On Sunday’s Weekends with Alex Witt, MSNBC host Alex Witt tag-teamed with New School professor of economics and urban policy and Institute On Race and Political Economy director Darrick Hamilton to eagerly promote Joe Biden’s economic agenda without a real grasp of the facts and some smokescreens.
While discussing Biden’s proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, Witt cited a quote from a Congressional Budget Office study that insisted an increased minimum wage “could lift more than 1.3 million workers out of poverty.” But unsurprisingly, Witt got her facts wrong and misled viewers by omitting how the same study predicted an increase would cost 1.3 million jobs. Nonetheless, Hamilton didn't correct the record and instead pronounced that “businesses will adjust.”
Witt initiated the Democratic propaganda by setting up Hamilton to praise Biden’s stimulus plan:
WITT: Overall, what do you think about Biden's stimulus plan? Do you think it's a step in the right direction?
HAMILTON: Certainly a step in the right direction. And when he delivered it, it was important that he even used terms like "Moving towards a moral economy," recognizing that we need to build it in a way that promotes shared prosperity.
Oh how the tune changes on MSNBC from when Donald Trump is working on a stimulus to when Joe Biden is working on one. In 2020, MSNBC was surprised that Trump would even want to help people when he was working on passing the first COVID stimulus package.
Also, what is a “moral economy” to a leftist? One where the government forcibly takes from Americans and punishes them for their success in order to make other Americans more dependent on government aid? Or how about one where the government focuses on barely alleviating poverty and preventing Americans from pursuing prosperity through voluntary transactions?
Witt then omitted a major detail from the Congressional Budget Office study and praised a tweet from Hamilton about the minimum wage: “So what about the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which says that raising the minimum wage, Derek, could lift more than 1.3 million workers out of poverty? And then on Twitter I know you said “A $15 an hour minimum wage via budget reconciliation should be a no-brainer.”
A major detail from the study that Witt seems to have forgotten was that an increase of the minimum wage to $15 an hour would cause 1.3 million people to lose their jobs. Honesty is not relevant to the hacks at MSNBC when they desire to push a leftist narrative.
Witt then mocked those who oppose raising the minimum wage and Hamilton guaranteed that “businesses will adjust” and advocated for Biden creating an FDR-style work program:
WITT: What do you say to critics who think and say, oh, no, businesses can't afford to pay that much?
HAMILTON: Businesses will adjust and, you know, we also have another mechanism of employing individuals, and that's the federal government. And in fact, we need to be thinking about industrial policy that centers workers as we promote a care economy or make our infrastructure more resilient to a pandemic.
MSNBC has continued to support lockdowns, which are devastating small businesses, and now wants the federal government to further damage them by mandating that they raise their workers’ salaries.
Come to think of it, Hamilton was right in that “businesses will adjust” by laying off low skilled workers, increasing prices, and switching to automation.
MSNBC does not care about accurately reporting on the effects of leftists policies but only about pushing those policies.
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Read the full January 17th transcript here:
MSNBC's Weekends with Alex Witt
01/17/21
1:53:21 PMALEX WITT: President-Elect Joe Biden is out with his plans to help Americans regain a financial footing after the pandemic. Biden’s proposal includes direct payments of $1,400, $400 a week in federal unemployment benefits, and increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Joining me now is Darrick Hamilton, the founding director of the Institute On Race -- Race rather -- and Political Economy. It is at the New School. Derek, welcome to you. Overall, what do you think about Biden's stimulus plan? Do you think it's a step in the right direction?
DARRICK HAMILTON (NEW SCHOOL PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND URBAN POLICY AND FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE ON RACE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY): Certainly a step in the right direction. And when he delivered it, it was important that he even used terms like "moving towards a moral economy," recognizing that we need to build it in a way that promotes shared prosperity.
WITT: So what about the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which says that raising the minimum wage, Derek, could lift more than 1.3 million workers out of poverty? And then on Twitter I know you said: “A $15 an hour minimum wage via budget reconciliation should be a no-brainer.” But indeed, there has been pushback to this proposal from the Republican Party. What do you say to critics who think and say, "oh, no, businesses can't afford to pay that much?"
HAMILTON: Well, businesses will adjust and, you know, we also have another mechanism of employing individuals, and that's the federal government. And in fact, we need to be thinking about industrial policy that centers workers as we promote a care economy or make our infrastructure more resilient to a pandemic.
