Morning Bell: More Job-Killing Regulations Approved by President Obama

Conn Carroll / July 24, 2009

According to the United States Department of Labor, the nation’s unemployment rate has already risen to 9.5%. The Obama administration is predicting that the nation’s unemployment rate will soon rise above 10% and the Federal Reserve predicts unemployment could stay above that 10% mark for sometime. One would think, therefore, that the Obama administration would do everything in their power to stop federal government policies from causing even more job losses. You’d be wrong. Today the Obama administration is not just allowing, but celebrating, a job- and opportunity-killing raise in the federal minimum wage.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis told the USA Today that the federally mandated raise to $7.25 per hour will create “extra disposable income [that] comes to about $120 a month.” Solis expects “workers to spend much of that cash in their local communities.” What nonsense. Where does Solis think this “extra” $120 a month comes from? Does she think it falls from the skies or grows on trees? Here in the real world, when governments force firms to pay some workers more money, it has to come from somewhere. And that “somewhere” usually is lost jobs and lost opportunity for low-skilled workers. (more…)