>>>Obama wants to raise the minimum wage - the republicans do not. I think that pretty much sums up things as far as "policies" on this matter. Based on what I've seen I'd say it's obvious who's not standing up for the poor. Take a look at the voting records to remove any doubt.
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>>>You really think that raising the minimum wage is going to help the poor? It is going to cause minimum wage jobs to be lost.
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>>Not true: A review of 64 studies on minimum wage increases found no discernable effect on employment. Additionally, more than 600 economists, seven of them Nobel Prize winners in economics, have signed onto a letter in support of raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016.
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>You don't need a Nobel prize to defuse that argument.
>When the minimum wage law was passed in 1938, it was $.25.
>Following that logic, given all the increases since then, there should be no minimum wage jobs at all.

>There must be some, or why would so many people be fighting the increase?

The republicans seem to have this theory that if you actually pay everyone enough money to live on then the whole USA will fall into chaos and the economy will fall apart. In typical republican fashion, none of this is of correct. The biggest argument that I actually hear is that if you don't want to make minimum wage, then you need to work harder and get a better job....which is of one of the dumbest statements ever. When I was in high school back in the early 80's most of the people that made minimum wage were students or kids that still lived at home with their parents. That is simply not the case anymore - take a look inside your local McDonald's and see how many adults are working in there compared to students. Then to top it all off - if you want the better job I guess you need to go to college - yet the republicans are against providing community college for free too. So there you have it - if you don't like minimum wage - get a better job - by going to that school you can't pay for - because you have a minimum wage job. This ignorant "trickle down economics" concept where you don't tax the rich so they can "trickle down" the money is again a proven dismal failure. There is no 'trickle' - just a bunch of old rich white guys keeping everything for themselves at the expense of everyone else.
What it boils down too is some fat republican's are unwilling to cough up an extra 30 cents for a big mac in order to give the guy making the big mac enough of a paycheck to actually afford to eat a big mac. As a note almost all the republicans admit they wouldn't be able to live off minimum wage - but at the same time oppose the increase. I think the word for that is "as_hole".