Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2014: on Jobs

Chris Christie: Don't raise minimum wage; create better-paying jobs instead

(VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTIE: I'm tired of hearing about minimum wage. I don't think there's a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, "You know, honey, if our son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, my God, all our dreams would be realized."

Q: For people who are making $7.25 an hour, the minimum wage now, they say getting increase of $10 an hour would make a big difference in their lives and that you were being cavalier about it?

CHRISTIE: I'm saying it exactly as I see it. What we need to do in this country is not have debate over a higher minimum wage. We have to have a debate over creating better-paying middle class jobs in the country. If that somehow doesn't comport with what people in the political elite want, well, I'm sorry.

Joe Biden: Labor unions have built the middle class and built America

During his impassioned address, Biden credited labor unions for building the middle class, and thus "building the United States as we know it. If the middle class is doing fine, everybody does fine," he said. "The wealthy get very wealthy, and the poor have a way up."

Rick Santorum: Raising the minimum wage a little is ok, if phased in slowly

SANTORUM: I'm not in favor of President Obama's increase. When I was in the Senate and when I was in the House, I did vote for minimum wage increases that were incremental, that were not inflationary, that did not cost jobs. If you look at the CBO report, half-a-million people would lose their job as a result of the Obama minimum wage increase. I'm talking more in the range of a dollar, phasing that in. I think that will create a minimum wage. Only about 2% of workers are covered by the minimum wage. Historically, it's between 5% and 7%.

Q: Some in the GOP think there shouldn't be a minimum wage at all. Does this add to Republicans' problems with working people?

SANTORUM: I think it does. I think you don't see too many Republicans arguing against a minimum wage. I know a few have. But I don't think too many do. if you're going to have a minimum wage, we just need to be reasonable about it and offer an alternative.

Rick Perry: Focus on maximizing wages, not the minimum wage

A: Are the politics shifting in your party on that?

PERRY: Well, we focus on the maximum wage rather than the minimum wage. 95% of all the jobs that are created in my home state were above the minimum wage. So the idea that you should be focused on the minimum wage when in fact you ought to be focused on policies that create this environment where jobs can be created. You know, this discussion about minimum wage, when there are no jobs available. Most of us didn't start in the corner office, I mean, you worked your way up. I think it's an easy political line to pitch out to say, "I'm for raising the minimum wage," when we're looking past that in Texas from the standpoint of how do we create the maximum wage available? How do we put more people into the workforce? And that's where the focus should be.

Rob Portman: Opposed unemployment extension as unpaid-for, & needs reform

PORTMAN: I'm one of six Republicans who voted to allow this debate to go forward, I think we should. Unfortunately, Democrats did not work with us, wouldn't negotiate with us on how to pay for it. We've got a 35-year low in terms of the number of people working, the labor-participation rate. We also have record numbers of people long-term unemployed. And the Democratic answer to that is, "Let's add more to the 26 weeks of unemployment insurance to emergency benefits, and let's do nothing to reform the program. Let's do nothing to give people the skills they need to access the jobs that are out there." All the Republicans were saying, including me, was, "Look, yes, let's extend unemployment insurance, I'm okay with that. But let's pay for it. Last thing we want to do is add to the deficit. But second, let's reform this program." I have a specific proposal to do that.

Ted Cruz: Lowest labor force participation in over three decades

CRUZ: Well, what I put out are the questions that I'm hearing from Texans all over the state. I spend a lot of time traveling the state of Texas listening to Texans. And the questions they raise--over and over again, they say, why are jobs and economic growth so dismal? We've got the lowest labor force participation in over three decades, since 1978. President Obama [should] address the fact that his economic policies are not working and that they're exacerbating income equality. They're hurting the people who are struggling the most.

Q: Well, of course, what he would say is that he is creating more jobs, that unemployment is going down and on and on. [Is this like when you] tried to shut down the government in demand for some action by the president?

CRUZ: President Obama dug in and said he wouldn't compromise. The senate Republicans were invited up to the White House and [Obama] said "I invited you here to tell you I will not negotiate."

Marco Rubio: Ok to extend unemployment if it's paid for

RUBIO: There is a general consensus that these programs need to be extended, but they need to be paid for. And in addition to that, maybe not as part of this effort right away, but in the long term we need to figure out way to reform those programs so that we get more people back to work.

Martin O`Malley: Extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless

O'MALLEY: The most it's been in since the depths of the recession.

Q: Republicans are saying, after 6 years, this is not emergency aid, this is something you have to factor in and pay for in the budget. What's wrong with that logic?

O'MALLEY: Well, a lot of the ideologues that now steer the Republican Party always seem to find money for continued tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans. But when it comes to those moms and dads that are still looking for work after a huge structural recession, they start squawking about fiscal responsibility. The way you make an economy grow is from consumer demand. And every economist will tell you that if workers have less money, they will spend less and your consumer demand will go down and your economy will not grow. So if only from an economic growth standpoint, we should be extending unemployment benefits for those that are still out there searching for work.

Martin O`Malley: Raise minimum wage to $10 per hour

O'MALLEY: Well, it's interesting, if you look at the minimum wage since 1968, and if it had merely kept pace with inflation, it would be a little above $10 an hour. If it had kept pace with productivity, it would be $20 an hour. And if it had kept pace with the earnings of the top 1 percent of Americans, it would be $28 an hour.

Q: So which one do you like?

O'MALLEY: I think we're zeroing in on around a $10 an hour minimum wage in Maryland, where, over the last five years, our people have achieved the distinction of attaining the highest median income of any state in the nation, the best public schools of any state in the nation. And we went four years in a row without a penny's increase to college tuition, because we believe in expanding opportunity to grow our middle class, to drive consumer demand. And that's why we're coming out of this recession better than other states.

Rand Paul: Unemployment insurance ok if fully paid for & short-term

PAUL: Well, I think what's really cruel is to have an economy that doesn't have jobs in it. So we have to talk about what policy creates jobs. With regard to unemployment insurance, I'm not opposed to unemployment insurance, I am opposed to having it without paying for it. I think it's wrong to borrow money from China or simply to print up money for it. But I'm not against having unemployment insurance. I do think, though, that the longer you have it, that it provides some disincentive to work, and that there are many studies that indicate this.

Q: But if this extension is paid for, you can support it

PAUL: Well, what I have always said is that it needs to be paid for, but we also need to do something for long-term unemployed people, and that is, we need to create something new that creates jobs.

Scott Walker: Link unemployment benefits to job search every week

WALKER: Any discussion about this should be focused on what sort of reforms are we going to put in place [for] people looking for work. Well, the federal government doesn't require a lot. We just made a change last year so that people had to look five times or more a week for work without our requirement change. They could go as little as two times a week. If I was out of work, I'd be looking more than twice a week for a job. I'd be looking for every day except maybe today. I take Sunday off to go to church and pray that I could find a job on Monday, but I think there need to be reforms in that system.

Scott Walker: Don't raise minimum wage; train for higher-wage jobs

WALKER: You know, again, I look at that. Years ago, I worked at McDonald's when I was a kid. Actually, Paul Ryan worked down the road from me in Janesville. I worked in a small town called Delavan. Those were great jobs to start out with. My great fear is for young people like Paul and I were back then and my kids a few years ago when they worked those sorts of jobs, they'd be without work. We have a high unemployment rate amongst young people. If we are to raise that artificially, we'd take that away. Instead, what we need to focus on is helping people find the skills they need to fill much better paying jobs, those family-supporting career-type jobs. Artificially raising the minimum wage whether it's at the state or the federal level is not going to do that. Creating an environment where employers create jobs will do just that.