Americans Split on Obama as 69% Back Minimum Wage Hike

[okaawhatever]

President Barack Obama is rebounding from record-low approval ratings as he remedies the botched rollout of his health-care website and moves past the budget standoffs of the last several years.

Less than eight months before the November midterm elections, Americans are evenly split, with 48 percent approving of Obama’s job performance, up from 42 percent in December -- the biggest positive change of his presidency, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. He’s also registering an improved favorability rating at 49 percent, the highest since last June.

SNIP

The survey is an early test of how Americans are responding to the central themes Obama unveiled in his State of the Union address, including expanding economic opportunity, upward mobility and raising wages. Those issues also will be central themes for Democrats in this year’s elections.

Asked about a Congressional Budget Office finding that raising the minimum wage would lift the incomes of 16.5 million people while eliminating 500,000 jobs, a majority -- 57 percent -- said that trade off is unacceptable.

More info at link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-12/americans-split-on-obama-as-69-back-minimum-wage-hike.html

[okaawhatever]

1. You can always tell the Republican position by watching for paid posters on websites. With

this one it was the same talking point repeated frequently:

Someone is going to have to pay for the wage increase, and it's going to be the middle class.

People who have worked hard and earned raises will now be making the same as people who just started out. (This is untrue, all wages rise when minimum wage rises.)

And the one we will probably see a lot of in the near future: "$10.10 is a 39% increase in labor costs for some industries from $7.25. Totally irrational. Republicans would be wise to pass a bill indexing to Chained CPI. Politically, it takes this issue off the table. 2nd, it establishes a presedent in the government for use of this index metric. Sun Tzu would be impressed with this outflanking maneuver."

What that meme fails to address is the failure to keep minimum wage on pace with inflation. The $10.10 number is doing nothing more
than adjusting the minimum wage for inflation.