MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Minimum Wage

Interview

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REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY, (D) ILLINOIS: Hi, Ed.

SCHULTZ: . always a pleasure, good to have you with us tonight.

SCHAKOWSKY: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: You know, I don`t want to be the wasp in the ointment or the wasp in the punch bowl at the party here. But this is a dead issue. John Boehner is not going to bring this to the floor for a vote. Yet the president is out campaigning on $10.10. What`s the end game in 2014?

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, first of all I think that it is not necessarily all over. You know, the bus tour that`s been going around all over the country getting great local press. And raise the wage is coming to Washington tomorrow, they`re going to have a press event. The president is out there stomping, and almost three quarters of the American people believe that we should raise the minimum wage.

At the very least Ed, the fact that he Republicans if they end up saying no, is very unpopular with the American people and could be an election year issue.

But I know right now, if John Boehner would have called that bill, it would pass. Once again John Boehner is standing in the way of millions of people, about 28 millions of Americans getting a raise. And it would really help the economy. So we want to make an issue out of this. This is good thing .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SCHAKOWSKY: . it`s not beating a dead horse.

SCHULTZ: Well, you know, beating a dead horse. I hope not, that`s the terminology I was going to use. You took it right out of my mouth. The bottom line here is that Boehner is stubborn. We wanted background checks and 90 percent of the American people want it. We never got background checks. We never got any gun legislation.

These guys in the House are determined to run the country their way. The president is on the road campaigning, the Democrats are out there talking about $10.10. Is this going to move people in November? Is this the issue?

SCHAKOWSKY: I think it`s one of the issues. It certainly shows the contrast between the Republicans who are about to release a very mean, mean budget that cuts the programs for the elderly and for children and gives millionaires another tax raise, and the American people that want something to be done, to help them get back on their feet, this economy really rolling and to give them a raise. So I think that this is a very worthwhile campaign to be promoting .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SCHAKOWSKY: . being so popular.

SCHULTZ: All right the senate candidate Gary Peters of Michigan was with the president at the announcement. This is going to be a hot campaign issue where unemployment is high or I mean are the Democrats counting on poor people to get out to vote in record numbers in an off year election? Because let`s face it, this minimum wage is talking about people who are living under the poverty line.

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, actually if the minimum wage is raised, this could cause then up the line wages to be raised as well. Those people who are making slightly above $7.25, they are going to see their minimum wage rise and people who are making less than $10.10 an hour .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SCHAKOWSKY: But above, you know, their wages aren`t going to rise. Look the minimum wage is actually about the rate it was adjusted for inflation in 1968 and that is really a bad thing for our economy. The President was in Michigan. Henry Ford got it.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SCHAKOWSKY: He understood that if he wanted people to buy his cars he has going to have to pay them a wage so that they could afford to do that. It`s good for our economy, good for business.

SCHULTZ: So how do you expect the Republicans to work with your party on this? That really is it. You say that if they were to come to floor that there would be enough people that would turn on Boehner and it would vote for the minimum wage.

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, we believe that there are enough Republicans right now. Frank Lobiondo just recently came out in favor. I believe it was of minimum wage or I don`t think it was just extending the unemployment insurance. No .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SCHAKOWSKY: . it`s the minimum wage. And so I think we`re going to get enough -- we would get enough Republicans who would find it dangerous if the vote were actually called to vote no. We`re just simply not going to give up, Ed. There`s a lot of organizing going on and we`re going to, you know, the campaign to take back the House and to keep the Senate is going to be very much a ground game. And there are a lot of motivational issues. For some, it will be the minimum wage, for others it will be voting rights, and for women it will be the fact that they`re after our pocket books as well as our reproductive freedoms.

So we`re going to be organizing all of those constituencies for young people. It`s going to be student loans and the environment. We know how to push the buttons that are going to get people motivated to get out to vote.

SCHULTZ: All right, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky on the Ed Show. Thank you so much for joining us.

SCHAKOWSKY: Thank you.

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