Thursday, January 23, 2014

Minimum Wage and Income Equality

President Obama and his fellow Democrats are extremely good at messaging.  When they select a message, it is short, easy to understand and explain.  It will be repeated by Democrats everywhere from the White House to local party officials.  They make Republicans look like amateurs when it comes to messaging.  We could only wish the "message" was beneficial to the country; but it is usually divisive.

The current themes for Democratic candidates include "increasing the minimum wage" and "improving income equality."  Democrats accross the country will talk about these ideas in just about every political race.  The message is consistent with the platform of the Democratic Party, and most importantly, is something with which women and young people can identify.  Brilliant, again.

Democrats can't discuss typical core campaign issues: economic growth, low unemployment, helping the poor, creating equal opportunities for women and minorities, and improving access to education and healthcare.  In every instance, these are issues Republicans should talk about, and talk a lot.  Economic growth has barely a pulse.  Unemployment numbers only improved because the government publishes creative results and the unemployed have stopped looking for a job.  In these difficult times, women and minorities have been hit the hardest.  In fact, the following quote from Forbes Magazine says it all:

"Mr. Obama was reelected with 51% of the vote….He cleaned up with 60% of the youth vote, 67% of single women, 93% of blacks, 71% of Hispanics, and 64% of those without a high school diploma, according to exit polls.

But it is precisely these groups that President Obama’s economic policies have punished the most. The latest data on incomes shows that since the end of the recession in June, 2009 incomes for black heads of households have plunged by 10.9%. Incomes for those under age 25 have plummeted by 9.6%. Incomes for workers with a high school diploma or less have dived by 8%. Single women have suffered an income decline of 7%. Incomes for Hispanic heads of households have declined by 4.5%."/1

Simply saying that Obama and the Democrats have done a poor job will not be enough to win control of the US Senate this year.  The Republicans need to establish their own message, and stick to it.  They have the right economic philosophies, but they must say they have a plan; a different course than the current road.  Republicans must remind voters that Democrats controlled the federal government for two years and had the ability to pass any law, any budget.  And pass laws they did!

Democrats passed a $1 trillion stimulus spending bill hoping to ignite the countries economic engine. Remember those "shovel-ready" jobs?  The stimulus spending failed, but did provide big government bailouts and government-guaranteed loans to party allies.  These included Solyndra, Abound Solar, plus 31 more loan guarantees which ultimately cost taxpayers $2.45 billion, according to some estimates.  A123 Batteries received a huge government guaranteed loan before being sold to the Chinese.  Fisker was a similar story building their factory in Sweden.  GM was taken over with government money and still under government control because the stock must double in order to pay back taxpayers.

The only successful loans were made to Wall Street, where government ownership would have reaped huge profits.  After paying off their loans in record time, they later paid record bonuses that year.  Remember, these were the people mostly responsible for the credit crisis.  Fannie and Freddie were also bailed out, and we should have ended all government control; but we didn't.

The Democrats can't talk about improved access to education or healthcare.  Tuition fees are growing much faster than inflation, so students are very unhappy.  Similarly, ObamaCare was a complete disaster for Democrats.  Intending to cover all Americans, including the 30 million who were uninsured, early results suggest that the far majority of people who signed up for State Exchanges were already insured.  Worse, many of those people saw their private insurance terminated, and their plan design options were severely limited.  Most who signed up were older and disabled.  The target demographic, young people, did not enroll.  Without this important group, premiums through the State Exchanges will quickly become unaffordable.  Needless to say here, ObamaCare is a complete disaster!

The dismal results from the laws and policies passed during these two very important years are not good.  They did not produce results that make Democrats proud, which is why their messaging has nothing to do with past performance, policy successes or the coat tails of President Obama.  However, these subjects make for a great message for Republican Candidates.  Except, however, there are actually too many failures with too much detail to make into good campaign messages.

Knowing their play book produces disastrous results, the Democrats will blame Republicans for not cooperating; not allowing them to finish the job.  They will also point to the Republican plans to turn the nation around; or more importantly, the lack of such plans.  For this reason, the Republicans MUST develop good, solid messaging.

Besides pointing to Democratic policy failures: economic, budget, deficit, regulatory and foreign policy, they cannot allow themselves to get trapped into a dialogue decided by Democrats.  The Republicans MUST steal a play fro the Democrats play book and develop their own narrative that will drive the national discussion.  Let's cover these, point by point.

MINIMUM WAGE.  The Primary theme of every democratic campaign will include a demand for increasing the minimum wage.  While absolutely true, saying that increasing the minimum wage will result in lost jobs will be simply insufficient.  It sounds like a defense on behalf of rich business owners who don't want to share their profits.

INCOME EQUALITY.  While this can mean a lot of things, from equal wages for women to spreading the wealth by making fewer millionaires and more middle class, it is a simple message to understand and is highly adaptable.  No doubt this includes a desire by Democrats to raise taxes, and that should be asked each time income equality comes out of the lips of a Democratic candidate.

Republicans MUST defeat both of these themes with an offensive position.  That means, offering a choice between "increasing unemployment and raising taxes."  Explaining why these are more of the same policies adopted by President Obama, Republicans must offer a short, clear option to actions that will increase unemployment and raising taxes.

After all, would increasing the minimum wage to $9.00/hour really make a meaningful difference to the lifestyle of a worker at this income level?  No, it wouldn't, and Democratic Candidates should be asked to explain exactly what difference this will make for them.  How much more per year would a person make, and what would that buy?  When you think about it, NOT MUCH!

What exactly does income equality mean and how would they accomplish it?  Asking this question, and forcing an answer, will reveal this is an impossible concept--unless it's just another name for a tax increase.  It sounds like something most people would agree with, but the devil is in the details.  Republicans must confuse the message by asking Democrats to clarify it.  It will no longer be a clear message.  It will become vague garbage!

The Republican message should be, we have the same essential goal as the Democrats.  However, the Democrats have a dream; we have a plan.

Because we compete in a world economy, our ability to increase wages in any meaningful way cannot be accomplished without losing jobs to overseas competition.  Instead, the Republicans are going to implement laws and policies that will stretch a families budget farther.  The republicans are going to go after policies that will make the household budget for all Americans to go farther.

Under President Obama, gas and oil prices have increased dramatically, consumer a much larger share of family budgets.  Republicans will not only promote the use of alternative domestic energies, like natural gas, but build the Keystone pipeline.  The pipeline will create thousands of new jobs, but will move us towards independence from Middle East oil and gas.

ObamaCare has increased the cost of healthcare and reduced the consumers' options.  Republicans will pass real reforms, allowing free markets to cut costs and increase consumer choices.  Republicans will increase competition by allowing health insurance companies to sell the same policy  in all 50 states.  They will also introduce tort reform, removing lawyers fees from health premiums.  Republicans will preserve the few good aspects of ObamaCare, preserving the pre-existing condition ban and allowing dependent children to stay on their parents' plans.

The first step to improve wages and equalize incomes will be accomplished by reducing unemployment levels created by President Obama's policies.  Ronald Reagan said it best, "the best social program is a job."


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