In a 48-page report out Monday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the Democratic “Raise the Wage Act” to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. One of the main takeaways from the report was that almost four million jobs (3.7 million) could be eliminated by 2025. Of course, since the liberal media have backed the so-called "Fight For 15" effort, none of the network evening newscasts (ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News) reported the CBO’s findings.
“A report by the Congressional Budget Office says increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour could give 17 million people a raise and lift 1.3 million people out of poverty,” reported fill-in anchor and Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts during Monday’s Special Report. It’s interesting that the networks didn’t even try to spin the findings with those points.
Roberts's news brief of the report also noted that millions of jobs could be at risk if the Democratic bill was enacted. “But it could also eliminate jobs for between 1.3 million and 3.7 million people. The Democrat-run House is expected to vote on the minimum wage increase later this month, but it is unlikely that the Republican-held Senate would take up the bill,” he added.
In addition to finding that “the $15 option would boost the wages of 17 million workers who would otherwise earn less than $15 per hour,” the CBO also discovered that “1.3 million other workers would become jobless.”
But that was only the “CBO’s median estimate.” It stated: “There is a two-thirds chance that the change in employment would be between about zero and a decrease of 3.7 million workers.”
Now, given the CBO’s track record of grossly underestimating the negatives regarding the cost of federal legislation (the cost of ObamaCare for example), it’s possible that the jobs lost by a $15 per hour minimum wage could reach or exceed their 3.7 million estimate.
The CBO also found that the Democratic plan would be devastating to businesses and consumers. “Reduce business income and raise prices as higher labor costs were absorbed by business owners and then passed on to consumers,” they said of the bill’s effects.
It added that the bill would “reduce the nation’s output slightly through the reduction in employment and a corresponding decline in the nation’s stock of capital (such as buildings, machines, and technologies).” And because of those terrible effects, the CBO estimated that “real (inflation-adjusted) family income” would decrease by “$9 billion.”
According to the report, there would also be similar effects if the Democrats enacted a $12 per hour minimum wage:
Like the $15 option, this option would boost wages, but it would also increase joblessness, reduce business income, raise prices, and lower total output in the economy. On balance, real family income in 2025 would fall by $1 billion…
This was the truth the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) didn’t want their millions of viewers to see. Meanwhile, NBC had told their viewers about all the “free” stuff Democrats were going to give them if they beat President Trump in 2020.
The transcript is below:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
July 8, 2019
6:13:57 p.m. EasternJOHN ROBERTS: A report by the Congressional Budget Office says increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour could give 17 million people a raise and lift 1.3 million people out of poverty. But it could also eliminate jobs for between 1.3 million and 3.7 million people. The Democrat-run House is expected to vote on the minimum wage increase later this month, but it is unlikely that the Republican-held Senate would take up the bill.
