How Many Republicans In Congress Does Oily Joe Barton Speak For When He Says He Wants To Abolish The Minimum Wage?

Monday candidate registration for the 2014 congressional elections close in Texas. So far "Oily" Joe Barton doesn't have a Democratic opponent, just a teabagger, Frank Kuchar, in the primary and then a Libertarian, Hugh Chauvin, in the general. Another dismal DCCC failure presided over by Steve Israel! Since Barton has no Democratic opponent to worry about, he strayed on Thursday from his usual diatribe on the fabulousness of Big Oil and ventured into one of the most unpopular positions in America-- abolishing the minimum wage. Yes, you read that correctly. Barton feels so secure thanks to the DCCC ignoring his seat that, even as most congressmen are talking about raising the minimum wage, he is trying to organize fellow reactionaries to abolish it altogether. Is that part of GOP re-branding-- something akin to slavery for our children? "I think it's outlived its usefulness," Oily Joe told the National Journal yesterday. "It may have been of some value back in the Great Depression. I would vote to repeal the minimum wage."

As we saw Wednesday, Barton's far right position stands at odds with what most Americans want, not just normal Americans, but even Republican voters! I don't know what the polling on raising the minimum wage is in TX-06 but I suspect it isn't that much more conservative than more moderate parts of the country. It's a red district, but not as red as much of the state. Obama won 41% of the vote there last year. The most populous part of the district, Arlington/Tarrant County in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex only gave Barton 53% of it's vote in his reelection bid last year against underfunded grassroots Democrat Kenneth Sanders. (It was the Hate Talk Radio consumers in backward Ellis and Navarro counties where Barton racked up his votes.)

I suppose Barton's outburst came in response to President Obama's speech Wednesday about economic mobility and about remedying that by, among other things, raising the minimum wage. Take a look: