Nicolle Wallace would love to raise the federal minimum wage. She really would. Thinks it’s a great plan, in fact. But first, the former George W. Bush spokesperson wants you to keep in mind the “plight” of the job creators.
Wallace said Friday on “Morning Joe” that nobody really understands just how bad things are because they aren’t talking to enough small business owners. Or maybe it’s because they don’t get out of New York enough.
That’s why, she explained, any debate over raising the minimum wage — which, again, Wallace thinks is a “wonderful idea” — needs to consider the Newtonian implications of such a proposal.
Here’s Wallace’s take:
“I think the other problem, I think the other reason it feels so bad, the other reason this economy feels so bad is because no one seems to get it. No one’s talking about how much more difficult the government makes it and no one is addressing the things that present real hurdles — the cost of health care. The debate about minimum wage happens in a vacuum as though it doesn’t affect the small business owners. Raising the minimum wage is a wonderful idea, but it has consequences. Every action has a reaction. And I think the frustration that small business owners feel and, you know, leave New York and, you know, you get to speak to people who always come up and say, ‘Why doesn’t anybody talk about the plight of the people who actually hire people?’ And those, in recent history, have been the small business owners in this country. And they’re not hiring because of health care, because of uncertainty about minimum wage, because of regulations. And that’s part of why, not only is unemployment stagnant, but it feels bad.”
Fittingly, Byron York has a column out today on the House GOP’s realization that most Americans do not, in fact, own a business.
