Leaked Podesta Emails Show Clinton and Co. Knew But Didn't Care That They Would Hurt the Economy

It’s almost as if they don’t care.

In one of the recent WikiLeaks emails from Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, there was some discussion about the $15 minimum wage.

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In specific, there was a discussion about the damage to the economy that a raise in the minimum wage, on that level, would cause.

The head of the liberal Center for American Progress privately warned Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff against endorsing a $15-an-hour minimum wage, saying that it would be bad for the economy.

Despite that, both the Clinton campaign and the center have since promoted state and local activists’ efforts to push a $15 rate, and Clinton has even said she would sign $15 federal legislation.

Let that settle in.

They know it would damage the economy, but they still have pushed it as a leading element of the Clinton campaign.

Neera Tanden made the warning in an April 2015 email to top Clinton campaign staffers John Podesta, Robby Mook, Jake Sullivan and Jennifer Palmieri. The five were discussing a recent email from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio that gave them a heads up on a rally he was planning that would promote, among other issues, a $15 federal minimum wage. That would more than double the current federal rate of $7.25.

“Substantively, we have not supported — you will get a fair number of liberal economists who will say it will lose jobs. Most of rest seems fine (obviously trade sticks out),” Tanden said in response to de Blasio’s email.

Conservative economists have warned that increasing the rate to $15 would force businesses to cut back on hiring and worker hours to adjust to the higher labor costs. Liberal activists have dismissed the argument, but the email showed that Tanden agreed that it was a bad idea.

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Bad idea. Let’s do it!

Liberal bastion, Seattle, Washington, raised their minimum wage to $11-an-hour, as part of their plan to eventually introduce the $15-an-hour minimum wage.

It hasn’t worked out as hoped. Rather than lift the low wage earners, it has hurt the economy, as a whole.

A University of Washington economists’ study shows:

“…the increase had not benefited the city’s low-wage workers. “Although the minimum wage clearly increased wages for this group, offsetting effects on low-wage worker hours and employment muted the impact on labor earnings,” the study found.”

Yes, because the extra cost of raised wages has to be made up somewhere, and it’s usually with the cost of the product, a cut in hours (putting the pay of the workers right back at the level they were attempting to rise out of), or the employer just hires less staff, therefore, more people looking for work won’t have it.

The exchange sheds light on Clinton’s refusal to formally endorse a $15 federal rate, despite the Democratic Party adopting it as part of their platform. She has advocated an increase to $12 an hour, but has said that if elected she would sign legislation raising the rate to $15 if it landed on her desk. She also has backed state and local activists on the issue.

“I support the local efforts that are going on that are making it possible for people working in certain localities to actually earn $15,” Clinton said during a New Hampshire campaign stop in July.

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Even as they see it doesn’t work.

If they wanted to force it in their own little liberal strongholds, with the approval of the citizens in a fair, up-or-down vote, then so be it.

Unfortunately, they want to force these failed policies on the entire country.

The liberal credo is: Misery loves company.

California, the failed socialist state, led by the nightmarish Governor Jerry Brown (In the most recent Cato Institute Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s governors, Brown received an “F” rating on his tax-and-spend policies), has made a $15 minimum wage the state wage.

“California’s economy is the seventh-largest in the world, and an increased minimum wage will go a long way toward ensuring that all Californians can share in the state’s economic growth and prosperity,” Tanden said.

Except studies show they won’t.

Keep up the delusion. Keep it in Washington and California. But don’t force in on the American people, especially when you know it’s damaging.

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