President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Treasury, billionaire Scott Bessent, is in hot water after plainly stating during his January 16 confirmation hearing that he doesn’t think the U.S. federal minimum wage should be raised.
As it stands, the federal minimum wage remains just $7.25 per hour. Some states have fought to raise local minimum wages to $15 with success in recent years, but we haven’t seen an increase at a federal level since 2009, leaving millions of Americans to fall through the cracks in states with unlivable wages. There was no better official to raise the question of upping this number during Bessent’s confirmation hearing than Senator Bernie Sanders, who has long positioned himself as a champion of the working class and was among the first to sound the alarm on the formation of an oligarchy in our current government, well before President Joe Biden echoed the sentiment in his farewell address.
Sen. Sanders reiterated a few facts he shared during the hearing on X (formerly Twitter), along with a clip of Bessent’s response, reminding us there are over 22 million Americans making less than $15 an hour today and almost 40 million earning less than $17 an hour. Sanders asked, verbatim, if Bessent would work with those fighting to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage, to which Bessent initially replied, “I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue.”
“So you don’t think we should change the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour?” Sanders pressed, and Bessent firmly (and shockingly) stated, “No.”
X comments veer back and forth between asking why neither Democrats nor Republicans have done anything about the federal minimum wage while in office and taking shots at Sanders for his own politics and economic takes. This is nearly as difficult to sit with as the idea that a billionaire who doesn’t believe in paying the vast majority of Americans a living wage may be confirmed as the country’s Treasury Secretary. Like many current issues, the proposal that we should all be earning a living wage should not be politicized, and it certainly shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
Fortunately, one X user was right in urging Sanders that Bessent should not be confirmed, and the conversation surrounding the billionaire’s confirmation hearing takes a turn away from culture wars when you shift to platforms like TikTok and Tumblr.
TikTokers have near-unanimously proposed that Bessent should try living on the current federal minimum wage and see how that works out for him. Many are sharing they earned more working at places like movie theaters, Wendy’s, and Home Depot back in the ’90s, while others have simply noted that a pack of gum alone can run you $6.29 at a gas station.
How is anyone expected to survive on less than a dollar more than it costs for a pack of gum as rent and grocery costs rise? Don’t worry; Bessent believes “the most important economic issue of today” isn’t unlivable wages but rather expanding Trump’s tax cuts for the rich. I really wish I were joking. As reported by Rolling Stone, Bessent insisted “we must make permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” In other words, this guy is banking on trickle-down economics. You know, something that can only work if companies actually hire more people and pay them fair wages.
Only time will tell, but in an economic era of cutting corners and replacing workers with AI, Trump’s proposed tariffs and Bessent’s supportive stance on the former president’s tax plans aren’t leaving many Americans feeling too optimistic.
Published: Jan 18, 2025 01:03 am