With the looming possibility of the passage of Cap and Trade, Government-run Health Care, and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts (all will create the effect of a tax increase), we should be prepared for a double dip recession. Add to this, Congress appears to be pushing to raise the national debt ceiling by as much as 1.8 TRILLION before year’s end and you have the recipe for some 1970’s Carteresque “Stagflation”. As I recall, one answer from the left to “help the poor” was to raise the minimum wage. As with most liberal policy, it sounds nice at first glance but then really doesn’t pan out. I bring this up because I foresee a future discussion to deal with the economic hardship that I am afraid will ensue.

Before discussing minimum wage, I want to list some ideas for really turning the economy around…in a Reaganesque kind of way (I loved the 80’s)… Since Conservatives are unfairly stereotyped as not putting forward any ideas. Well…here are some ideas: (in addition to stopping Cap and Trade, and Government run Health Care.)
- Make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
- Audit, review and properly manage any Stimulus Bill money not spent. (No more funding to entities like ACORN.)
- Eliminate the corporate income tax.
- Eliminate the capital gains tax.
- Eliminate the death tax.
- Reform the IRS and transition to either a national sales tax or a flat tax.
- Curb government spending by enacting a balanced budget amendment and require all tax increase legislation to require a supermajority vote of Congress.
(None of these are original thoughts, but they all make sense to me.)

Want to see the economy rage, and unemployment evaporate?…this is how I would do it.

So, back to the minimum wage discussion… I guarantee this will come up and as a good fiscal conservative; you need to be armed with some facts. You will hear that people living in poverty will be helped by raising the minimum wage. Nope. You will hear that many people support their families on minimum wage. Nope. You may be led to believe that an increase in minimum wage will mean an increase in wage for those earning above minimum wage. Nope. The statistics just don’t support those arguments.

Here are the latest statistics for you to look at from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and an old article that puts it all together and still applies.

In a nutshell, by far, the largest group of workers making minimum wage are teenagers who still live at home. Small business owners tell me that the effect of raising the minimum wage is that they will have to reduce the numbers of workers hired. When business operating costs increase (through taxes, regulations, or a rising minimum wage), businesses have to cut costs to survive. Again, that usually means cutting jobs. So, when this topic rears its ugly head again, as I believe it will, don’t believe the spin.

If you want to help people, help them by stimulating the engine of our economy and our nation’s wealth. Help the small businesses with a tax cut, and then see what those businesses can do. We have seen it before when JFK and Reagan did it, and we can do it again. Combine economic growth with some government spending restraint and we have a recipe for the continued success of the United States.

If you combine tax increases, unnecessary regulation which hurt business and out of control government spending, you have the recipe for stagflation, unemployment and the same kind of malaise we saw perpetrated during the Carter years. We must resist going down this path again.