In a sane world, Thune would have gone “My God, that’s absolutely right! My salary back then was actually OK, and today, minimum wage is not sufficient! I totally forgot about the rise in the cost of living! I apologize, and will now support a $15 minimum wage!”
Instead, he’ll continue to be stupid, and refuse to acknowledge basic facts and simple math.
Every time minimum wage is part of the discussion, some conservative says the same thing “when I was _____ I only made ____ and it was enough.” Either they’re all idiots or they know it plays well to their base and I cannot believe they’re all that stupid. Otherwise, they’d show up in congress with their shoes untied and on the wrong feet.
What I don’t get is why South Dakotans find this compelling.
Because they show up at work with their shoes untied and on the wrong feet?
Oh it works pretty good with the base. I have arguments with people all the time about this. The most recent one was a friend of mine who, after he retired, did the better part of a complete 180, politically speaking. He bashes “those millennials” left and right, including his own son, then gladly pointed out that ( in the late 60s ) he as a teen bought a new car from working and saving at making 2.50 an hour. I calculated for him ( thanks for smartphones ) that that would be nearly 18 dollars an hour today. He paused, gave a stupid look, and said “But I’m just sayin’”
Good comeback…NOT!
People love to reminisce/grouse about when gasoline was 25 or 30 cents a gallon, but conveniently forget what their salary was at the same time. 
Which reminds me of a phrase I recall but couldn’t find with some googling. Something to the effect of you could live quite well if you could receive a modern salary, pay '30s prices, receive interest at '70s rates and pay interest at modern rates.
Unfortunately, he has a point. This was the SAME EXACT REASONING used in blocking Trump’s initial travel ban - basically the judge saying “Give me good reasoning.”
Quite frankly, in my mind, an executive order saying “give us 100 days to formulate and legislate a reasonable policy” sounds an awful lot like a court saying “we’re putting a pause on this law until the appeals can be heard”. Maybe if the Biden administration appeals this ruling, there will be a temporary block on the block on blocking deportations.
When I got my first real fulltime job out of college, I thought if I could make $500/mo gross, I’d be set. I made $590/mo so I was in clover!
I know you’re not in that conversation at the moment and I know that people who have their minds made up probably won’t budge - but (yay smartphones), you can look up the price of a mid-60s car and find out that they were about $2,500. Or, in other words, a car was about 1000 hours of work. That feels reasonable.
Today’s cheap cars are $16,000. For a car to be 1000 hours of work, work needs to be $16/hour. No one is asking for free - we’re asking to be able to buy a car for 1000 hours of work.
(apparently, the average new car price is over $40,000. I’m old, cheap, or both)
I remember thinking when I first entered the workplace in the late '80s that $10/hour sounded quite good. That’s only $20,000 gross, presuming a 40-hour week and 50 working weeks a year. 
There’s a massive amount of more tech in even the most basic car.
Yeah, I was gonna say, there are cars out there for $16,000. A few. That’ll get you into a Chevy Spark, barely.
True, it’s safer and more reliable. But it still is a much higher barrier to entry into being able to afford transportation.
I remember watching The Price is Right when I was a kid in the early-70s. If the game was to guess the price of “a brand new car!” it was always four-digits, and started with ‘3’.
The man’s an idiot.
The minimum wage the year I was born (1948) was $.40. (In 2020 dollars: $4.35)
The year I graduated from college (1970) it was $1.60. (In 2020 dollars: $10.92)
Is Mitch just trolling us? Or did he say this because he figures he will be dead by then (or Donnie will) so it will be moot?
I think The Turtle is just saying what he needs to in order to get through the day. Let tomorrow be its own problem, he’ll say something else then.
Fortunately for him, most of the GOP has no memory and doesn’t believe the media, so it works.
Doctor Rachel Levine, who is transgender, appeared before the Senate today for her confirmation as deputy Secretary of Health. Rand Paul asked her if she supports the genital mutilation of children.
On the same day, as the House voted on the Equality Act, Marjorie Taylor Greene intentionally misgendered the trans daughter of her across the House office building hall neighbor Marie Windsor.
The McConnell, my friend
Is blowin’ in the wind…
The only thing that could have made Levine’s response better if she said: Well mr. Rand, we can schedule an appointment for me to come by your office right now. When would you like me to stop by?
From The Koz article,…
I am dumbfounded. I am aghast. Is Rand Paul really saying that sexual reassignment is the same as female circumcision (aka clitorectomy)? Is he that $@&%ing stupid?
It’s not stupidity, it’s hatred.
ETA: Not that he isn’t stupid, too.