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Ivanka Trump, White House adviser and daughter of President Donald Trump, said Monday that most Americans are opposed to the idea of a higher minimum wage and guaranteed jobs. (Photo: Fortune Conferences/Flickr/cc)
Workers' rights advocates were among those who expressed a mix of amusement, anger, and shock--but not surprise--when Ivanka Trump waded into the national conversation on whether Americans should have the right to a living wage, despite her lack of experience in working to afford necessities.
In an interview with Steve Hilton on Fox News, President Donald Trump's adviser and eldest daughter attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) Green New Deal resolution, asserting that provisions in the climate action legislation including a $15 minimum wage and a guaranteed jobs program would be unpopular with the American people.
Americans, she claimed, "want to work for what they get" instead of "being given something."
Watch:
In fact, polls show that a majority of voters support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour from the current rate of $7.25--which has been in place since 2009, even as Republicans have pushed through giveaways to the wealthiest Americans like the $1.5 trillion corporate tax cut which passed in 2017.
A guaranteed jobs program has found support among a large swath of the public as well, with the right-leaning Rasmussen poll finding that 46 percent of Americans support the proposal in 2018.
Trump did not elaborate on specific examples of people she has met in her travels around the U.S. who expressed that they'd prefer to live in a country with no "guaranteed minimum" benefits afforded to working people.
"Trump's clothing line was manufactured at a factory where workers were paid as low as $255 a month," tweeted the New York State Department of Labor. "Perhaps it's best if she sits this one out."
Others noted that Trump became an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, her father's business, at the age of 24 and acquired her wealth from the fortune her father had inherited from his own parents.
"I think most people would prefer knowing with absolute certainty that they'll have food on the table and a roof over their head over spending their lives living paycheck to paycheck," wrote Rafi Schwartz at Splinter. "But hey, what do I know? I'm not the uber-wealthy failed fashion designer with the government job handed to me by my (allegedly) billionaire father."
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Workers' rights advocates were among those who expressed a mix of amusement, anger, and shock--but not surprise--when Ivanka Trump waded into the national conversation on whether Americans should have the right to a living wage, despite her lack of experience in working to afford necessities.
In an interview with Steve Hilton on Fox News, President Donald Trump's adviser and eldest daughter attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) Green New Deal resolution, asserting that provisions in the climate action legislation including a $15 minimum wage and a guaranteed jobs program would be unpopular with the American people.
Americans, she claimed, "want to work for what they get" instead of "being given something."
Watch:
In fact, polls show that a majority of voters support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour from the current rate of $7.25--which has been in place since 2009, even as Republicans have pushed through giveaways to the wealthiest Americans like the $1.5 trillion corporate tax cut which passed in 2017.
A guaranteed jobs program has found support among a large swath of the public as well, with the right-leaning Rasmussen poll finding that 46 percent of Americans support the proposal in 2018.
Trump did not elaborate on specific examples of people she has met in her travels around the U.S. who expressed that they'd prefer to live in a country with no "guaranteed minimum" benefits afforded to working people.
"Trump's clothing line was manufactured at a factory where workers were paid as low as $255 a month," tweeted the New York State Department of Labor. "Perhaps it's best if she sits this one out."
Others noted that Trump became an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, her father's business, at the age of 24 and acquired her wealth from the fortune her father had inherited from his own parents.
"I think most people would prefer knowing with absolute certainty that they'll have food on the table and a roof over their head over spending their lives living paycheck to paycheck," wrote Rafi Schwartz at Splinter. "But hey, what do I know? I'm not the uber-wealthy failed fashion designer with the government job handed to me by my (allegedly) billionaire father."
Workers' rights advocates were among those who expressed a mix of amusement, anger, and shock--but not surprise--when Ivanka Trump waded into the national conversation on whether Americans should have the right to a living wage, despite her lack of experience in working to afford necessities.
In an interview with Steve Hilton on Fox News, President Donald Trump's adviser and eldest daughter attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) Green New Deal resolution, asserting that provisions in the climate action legislation including a $15 minimum wage and a guaranteed jobs program would be unpopular with the American people.
Americans, she claimed, "want to work for what they get" instead of "being given something."
Watch:
In fact, polls show that a majority of voters support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour from the current rate of $7.25--which has been in place since 2009, even as Republicans have pushed through giveaways to the wealthiest Americans like the $1.5 trillion corporate tax cut which passed in 2017.
A guaranteed jobs program has found support among a large swath of the public as well, with the right-leaning Rasmussen poll finding that 46 percent of Americans support the proposal in 2018.
Trump did not elaborate on specific examples of people she has met in her travels around the U.S. who expressed that they'd prefer to live in a country with no "guaranteed minimum" benefits afforded to working people.
"Trump's clothing line was manufactured at a factory where workers were paid as low as $255 a month," tweeted the New York State Department of Labor. "Perhaps it's best if she sits this one out."
Others noted that Trump became an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, her father's business, at the age of 24 and acquired her wealth from the fortune her father had inherited from his own parents.
"I think most people would prefer knowing with absolute certainty that they'll have food on the table and a roof over their head over spending their lives living paycheck to paycheck," wrote Rafi Schwartz at Splinter. "But hey, what do I know? I'm not the uber-wealthy failed fashion designer with the government job handed to me by my (allegedly) billionaire father."