Sen. Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, said Friday that he doesn’t support raising the minimum wage because it’ll benefit some while harming others.
“We’re not going to make the decision to raise the wage for some people while destroying jobs for others,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
He said the already-struggling economy would lose more jobs if the federal minimum wage was raised to $10.10, a key issue for Democrats that is part of their election year platform.
“The best estimate is we’d lose half a million jobs, and I’m not going to support a policy that’s going to price half a million jobs out of the economy,” he said.
He was also questioned about recent criticism of GOP candidates for using a Republican-lead investigation into the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans to fundraise for the upcoming election.
“I think we need to be really careful that that doesn’t get politicized,” he said. “I’d be very careful myself. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to fundraise on those mistakes of the administration.”
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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