Sen. John Barrasso | Facebook
Sen. John Barrasso | Facebook
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso criticized the $15 per hour national minimum wage advocated by the Democrats and called Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill “a very expensive liberal wish list.”
“If Democrats are interested with coronavirus relief, they would work with us, because we have passed five different coronavirus relief bills so far, all signed into law,” Barrasso said.
He said that Republicans are concerned with the “impact on small businesses and people at home as the Democrats try to have a nationally mandated increase in the minimum wage.”
It’s actually a “mandated doubling the minimum wage,” Barrasso said further.
He cited the Congressional Budget Office’s recent report and has posted on Twitter that “CBO has said employment would be reduced by 1.4 million workers if the Democrats’ mandated increase of minimum wage becomes law. We cannot afford to lose these jobs - not now, not ever.”
Apart from a nose-dive in employment, CBO has also said that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would result in an increased federal budget deficit by $54 billion between 2021 and 2031.
“We are here to protect workers, as well as small businesses to provide the job for the workers,” Barrasso said.
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