Biden pushes for minimum wage increase, equality in Des Moines stop

DES MOINES - Vice President Joe Biden joined the 'Nuns on the Bus” Wednesday morning at the Iowa Capitol to promote an active electorate and advocate for changes in federal immigration policy, the minimum wage and income inequality.

It was the kickoff event for the Catholic Sisters' 75-event bus tour through 10 states.

'We talk about recovery, and there is recovery,” Biden said. 'What we don't talk enough about is middle-class people don't feel it. They're still not fundamentally better off. The country's better off. Our economy's better off. But it's not like it was. And our job is to restore that.

'And ladies and gentlemen, that's what Sister (Simone) and her fellow sisters are all about. I don't know how they phrase it, but every time I think of what you do, I think it's about restoring a bargain - just basic, simple, decent fairness.”

During a roughly 24-minute address to about 250 people, Biden chastised House Republicans' federal budget and pushed for immigration reform. But he spent the bulk of his time on income equality and raising the minimum wage.

'There used to be a consensus in America. There used to be a consensus in Congress. Democrats and Republicans constantly increased the minimum wage because they understood,” Biden said. 'What happened to that consensus?”

Iowa Republicans criticized Biden for using official resources for what they felt was a partisan campaign event.

'I'd love nothing more than for Joe Biden to be a 2016 presidential candidate,” Republican Party of Iowa chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a media statement. 'If that wish won't come true, then I'd at least wish he would campaign on his own dime and not bill the taxpayers of Iowa and America.”

Other speakers at Wednesday's event included AFSCME president Danny Homan and Laura Comito, who owns a small art studio in Carroll. Both advocated for a minimum wage increase.

Comito said she would like to hire a new employee for $15 per hour but can't because she is helping her 24-year-old daughter who has been unable to find full-time work since graduating from college. Comito said her daughter has been trying to get by on two part-time jobs, one of which pays the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

'I have to help my daughter make ends meet, so I'm subsidizing her $7.25 an hour job,” Comito said.

Homan cited numbers showing the growing income gap between the country's wealthiest and the rest of the population. He noted the wealthiest 400 families in the nation have more wealth than the poorest 150 million families combined, a figure reported by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and verified by the nonpartisan fact-checking agency PolitiFact.

'That kind of equality is not the America I know or we know,” Homan said. 'In the America I knew back then (when he was young) and I want to know today, hard work is still rewarded with good wages. While there is much to do to reduce inequality, the first step Congress should take is to raise the minimum wage.”

Simone said she hears both sides of the minimum wage debate and hopes the divide can be bridged.

'What we've said in our nation is that if you work full-time, you play by the rules, you can raise your family. It's anguish that it's not true,” Simone said. 'But do you know what? There's another perspective that says, ‘Oh my heavens, our economy is fragile. Something could happen. It could be bad to raise wages.'

'You know what? Both have a legitimate perspective. We've got to find a way as a nation where we put these perspectives together and say what is best for the common good. … How do we work together to create this more perfect union that we've committed ourselves to in the Constitution?”

After the event, Biden posed for photos with prominent Iowa Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Jack Hatch, Secretary of State candidate Brad Anderson and Iowa Senate Leader Mike Gronstal, according to a press pool report.

Biden then stopped at Waveland Cafe, a neighborhood diner, where he had lunch with the nuns and visited with Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan and party staffers.

Staff said Biden's next stop after lunch was a fundraiser organized by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Nuns on the Bus Tour Iowa stops:

Thursday: Council Bluffs, Sioux City

Friday: Waterloo, Dubuque

Saturday: Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Bettendorf

Sunday: Davenport

For sites, times and more information, visit networklobby.org/bus2014