New GOP Fed Chair admits conservatives lie about the minimum wage

Conservatives have long claimed that having a minimum wage supposedly reduces employment. They argue this even though statistics have long shown that's simply not true. And this week, under intense questioning, new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appears to have admitted that conservatives are lying (see the update at the bottom for a controversy that has arisen about his remarks).

That's right, in his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Bernanke had an exchange with Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders (VT) where he admitted as much. Here's the exchange:

SANDERS: Chairman Bernanke, should the Congress raise the minimum wage so that every worker in America who works 40 hours a week escapes from poverty? A very simple question, sir.

BERNANKE: I'm going to be an economist and give you the one hand, the other hand. On the minimum wage, it's actually a very controversial issue among economists. Clearly, if you raise the minimum wage, then those workers who retain their jobs will get higher income and therefore it helps them. The concerns that some economists have raised about the minimum wage are first, is it as well targeted as it could be? That is, how much of the increase is going to the teenage children of suburban families, for example? And secondly, does it have any employment effects? That is, do higher wages lower employment of low-wage workers?

SANDERS: And your response is?

BERNANKE: My response is that I think it doesn't lower employment.

So there we have it folks - a conservative Republican Federal Reserve Chairman, nominated by a conservative Republican president, acknowledges that the right-wing's rhetoric about minimum wage is a lie.

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