January, 15 2019, 11:00pm EDT
![Patriotic Millionaires](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012612/origin.jpg)
"Smart Capitalists Know That We Need a Higher Minimum Wage"
"Raising the minimum wage will put more money in the pockets of people who will spend it. That spending will create jobs which in turn will fuel more demand."
WASHINGTON
Today, in response to the introduction of the landmark Raise the Wage Act, the new Democratic majority's caucus bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, members of the Patriotic Millionaires issued the following remarks:
"There has never been a more critical time to raise the minimum wage," said Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and former managing director at BlackRock, Inc. "Smart capitalists know that we need a higher minimum wage. In order to thrive, a consumer economy like ours needs customers with money to spend. Raising the minimum wage will put more money in the pockets of people who will spend it. That spending will create jobs which in turn will fuel more demand. The vast majority of Americans understand this, that's why they support raising the minimum wage."
"The lowest wage earners generally spend all of their income to live. Increasing the minimum wage is great for business because that largest segment of the population will spend virtually all of that increase on goods and services. Even small businesses stand to benefit while paying their lowest-wage employees more, because all the low-wage employees of all the other small and large businesses are then able to buy more from all businesses," said Patriotic Millionaire Rich Boberg.
"The current minimum wage of $7.25 is a national disgrace. It is so low that Americans who work full time for the minimum wage are entitled to receive government benefits available only to those earning poverty level incomes. Paying workers a truly living wage supports the dignity of hard work and a motivated work force, increases consumer spending and saves governments billions of dollars a year now spent on providing necessary benefits to poorly paid workers," said Patriotic Millionaire Patricia Martone, attorney.
"Legislating an increase in the minimum wage is not the ideal solution to fairness and shared prosperity. However, until we have the courage to eliminate all the pervasive tentacles of privileged interest in every part of our government, we must raise the minimum wage, just to protect the millions of Americans who do some of our hardest work. Then, let's work toward a future where we don't have to legislate wages--where everyone who wants to work can earn a living wage," said Patriotic Millionaire Dale Walker, Vice Chairman of Pacific Vision Foundation.
"People who give you their service - their time, their creative energy, and their sweat - deserve to be paid enough to support themselves and their families. How can we even debate this?" said Patriotic Millionaire Jerry Fiddler, CEO of Zygote Ventures.
"Why are some McDonald's workers trained how to apply for public assistance? The low, unlivable minimum wage that exists now does not work. Passing The Raise the Wage Act will create happier, healthier and more productive people," said Patriotic Millionaire Lawrence Benenson, Principal at Benenson Capital Partners.
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
(202) 446-0489LATEST NEWS
Progressives Condemn GOP Attempts to Blame Biden for Trump Rally Shooting
"This stuff is basically cooked up in a lab to incite further violence," said one critic of comments made by Sen. J.D. Vance, Rep. Mike Collins, and other allies of Trump.
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As federal law enforcement officials launched a full investigation into the shooting at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, journalists and political observers expressed fear that the act of violence would ramp up political division and turmoil in the United States ahead of the November elections.
Boston Globe reporter James Pindell was among the journalists at the rally who shared that Trump supporters "turned on the media"—a frequent target of Trump during his presidency—after the shooting.
"The crowd was angry," he wrote. "Middle fingers were everywhere. They asked the press if they were happy and blamed the media. 'You did this,' they said to reporters."
Allies of Trump including Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), and former White House adviser Stephen Miller immediately placed blame with President Joe Biden, claiming the attack was the result of warnings that electing the former president to a second term would threaten democracy.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) denounced Collins' claim that Biden "sent the orders," calling it "a continuation of the bullshit rhetoric that drives political violence."
"A likely assassination attempt and gun violence on Trump is awful on many levels," said Pocan. "Adding jet fuel to the political climate is unbecoming of a member of Congress."
Trump, who spread baseless lies that the 2020 election was rigged against him and urged his supporters to riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 as Congress was certifying the results, has said he would act as a dictator on "day one" of his potential presidency.
Dozens of people who worked in his administration helped to write Project 2025, a far-right political agenda aimed at consolidating power with the president and dismantling parts of the federal government, and he has named political opponents he aims to prosecute and pledged to deploy the military to stop political protests.
"One response to Trump's attempted shooting (apparently by a registered Republican) we must NOT take is to stop framing the existential nature of this election," said political organizer Aaron Regunberg. "The problem isn't Democrats saying Trump is attacking our democracy—the problem is that he's attacking our democracy."
One audience member was killed and two were seriously injured after the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, fired several shots from a rooftop near Butler Farm Show, where the rally was held.
Trump was escorted off the stage after a bullet "pierced the upper part of his right ear," The New York Timesreported. The Secret Service reported that Crooks had been killed after firing his weapon, and that officials found an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle near his body.
Authorities did not identify a motive for the shooting.
Crooks was registered as a Republican in his hometown; records also showed that someone named Thomas Crooks donated $15 to a liberal voter turnout campaign called the Progressive Turnout Project in January 2021.
"This remains an active and ongoing investigation," said the FBI in a statement Sunday, as law enforcement agents closed down all roads leading to the home of the suspect's family in Bethel Park in the Pittsburgh area.
