DEVELOPMENTS
— Democratic leaders in the Senate are moving toward a vote on the minimum-wage increase, hoping to put Republican senators on record as opposing the idea even if the bill does not pass. In the House, Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, who opposes an increase, has made it clear that he has no intention of bringing the issue to a vote.
— German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet approved a national minimum wage for the country, guaranteeing workers at least $11.75 starting next year. German wages had for decades been left to trade unions and business groups to establish for regions or employment sectors. Merkel’s conservative bloc agreed to go ahead with a national minimum wage as a concession to the left-leaning Social Democrats in order to seal a deal on forming a government together.
News services
Pressing his economic case in an election year, President Barack Obama came to Michigan on Wednesday to praise the state’s ongoing effort to raise the minimum wage — and to accuse Republicans who oppose that step in Michigan and in Congress of standing in the way of prosperity for millions of Americans.
Addressing a crowd of about 1,400 in a stadium that included many students, Obama cracked jokes about his GOP foes as he touted his plan to raise federal wages to $10.10 per hour.
“You’ve got a choice. You can give America the shaft, or you can give it a raise,” Obama said.
Republicans were prepared with their response. They point to analysis by economists who say the president’s plan to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25 would kill jobs.
“The president’s plan would increase costs for consumers and eliminate jobs for those who need them most,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. The House will keep working on its own plan to “protect workers’ hours and create jobs, not the president’s plan to destroy them,” he said.
At Obama’s side for his three-hour visit to this Midwest battleground state was Rep. Gary Peters, a Senate candidate embracing the chance to appear with the president before voters this year.
Some other Democrats have shied away from Obama amid controversy over his health care plan, but Peters opted to appear with Obama as the president echoed his State of the Union affirmation that no American working full time should live in poverty.
“It would lift millions of people out of poverty right away,” the president said of his proposal. “It would help millions more work their way out of poverty right away.”
Michigan also has an effort to put a measure on the November ballot to increase the state minimum wage $7.40 to $10.10 an hour, an initiative that polling shows is popular among voters who have been hit hard by the economic downturn in recent years.
Nationally, Obama wants to increase the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 as part of an election-year economic agenda focused on working families. The White House says that would benefit more than 970,000 workers in Michigan.
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On their way to the campus, Obama and Peters stopped at Zingerman’s Deli, an Ann Arbor landmark, where they ordered Reuben sandwiches and were served by a Michigan graduate who makes $9 an hour — a rate above the current federal minimum wage. “That’s worth celebrating,” Obama said.
Michigan voted for Obama in both his presidential campaigns and his bailout of the auto industry has been popular here. Still, appearing with Obama is not without risk.
An EPIC/MRA poll of voters in the state taken in February showed 61 percent of respondents have a negative view of Obama’s job performance, verses 37 percent positive. The same poll found Peters and his Republican component separated by just a few points in a competitive race.
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