MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Minimum Wage
Interview
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SCHULTZ: Joining us now is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Senator, great to have you with us on THE ED SHOW again tonight. I appreciate your time.
The question that that person posed was where does the money come from? I`m screaming at the monitor saying that corporate profits are through the roof. I mean, it`s almost like the other side is in denial.
I have to ask you, is there any chance that Congress is going to be able to get the country on its side when it comes to raising the minimum wage to the levels where people can have a decent wage and support themselves? Your thoughts, Senator?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Ed, we already have the overwhelming majority of American people on our side who believe that the idea, that $7.25 is totally obscene. It is a starvation wage. And the American people believe absolutely that we should raise the minimum wage.
I hope we can get strong legislation to the Senate and I hope that by building a strong grassroots movement around this issue, we can force the House to do the right thing.
Bottom line is: we have a collapsing middle class. We have far too many people living in poverty. And one of the reasons for that is we have tens of million of people working at starvation wages. And while we have to create millions of new jobs, we also have to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.
SCHULTZ: Senator, what do you say to the folks who are saying, and in that debate that you had, that Walmart and McDonald`s can`t afford to raise the minimum wage?
SANDERS: Ed, the wealthiest in this country is the Walton family. They are worth about $100 billion. That is more wealth than the bottom 40 percent, 40 percent of the American people. One of the reasons that the Walton family, the owners of Walmart, are so wealthy, is that they receive huge subsidies from the taxpayers of this country. When you pay at Walmart starvation wages, you don`t provide benefits to your workers, who picks up the difference?
The answer is that many of the workers in Walmart end up getting Medicaid. They get food stamps. They get affordable housing paid for by the taxpayers of this country while the Walton family remains the wealthiest family in America.
If that is not obscene, I don`t know what is.
SCHULTZ: Senator, do you believe, of course, the Republicans have not helped out on any jobs package whatsoever they`re stuck in the mud. They don`t want to help. They don`t want to work with the Democrats. They don`t want to help this president on a jobs bill in any way, shame or form.
Do you think the Republicans want higher unemployment so people will be so desperate, they will go to these corporations and work for $7.25 an hour and have no voice and no push and no union to stick up for them whatsoever? Do you think the Republicans -- do you think that this is a conservative utopia? That they like everything the way it is right now?
SANDERS: Ed, let me take it a step further and this will shock you and shock some of your viewers. This is the truth. The fact of the matter is, is that there are many, many Republicans in Congress right now, perhaps the majority, who not only are opposed to raising the minimum wage. They want to abolish the minimum wage. That`s the truth.
And what they believe is that in a city like Detroit, or a high unemployment area -- and remember, 40 percent of the black kids in this country are facing unemployment, 20 percent of the young people in this country facing unemployment, 14 percent of the American people unemployed.
They believe that if they can hire, if an employer can hire a worker at $3 or $4 an hour, that`s fine. That`s freedom. Get government out of the business of regulating a minimum wage.
So, what I happen to believe is very, very different.
SCHULTZ: Senator --
SANDERS: Yes?
SCHULTZ: Yes, go ahead.
SANDERS: Well, it`s just that if we`re going to grow the middle class, we have to create decent paying jobs. And one way to do that is to raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour which is what the American people want.
SCHULTZ: What do you say to the fast food workers that are in a fight right now to push forward? I mean, I guess -- I don`t recall any time in the news cycle where we have seen fast food workers step out and be so vocal and on the verge of real organization here. What do you make of that?
SANDERS: Well, I was on the floor of the Senate last week, just expressing my extraordinary admiration for them, for their courage. And believe me, it takes a lot of courage to walk out of a fast food establishment knowing that you can be fired. What they are doing is standing up, not only for economic justice for themselves, they are standing up for all working Americans and saying that we have got to create a situation in this country where we are creating decent paying jobs. Not jobs that are paying a starvation wage.
So I have a lot of respect for what these young people are doing.
SCHULTZ: Senator Bernie Sanders, always good to have you with us here on THE ED SHOW. Appreciate your time this evening, sir. Thank you. Thanks for joining us.
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