David Hogg, who survived the 2018 Parkland, Florida school shooting and co-founded March for Our Lives, said the gunman's ability to fire at the president and kill an audience member while in the presence of Secret Service agents and police is the latest proof that people across the U.S. are vulnerable to gun violence due to a lack of strict gun control laws, which Republican lawmakers have long refused to pass.
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"Political violence is absolutely unacceptable," said Sen. Bernie Sanders after the shooting in which one campaign attendee was killed and the alleged gunman was shot and killed by law enforcement.
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This remains a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
Update (9:45 pm):
President Joe Biden spoke on Saturday evening about the shooting at former President Donald Trump's campaign rally, saying the attack, like all political violence, was "sick" and "one of the reasons we have to unite this country."
"We cannot condone this," said Biden. "The bottom line is, the Trump rally was a rally that should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem... Everybody must condemn it."
When asked if he believed the shooting was an assassination attempt, Biden said, "I have an opinion, but I don't have any facts."
Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim said on social media on Saturday night that law enforcement agents had recovered "an AR-style rifle" at the scene. Later police identified the gunman killed at the scene as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Cooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a town about 35 miles from where the events in Butler took place.
Earlier:
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was reportedly in "fine" condition after being wounded in an apparent assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The former president appeared to be bleeding from near his ear as he was hurried off stage after a series of pops that sounded like gunshots were heard at the event. The Secret Service then brought him to his motorcade.
A spokesperson for Trump, Steven Cheung, said in a statement that the former president was being examined at a local medical facility.
Richard Goldinger, district attorney for Butler County, Pennsylvania, told the Associated Press that the suspected gunman was dead and that at least one rallygoer had been killed.
The apparent shooting happened just minutes into the campaign event, where Trump had been talking about border crossings and immigration just before the shots rang out.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident at about 7:15 pm.
Police cordoned off a section of the bleachers at the rally after the apparent shooting, and the New York Times reported that the Secret Service began "kicking out the press and declaring it a crime scene."
Shortly after the incident, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle issued statements condemning the apparent act of violence against a presidential candidate.
"Violence has NO place in our democracy," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a surrogate of the Biden campaign. "My thoughts are with President Trump and everyone impacted at the rally today."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the attack "absolutely unacceptable."
"I am absolutely appalled by the gunshots fired at Donald Trump," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). "Violence is never acceptable in our democracy. I pray he was not seriously hurt and for our deeply divided nation."
Federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were mobilizing Saturday evening to assist the Secret Service in responding to the incident.
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Group Behind Project 2025 Already Claiming Election Interference by Biden
The Heritage Foundation is "stoking irresponsible inflammatory fear of election fraud," said one journalist.
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One election law expert warned this week that the right-wing Heritage Foundation is already baselessly claiming that President Joe Biden is likely to respond to the voting results as his predecessor, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, did in 2020: by refusing to accept the will of American voters.
"This is gaslighting and it is dangerous in fanning flames that could lead to potential violence," Rick Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, toldHuffPost Friday.
The Heritage Foundation, the think tank that has spearheaded the drafting of Project 2025—a policy agenda threatening mass deportation and immigrant detention, the dismantling of federal agencies, and the consolidation of power with the president should Trump win a second term—said in a report released Thursday that Biden may try to continue his presidency "by force" even if he loses in November.
The claim has no basis in statements made by Biden, who has said he will accept the election results.
In May, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that Biden "will accept the will of the American people." Trump has not made the same commitment.
Nevertheless, the Heritage Foundation report went on to say that "the lawlessness of the Biden administration—at the border, in staffing considerations, and in routine defiance of court rulings—makes clear that the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president."
Mike Howell, executive director of the group's Oversight Project, said at a press conference that "as things stand right now, there is a 0% chance of a free and fair election in the United States of America... I'm formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election."
"This is gaslighting and it is dangerous in fanning flames that could lead to potential violence."
Such comments show, saidNew York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, that "these people are the insurrectionists. Or election terrorists."
Howell's comments echoed Trump's baseless warnings ahead of the 2020 election that voting would be "rigged" by widespread use of mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump relentlessly attacked voting by mail despite admitting that he had used mail-in ballots to vote in numerous elections.
The Heritage Foundation has conducted "role-playing exercises" that it says show "left-wing efforts to interfere with the election" are possible in 2024, HuffPost reported.
The report said voters should "reflexively disbelieve and challenge the intelligence community's allegations regarding Trump, foreign interference, and Republican efforts to legally win the White House."
Hasen told HuffPost that the group appeared to be trying to create doubt among the electorate about institutions that "give voters truthful information they need to evaluate evidence before them."
Journalist Jane Mayer said the group was "stoking irresponsible inflammatory fear of election fraud."
Political scientist Don Moynihan of Georgetown University added that the Heritage Foundation's baseless accusations against Biden likely preview how the Trump campaign could respond to the election results if he loses, four years after the former president urged his supporters to violently attempt to stop the certification of Biden's victory.
"The end game is to allow men in suits finish what the January 6th rioters started," he said.
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