Good post by Andrew Stiles, formerly of the Free Beacon and currently with National Review, on the ways in which President Barack Obama's policies aimed at helping the poor are actually going to end up hurting them. In addition to proposing a minimum wage hike that will almost certainly cost some minimum wage employees their jobs, Obama's health care reform requires employees who work more than 30 hours a week be provided healthcare. Shockingly, this has perverse consequences for the poor.
Here's Stiles:
An employee earning minimum wage and working a full 40 hours per week currently takes home a gross pay of $290 per week. In theory, a $1.75 minimum-wage hike would increase that employee’s gross pay to $360 per week. ...
Under the new law, businesses must offer health insurance to "full-time" employees, defined as anyone who works at least 30 hours per week. Minimum-wage employers such as Wendy’s and Taco Bell are already reducing employee hours below that threshold in an effort to control costs. ...
That employee earning minimum wage is slightly worse off earning $9 per hour, 29 hours per week ($261 gross pay per week), than he is under his current situation ($290 per week).
You should, as always, read the whole thing.
The real question that we should be asking is a simple one. Why does Barack Obama hate the poor?