Translate "I don’t have a well-crafted response on that one." (Brat on the minimum wage)

[yellowcanine]

My translation is, "Let me get back to you after I talk to my money guys."

[unblock]

1. not the money guys so much as the scriptwriters and pollsters and spinmeisters.

you can bet your bottom dollar that he's opposed to any minimum wage, never mind raising it.

he just knows enough to know he can't come right out and say that.

[HooptieWagon]

27. Exactly. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. "I have no idea how to answer that because I ran as a populist

who argued that corporations were screwing the little guy, but my GOP masters are in the pockets of the corporations so if I come out in favor of a minimum wage they won't support me and I'm fucked. But if I stick to my libertarian principles and say I'm against a minimum wage, the rubes who voted for me thinking I'm on their side will vote for the Democrat instead. I am on the horns of a dilemma."

[yellowcanine]

5. " I am on the horns of a dilemma." AKA "Hoisted on my own petard."

[yellowcanine]

3. "I don't want to make the same mistake that "Legitimate Rape" guy made.

[catbyte]

4. This clown is an Economics professor & he has no opinion on the minimum wage?!?

He's either incompetent or a liar. Most likely both.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. He has an opinion, he just didn't want to say it outright.

He's against a 'mandated' minimum wage, because he feels that wages should be a natural outcome of 'productivity'. This, of course, completely ignored that fact that wages have been stagnant for half a century while productivity has soared.

He's a fraud.

[karynnj]

7. It would be funny if the subject had been considered in a lecture or two

You wonder if (and what) we will hear from his students.

[3catwoman3]

8. "...a well-crafted response..."

WTF??? He's sure figuring out political-BS-speak damn fast.

[Arkana]

9. "Fuck, I'm drunk, why did people vote for me? Was I running for something?"

[blkmusclmachine]

10. Translation: "I think you should be a slave to my Church. Cuz freedumb!"

[kairos12]

11. Benghazi today and forever.

[Generic Brad]

12. The money guys who helped him raise tens of dollars?

I wouldn't trust his brain trust if I were him.

[lastlib]

13. This doofus is a free-market cheerleader-extraordinaire...

NO F-in' WAY he's ever gonna support a minimum-wage law.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

14. Complete idiot - we need to tear him to shreds in the general election

[BootinUp]

15. "I don't have a prepared BS answer"

[Wounded Bear]

16. This about covers it...

[meow2u3]

17. The Koch Bros. didn't give me a script yet

[Proud Liberal Dem]

18. "I don't have my talking points written"

It sucks that no matter how awful a candidate he may be he currently is the most likely winner.

[TeamPooka]

19. "I can't say anything that hasn't been poll tested or vetted by my money providers."

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. Lightweight fool

blow him over

[Rolo]

21. This man is teaching our kids - sheesh

Brat is an Economics professor & is against increasing the minimum wage. I hope he's not teaching what he is spewing -

TODD: Where are you on the minimum wage? Do you believe in it, and would you raise it?

BRAT: Minimum wage, no, I'm a free market guy. Our labor markets right now are already distorted from too many regulations. I think CATO estimates there's $2 trillion of regulatory problems and then throw Obamacare on top of that, the work hours is 30 hours a week. You can only hire 50 people. There's just distortion after distortion after distortion and we wonder why our labor markets are broken.

TODD: So should there be a minimum wage in your opinion?

BRAT: Say it again.

TODD: Should there be a minimum wage in your opinion?

BRAT: I don't have a well-crafted response on that one. All I know is if you take the long-run graph over 200 years of the wage rate, it cannot differ from your nation's productivity. Right? So you can't make up wage rates. Right? I would love for everyone in sub-Saharan Africa, for example -- children of God -- to make $100 an hour. I would love to just assert that that would be the case. But you can't assert that unless you raise their productivity, and then the wage follows.

TODD: Sounds like you're making a case against a federally mandated minimum wage.

BRAT: I'm just making the case I just made that you can't artificially make up wage rates, they have to be related to productivity.


Since 1950, productivity has increased 254.3% while wages have increased 113.1% source: http://www.epi.org/publication/ib330-productivity-vs-compensation/

[CTyankee]

24. I'd love to see him debate Paul Krugman...that would be GOOD to watch!

[DFW]

22. "Does someone have a portable TV with Fox on?" n/t

[Sunlei]

23. The man doesn't even know that his fellow republicans want to never raise Americans pay?

Heck Mr. Romney said he wanted to do away with the minimum wage altogether.

Brats worse than clueless IMO, he is supposed to be a college level teacher???

Fine, the D should win hands down in that district. And Brat needs a job review.

[rug]

25. He has to figure out if he's against the minimum part or the wage part.

[The Magistrate]

28. In Plain English, Sir: 'If I Say What I Think, I'm Toast, Even In This District'

[tblue37]

29. "I am still waiting for my talking points. Surely you don't

think I know anything about that kind of stuff. What do you think I am, an economics professor?"

[Jamaal510]

30. And this is the so-called "populist"

who ran against Cantor. OMG.