Agreements which have cost us millions of decent paying jobs as corporate america shuts down plants in vermont and throughout this country and moves to low-wage countries. as president my trade policies will break that cycle of agreements which enrich the few at the expense of the many. let us also be honest and ac acknowledge that today millions of american workers are now working for totally inadequate wages. the current federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour is a starvation wage and must be raised. [ cheers and applause ] the minimum wage in this country
Through democratic circles that they may hang their hats on come the midterms is the minimum wage fight. we ve got 13 different states raising the minimum wage on their own. in your state of vermont, it s going up 13 cents to $8.73 an hour. again, the average being $7.25. is this year going to be the turning point on this? and do you think democrats are going to go all in on wanting to see a federal minimum wage hike to pull republicans out from where they stand on it? expose their position? look, here is the story. the story is that the national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. i think most people understand that is a starvation wage. individuals can t live on it, families can t live on it. if we raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour which doesn t go as far as it should, that would be a raise for 30 million americans. the vast majority of them are adults and that s not just people making $7.25 an hour,
Keep the senate open until he can break open a filibuster and get a vote here? well, i think he is going to do that. i think he is going to bring that up on to the floor as soon as we return. and i think it s exactly the right thing to do. look, the middle class of this country is disappearing. we have more people living in poverty than any time in the history of the united states of america. millions of people are working for longer hours for lower wages. we have got to raise the minimum wage, which today is a starvation wage of $7.25 to at least $10.10 an hour. and as you and other have pointed out, it s also dropping in real dollars. it s catching it back up to where it once was in terms of the actual real economy. now, you also serve on the budget committee. and i want to read from your statement on the deal that we just reached. it attacked republicans for hypocrisy on some of these savings, noting, quote, my republican colleagues continue to protect corporate loopholes which
And believe me it takes a lot of courage to walk out of a fast food establishment knowing that you can be fired. what they are doing is standing up, not only for economic justice for themselves, they are standing up for all working americans and saying that we have got to create a situation in this country where we are creating decent paying jobs. not jobs that are paying a starvation wage. so i have a lot of respect for what these young people are doing. appreciate your time. thank you for joining us. coming up, rush limbaugh is about to get bounced. we ll talk about the slow death of conservative talk radio just ahead. gosh, has the market changed because of what people have said. first i m taking your questions. so i m checking out the jetta. 34 hwy mpg. check. no-charge scheduled maintenance. check. and here s the kicker. 0% apr for 60 months.
Totally obscene. it is a starvation wage. the american people believe absolutely that we should raise the minimum wage. i hope we can get strong legislation. i hope by building a strong grassroots movement around this issue, we can force the house to do the right thing. bottom line is, we have a collapsing middle class. we have far too many people living in poverty. one of the reasons for that, we have tens of million of people working at starvation wages. we have to create millions of new jobs that raise the minimum wage to living wage. what do you say to the folks who are saying, and in that debate that you had, that walmart and mcdonald s can t afford to raise the minimum wage. the wealthiest in this country is the walton family. they are worth about $100