General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)Candidate Barack Obama pledged to raise the minimum wage to $9.50/hour by 2011. [View all]
During the 2008 campaign, presidential candidate Barack Obama made a pledge to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2011. Promises like this one inspired a generation of young voters, excited long-neglected progressive voters and gave hope to millions of his supporters across the country.
President Obama ran a campaign of soaring rhetoric and uplifting ideas. Amidst two unpopular wars, a rapidly deteriorating financial crisis and the wildly unpopular presidency of George W. Bush, Americans were desperate for a change. He was viewed as a transformational candidate, a president who would turn the page on the stagnant politics of Washington.
It is now four (six) years later, and there has been no increase to the minimum wage. There has been no congressional vote, much less a whisper from the White House on the minimum wage.
...Had the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since 1968, today it would be at $10.57 per hour, instead of the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/07/24/where-is-obamas-promised-minimum-wage-hike/
I will be very glad if the minimum wage is raised to $10.10, because I'll get a raise. But I confess that I don't believe it will be raised to that, if at all.
Why didn't Obama bring it up when he had a Democratic Congress?