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The House voted to approve a hike in the federal minimum wage this week. The hourly rate would rise from $7.25 per hour to $15.00. Mark Amodei is a Republican Representative from my state of Nevada. He voted against the raise, claiming that “it would cost jobs.”

This is the oldest Republican lie in America’s history. Not once have jobs been lost when Americans businesses are forced to pay a livable wage to their workers. The truth is that the economy grows; big business is experiencing record profits unheard of or even dreamed of 50 years ago. When more Americans have money to spend for necessities, and an occasional “luxury” item such as a phone, or maybe just a dinner at a pizza restaurant, everyone benefits.

Amodei is a disgrace, and the men and women who voted for him have been conned. He doesn’t care about his state, his country, and definitely not the American people; he cares about Mark Amodei.

Amodei attempted to use the example of waiters and waitresses working in restaurants.

“Amodei says raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour by 2025 would have a negative impact on the economy, citing the National Restaurant Associations findings that a $15 minimum wage would force restaurant owners to cut hours, raise prices and layoff workers.”

I worked in Nevada’s casinos for about 20 years. Everything Amodei says is a lie. Successful restaurants can afford to pay their employees a fair wage and make their dependency on tips less critical. Although prices might be slightly increased, they would not be significant. It is far more likely that the prices of fine wine would experience the largest price increase, and only the wealthy can afford this luxury.

Amodei’s assumption is not well thought out. In America our economy does far better when all Americans experience a better quality of life. In other words, our nation is better when Democrats are in control of America.

A little history. Let’s begin with the right-wing’s hero, Ronald Reagan. As an Independent I voted for him in 1980, and against him in 1984. My reason for a change in my support was his failed fiscal policy of “trickle-down economics.” Those of you not familiar with the term, also called “supply-side economics, uses the theory that if the wealthy; the heads of large corporations; have more money, they will create new jobs and increase employment. The truth is that they place more money in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes.

George H.W. Bush inherited a 12 percent unemployment rate and a trillion-dollar deficit. He unwisely continued the same policy of trickle-down economics and was eventually forced to raise taxes.

When a Democrat became president in 1992, he reversed the policies of his Republican predecessors. When William Jefferson Clinton left office in 2001, our nation’s people were experiencing a far better quality of life. The deficit did not exist and the national treasury received a surplus.

Enter George W. Bush in 2001. He left office in 2009. Our nation was trillions of dollars in debt. A record number of home foreclosures began, and we were engaged in two costly and unwinnable wars in the Middle East.

In 2009 President Barrack Hussein Obama took office facing the largest economic challenge for any president since the great depression of 1929. When he left office in 2017 every economic indicator offered proof that a recovery had begun and would continue for the next decade. President Obama’s policies returned the unemployment rate to a manageable percentage, and for the rich the stock market had hit record highs.

Today we have a failed businessman, Donald John Trump, falsely claiming that the accomplishments of a real president were his own. He has once again instituted a fiscal policy of trickle-down economics. Then he took a more dangerous tack. Trump began a trade war with several nations; most importantly China, the second largest economy in the world. History has proven that placing exorbitant tariffs on imports is foolhardy. Diplomacy and compromise have succeeded and created a policy of free trade between cooperating nations throughout the past 20 years.

Let’s return control of our government those who know how to run the world’s largest economy. Republicans always fail. November 3, 2020 can end the second American Revolution. Vote all Republicans out of office.

“The Truth Lives Here.” Tell everyone about my blog.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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Photo courtesy of the League of American Bicyclists

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