New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Tuesday that he’s “tired” of hearing discussion on the minimum wage and seemed to suggest that a higher minimum wage isn’t something to “aspire to.”
“I gotta tell you the truth, I’m tired of hearing about the minimum wage, I really am,” Christie said during an event at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, according to a recording of his remarks by the liberal opposition research group American Bridge.
“I don’t think there’s a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, ‘You know honey, if my son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, my God, all our dreams would be realized,” he added. “Is that what parents aspire to for their children?”
The governor went on to say that parents aspire to an America where their children can make more money and achieve greater success, according to The Hill. He said those aspirations weren’t about a “higher minimum wage.”
Christie’s comments come a week after fellow Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said that he doesn’t think the minimum wage “serves a purpose.” Unlike Christie, Walker is up for re-election in November against Democrat Mary Burke, who supports raising the minimum age to $10.10 an hour.
Watch below:
So?
I’m tired of hearing about Chris Christie.
“I don’t think there’s a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, 'You know honey, if my son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, my God, all our dreams would be realized,” he added. “Is that what parents aspire to for their children?”
Straw man argument.
If he’s tired of hearing about it, he should try to survive on it.
Notice it’s always someone’s kids who is on minimum wage, not the someone in question. In other words, the act is being removed from the actor and voters are assumed to be evaluating minimum wage policy from a distance.
For decades, this same rhetoric framed almost all women’s issues debates I heard. “Imagine if your {wife, mother, daughter} was paid 77 cents on the dollar” – never “Imagine if YOU are paid 77 cents on the dollar” – or even, “Hey, you are paid 77 cents on the dollar!”