This week, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee will speak at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a controversial lobbying organization funded by the Koch brothers and other corporate interests.
Walker, Cruz and Huckabee will likely sound like they’re all reading from the same script of bad ideas – sadly, that’s exactly what’s happening. For years, ALEC has proposed the policies that make up the GOP’s failed economic agenda, including opposition to minimum wage increases and reductions in government assistance – one bad idea after another.
While failed economic policies bounce around the GOP’s echo chamber, Hillary Clinton has struck a powerful chord with the American people with her innovative vision of a growth and fairness economy that works for everyone. Walker, Cruz and Huckabee may curry favor with ALEC, but the organization’s policies are not right for our country and the American people expect an economy that lifts people up instead of bringing them down.
Scott Walker:
- On minimum wage increases, Walker said:
- The minimum wage is a “lame” idea.
- He doesn’t think the minimum wage “serves a purpose.”
- Raising the minimum wage is a “political grandstanding stunt.”
- Walker said that cutting “entitlement programs” like Social Security and Medicare is “something that has to be done.”
- Walker pushed for a “sweeping overhaul” of regulations that would make it harder for out-of-work Wisconsinites to obtain unemployment benefits.
- Walker signed legislation restricting the collective bargaining rights of both public sector and private sector unions.
- Walker repealed a Wisconsin law allowing victims of pay discrimination to seek damages in state courts.
Ted Cruz:
- Cruz opposed raising the minimum wage, saying that it would negatively affect young people, Hispanics, and African Americans.
- Cruz voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act:
- Not once…
- Not twice…
- But three times.
Mike Huckabee:
- Huckabee did not support raising the minimum wage, saying “proposals to raise the minimum wage in several states will not bring prosperity and independence to entry-level workers.” And not raising the minimum wage does what exactly?
- When it comes to collective bargaining, Huckabee:
- Supported scaling back the right of public employees to collectively bargain.
- Campaigned in favor of John Kasich’s failed initiative to strip Ohio’s public employees of their collective bargaining rights.