#$69 (3/19) "Busting 5 Myths About the Minimum Wage," "Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy"

URGENT PRAYERS/PETITIONS:

 CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR PASTOR SAEED (Iranian-born AMERICAN pastor who just started an 8 year sentence for helping the underground churches in Iran) - "As Iran continues to abuse imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini, its goal is now clear -- force Pastor Saeed to deny Christ.We've obtained a new letter from Pastor Saeed detailing his continued mistreatment in the deadly Evin Prison, including Iran's efforts to force him to convert from Christianity back to Islam. Pastor Saeed writes: "[A]fter all of these pressures, after all of the nails they have pressed against my hands and 'feet, they are only waiting for one thing…for me to deny Christ.' Yet he is standing strong, declaring '"they will never get this from me.' (Read of the inspiring  letter he has written from prison at http://aclj.org/iran/pastor-saeed-writes-psychological-warfare-physical-violence-death-threats-iranian-prison) UPDATE of 3/11 - 1) Those in support of Pastor Saeed have been at the UN meetings in Geneva the past week testifying to the Human Rights Commission; 2) The American Center for Law and Justice testified before a committee of the House of Rep. on Friday about Pastor Saeed and other persecuted Christians in the Middle East  Shockingly, our State department failed to even send a reprsentative to the hearing (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/15/state-dept-ducks-hearing-us-pastor-detained-iran/) If you have not already, please join nearly 500,000 (was recently250,000) who have signed the petition  for Pastor Saeed's release and tell your friends about it.  http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-from-iranian-prison-sentence 

As the Lord leads, please pray:

• For Pastor Abedini as he endures one of Iran’s most deadly prisons, potentially beaten and abused regularly, simply because of his Christian faith.
• For the pastor’s wife and family and the Holy Spirit’s comfort upon them.
• For the continuing meetings at the UN meetings in Geneva about Pastor Saeed.
• For the U.S. State Department to get involved in a significant way to obtain the pastor’s release.

PLEASE Continue to PRAY: "Libya Arrests Suspected Christian Missionaries ," February 16, 2013; "Four foreigners were arrested in Libya on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing, a Libyan police spokesman said on Saturday. Spreading Christianity is a crime in the predominantly Muslim North African county. The four were arrested in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday and are under investigation for printing and distributing books that proselytize Christianity. Police said they found 45,000 books in their possession and that another 25,000 have already been distributed. The suspects are from South Africa, Egypt, South Korea, and one holds both Swedish and U.S. Nationality. The U.S. Embassy in Libya has declined comment. "(Sources: CBS News, USA Today, Associated Press) [So much for the so-called "Arab Spring." - Stan]As the Lord leads, PLEASE PRAY:  ·   For the timely release of the arrested missionaries. ·   For all who share God’s loving salvation in Muslim countries.   

DECLARE YOUR SUPPORT FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE. Please SIGN THE PETITION BELOW to declare yopur support for the traditional marrriage definition of marriage and in support of an amicus brief to go to the Supreme Court as it considers a redefinition of marriage on March 27th. Their decision on whether to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress in 1996 could be as pivotal to marriage and the family in America as Roe v. Wade was to the sanctity of human life in America. MOST IMPORTANTLY, please BE PRAYING EACH DAY for when Supreme Court reviews of this case (and Prop. 8 passed years ago in CA that made the traditional definition into law) on WED. 3/27 and for their decisions. https://www.truthinaction.org/index.php/the-affirmation-of-marriage/?utm_source=Truth+In+Action+News+List&utm_campaign=9d8fb2dcc6-DOMA+%231+AB+TEST+Length&utm_medium=email

"Busting 5 Myths About the Minimum Wage," by Amy Payne On March 5, 2013

When someone says “minimum wage,” what comes to mind?

Do you think of teenagers flipping burgers? Or a single parent trying to feed several kids?
While President Obama and other proponents of a higher minimum wage want you to visualize that single parent, the truth is that a burger-flipping teenager or college student with a part-time job paints a much more accurate picture ^[1] of the minimum wage in America.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour. Today, Democrats in Congress are arguing that the President didn’t go far enough, proposing an increase to more than $10 an hour.Minimum-wage increases reduce the number of entry-level minimum-wage jobs ^[2] available—actually hurting many of the workers proponents want to help. And who are these workers? The President and others keep going back to five key myths about minimum-wage workers. Heritage labor expert James Sherk has already debunked them all ^[1].

Myth #1: Hordes of Minimum-Wage Workers
Very few Americans are actually working for the federal minimum wage—it’s just 2.9 percent of all workers in the United States. In other words, 97 percent of American workers make more than minimum wage.

