Michelle Nunn posed a debate question to David Perdue about the minimum wage. Perdue twice refused to answer if the minimum wage should even exist, and he refused to answer what specific level the minimum wage should be.
Perdue opposes any increase to the minimum wage, although he'll flip cartwheels to avoid saying it. And voters still don't know if Perdue wants to eliminate the minimum wage.
Would he eliminate it? Decrease it?
Video (with transcript below):
10/7/14Too bad Perdue stopped mid-sentence: "This minimum wage is a giant..."Nunn:
So David, I have said throughout the campaign that I support raising the minimum wage. You've run a company with thousands of employees that make the federal minimum wage, and you have opposed raising the minimum wage. So I would like to ask you, what do you think that the federal minimum wage should be, specifically?Perdue:
Well, let's talk about the minimum wage. We've proven time and again that this is about jobs and about supply and demand for those jobs. If you get the economy growing, all rates go up because we have more people, more demand for people working. The problem right now is that my opponent wants to tear me down in terms of my business career. Let's talk about what she really stands for. [In summary: Obama, Obama, boo!]Moderator: Ms Nunn, 30 second rebuttal.
Nunn:
David you did not answer my questions. So let me ask it again. You made in a single day working at Dollar General what it took one of your employees, making a minimum wage, a whole year to make. So let me ask you again. Do you believe that we should have a federal minimum wage, and specifically, what do you think it should be?Perdue:
As I've said, this minimum wage is a giant... If you increase the minimum wage the way this President has done already, you do it unilaterally, you will kill jobs in this country. It's been proven that over and over again. This is why this President wants bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation. This is the plan that my opponent supports[end]
Video of Perdue's second answer is available from the TV host, at ~8m.
A giant what?
Barring a more specific answer, it's reasonable to report that Perdue is opposed to any minimum wage. He sure implied it. See, it's supply and demand. If there are unemployed people, then all we have to do is decrease the minimum wage and voila.
Perdue, he'll tighten the screw. Oppose the minimum wage, slash government services that support workers, oppose Medicaid coverage for 600,000 Georgians.
While Perdue would leave us scraps, Gov Deal (R) sold his scrapyard for ~$4 million after securing a 20 year no-bid contract with the state government worth $6 million. Deal's lobbying for that contract led him to drop-out of the US Congress in 2010 under the threat of investigation.
And it's likely Deal will make a further $5 million from the sale of the land that he's currently renting. BTW, Deal's state ethics complaints didn't even center on this example of corruption. Nathan Deal punished members of the ethics commission, investigating his personal enrichment using 2010 campaign funds. A heavily intimidated ethics commission fined Deal just $3,350 for non-disclosure, but eventually members of the ethics commission (who were fired, threatened and demoted) were awarded $3 million in legal settlements from the state.