The Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote a column in the Chicago Sun-Times this morning to stump for his son’s bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $10 per hour.
Introduced last week with Ralph Nader, Rep. Jesse Jackson’s (D-Ill.) Catching Up To 1968 Act of 2012 now has 20 co-sponsors from the farther-left side of the aisle, including Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is helmed by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.).
“Republicans in Congress will block a vote on this measure. Democratic leaders can’t figure out where they are on it,” the congressman’s dad wrote. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will unleash a horde of lobbyists to oppose it. But the reality is that this would be a no-brainer.”
Jackson Sr. argued that the bill “would help the economy” and “represent a measure of justice.”
“President Barack Obama should lead this drive, fulfilling the promise he made in 2008 to push for a higher minimum wage by 2011,” Jackson Sr. wrote. “Usually, minimum wage bills are coupled with tax breaks for small business. But in a reflection of how skewed our politics have been, small business has already gotten 17 tax breaks under Obama, while low-wage workers have yet to get a raise.”
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