The Republican candidates’ presidential campaigns put all the networks on notice: No more “gotcha” questions during your debates. Stop trying to capture conservatives with trap queries, and just let them explain their economic policies. Is this so much to ask?
And so the Fox Business Network took them up on this and opened with a simple question Tuesday night: Whatcha think about the minimum wage? Higher? Keep where it is? Faced with this very, very simple question, the first two candidates to respond—the first two candidates to speak during the night!—both said that wages are too high.
Donald Trump, you for a minimum wage increase? “I can’t be, [Moderator] Neil [Cavuto] … There is nothing that we do now to win. We don’t win anymore. Our taxes are too high. I’ve come up with a tax plan that many, many people like very much. It’s going to be a tremendous plan. I think it will make our country and our economy very dynamic. But, taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world.”
Ben Carson. You liked increasing the minimum wage back in May. Still like it? “As far as the minimum wage is concerned, people need to be educated on the minimum wage. Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases. This is particularly a problem in the black community. Only 19.8 percent of black teenagers have a job. [Huh?] Or are looking for one. And that’s because of those high wages. If you lower those wages, that comes down.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, the third candidate to speak, was able to avoid saying that wages are too high and need to come down in a widely aired presidential debate. What a talent!