Myth #2: The “Working Poor” Getting By on Minimum Wage
More than half of minimum-wage workers are between the ages of 16 and 24. These young people tend to work part-time, and a majority of them are enrolled in school at the same time—so the after-school burger flipper or college student with a part-time job is the real deal. A hike in the minimum wage primarily raises pay for suburban teenagers, not the working poor. In fact, America’s poor aren’t the “working poor” at all. Sherk explains that “Contrary to what many assume, low wages are not their primary problem, because most poor Americans do not work for the minimum wage. The problem is that most poor Americans do not work at all ^[1].” Cutting down the number of entry-level jobs by raising the minimum wage surely isn’t going to help these people who need jobs.

Myth #3: Minimum-Wage Workers Trapped in Poverty
The average family income of a minimum-wage worker is more than $53,000 a year. How is this possible at $7.25 an hour? Few workers with minimum-wage jobs are the primary earners in their families. This is also true of older minimum-wage earners. Three-fourths of workers 25 and older earning the minimum wage live above the poverty line ^[1]. In fact, 62 percent have incomes over 150 percent of the poverty line.

Myth #4: Lifelong Minimum-Wage Earners
Minimum-wage earners don’t stay in those jobs forever. It’s easy to get the idea from politicians that “minimum-wage workers” are a permanent class of people. But in fact, two-thirds of minimum-wage workers earn a raise within a year ^[3]. As they gain experience and employment skills, they become more productive and can command higher wages. Entry-level, minimum-wage jobs are the first rung on many workers’ career ladders.

Myth #5: More Single Parents on Minimum Wage
Very few single parents are working full-time in minimum-wage jobs. Unfortunately, politicians overuse that example. A greater proportion of employees in the overall workforce (5.6 percent) are single parents working full-time jobs, while for minimum-wage workers that proportion is 4 percent—because so many minimum-wage workers are secondary earners.

Don’t be fooled by the myths. A minimum wage increase will not reduce poverty. Instead, it will hurt many of the workers its proponents want to help. As James Sherk and Rudy Takala sum it up ^[4]: "A higher minimum wage would help some workers, but few of them are poor. The larger effect is hurting the ability of potential workers living in poverty to get their foot in the door of employment. A minimum wage hike might help politicians win plaudits from the press, but it wouldn’t reduce poverty rates."

[bold AND italicized emphasis mine]

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Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/03/05/busting-5-myths-about-the-minimum-wage/

URLs in this post: [

1] much more accurate picture: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/02/who-earns-the-minimum-wage-suburban-teenagers-not-single-parents

[2] number of entry-level minimum-wage jobs: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/13/a-simple-and-wrong-answer-to-poverty-increasing-the-minimum-wage/

[3] earn a raise within a year: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/07/minimum-wage-workers-incomes-rise-when-the-minimum-wage-does-not

[4] sum it up: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/03/04/minimum-wage-benefits-suburban-teenagers-not-single-parents/ 

 

Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.

"Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy"- March 7, 2013; p://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=22928&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Though all evidence shows that President Obama's first-term economic initiatives resulted in anemic growth, the president continues to push for more government stimulus spending, new social programs, higher taxes on upper-income earners, subsidies for some industries and increased regulation for all of them. Instead of continuing to expand the bloat of government debt, President Obama should consider more spending cuts, says Michael Boskin, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

• The $825 billion stimulus of 2009 cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per job but yielded no short-term economic growth.
• Despite the stimulus' failures, Obama is pushing for universal preschool ($25 billion a year), Fix it First infrastructure repairs financed through an infrastructure bank ($50 billion) and Project Rebuild to refurbish private properties in cities ($15 billion).
• He is also pushing for more green energy subsidies, an increase in the minimum wage and tax increases equal to half of the sequester's $85 billion in cuts.

Though the effects of Head Start early education are negligible at best and an increased minimum wage raises unemployment among low-skilled workers, Obama's proposed initiatives signal that the administration believes it knows what is best for the free market.

• A growing debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio will eventually crowd out investment resulting in lower capital formation and lower real wages in the future.
• A Stanford economics paper found that a reduction in federal spending over several years amounting to 3 percent of GDP will increase short-term GDP.
• Expectations of lower future taxes and debt encourage higher spending as consumers expect higher incomes.
• Since World War II, wealthy countries stabilized their budgets by averaging $5 to $6 of spending cuts per dollar of tax increases.

Keynesians and deficit-spending proponents argue that reducing government spending during a recession will hurt the economy. A balanced deficit reduction plan would mean $5 in cuts for every $1 dollar in tax hikes. Instead, the fiscal cliff deal traded $1 in spending cuts for every $40 in tax hikes.
President Obama and Senate Democrats are steadfast in their demands for $1 in tax hikes for every $1 in spending cuts. Empirical economic evidence shows that this policy is horribly unbalanced.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

Source: Michael Boskin, "Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy," Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2013.