.12 to get around the rule AND insult the troops. So, I would add the following:
No one may receive state or federal income assistance unless their wages exceed minimum wage by 30%
That would mean you would have to make $14.44 an hour to get welfare. The new "welfare wage" is a double insult to Democrats because it secretly stands for President Franklin Pierce (14th President) and Barrack Obama (44th). Pierce fought in the Mexican American war so Republicans can use that to lure latinos. And Obama was on welfare in Kenya.
Of course these welfare queens are sneaky so to prevent them from working out a deal with their employer to get paid AND welfare, we would need to prevent part time work only designed for getting welfare:
In order to receive income assistance workers must average 38.5 hours a week or more over a 10 week period.
You will work HARD for the money and no agreeing to pay the welfare wage but only for part time work so your workers will qualify!
So now we have kicked a bunch of people off welfare. But some people are still going to collect if they get the $14.44. What to do? Simple:
If more than 1% of your workforce is eligible for welfare you cannot receive any federal contract or subcontract.
No more undignified workers getting federal contracts. No more federal money going to nasty welfare recipients. Welfare queens are the real 1% bringing this nation down!
Now I can see one more way lazy people will try to get around this - by not working! Easier to be on welfare than work. And it should be wrong that someone could be on welfare and get more than someone working. So I would add this:
Federal assistance shall not exceed the equivalent of $14.43 an hour for a full 40 hour week
If you are going to receive welfare you will do it the Republican way - Forty Three! Forty Three!
Finally, the real problem in this country is not a lack of jobs but of qualified workers. Everyone knows that there are lots of jobs but none of the unemployed are trained or smart enough. Its not businesses fault they can't work. How to solve this?
Anyone receiving welfare benefits is required to be enrolled in job training or similar work oriented education program.
We owe it to businesses to provide them workers!
Now a lot of you will think I am being cruel. Excluding hard working people from welfare? Not fair! What happens to all those poor workers? What happens indeed….
WalMart employs about 1.4 million U.S. workers and it is reported they earn, on average, $8.81 an hour. Their business model only works because of the estimated $1.7 million in tax payer subsidies to each store. All 11,000+. That $18 billion dollars. A Year. WalMart will have 6 months to decided if they want to raise wages or lose employees. Employees will have 6 months to prepare for the loss of welfare benefits. Most will seek jobs else ware. Some will choose not to work. WalMart will be forced to either raise wages or face a massive exudes of workers. Not only that they would be excluded from any federal contract - as would many other companies. At the same time companies that treat their workers well would be rewarded with low or no turnover and Federal contracts.
Make no mistake, this would devastate the business model of WalMart and companies like it. Entry level jobs would return to entry level because that is the only way companies could avoid having their employees be eligible for welfare. McDonalds jobs meant for high school kids would go back to high school kids. Management and de-facto management jobs in the service industry would have to pay a managers wage. And if they didn't, workers could stay home. At $14.43 an hour for a 40 hour work week is $2308.80 a month. Take home. Likely far more than what most people getting $8 an hour from WalMart are getting even after assistance. Add in the value of job training and its even more. WalMart could see a million workers quit all at once. Or they could pay $14.44 an hour and schedule people for normal 40 hour work weeks.
I would love to see Democrats propose this just to hear the response from Republicans. It has everything they normally love - cutting off benefits, free market, etc. I would love to hear how they think continuing to make ALL taxpayers pay for other peoples payroll is right. And I would love to hear how they justify giving federal contracts to companies that promote welfare. I would love to see it enacted so millions could be lifted out of poverty and out of abusive jobs. And finally i would love to see WalMart burn to the ground.