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 At events at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh and earlier at a
Costco retail store in outside Washington, Obama made good on his
promise in Tuesday's speech to focus on reducing income inequality — with or without the cooperation of Congress.
Obama signed a presidential order directing Treasury Secretary Jack
Lew to establish a government-backed investment option called myRA
that permits people with little to no savings to set aside as little
as $5 in payroll deductions.
"If you worked hard all your life, you deserve a secure retirement,"
Obama told about 1,500 plant workers.
The program seeks to address the problem that Americans have not
made proper plans to set aside money for their old age and have
neither pensions nor a 401(k) retirement savings plan.
The myRA plan is similar to the tax-advantageous Roth Individual
Retirement Account, but with investment holdings backed by the U.S.
government like savings bonds. The accounts would be available to
households earning no more than $191,000 a year.
Some Republicans expressed concerns about the go-it-alone strategy
Obama adopted on Tuesday night.
Asked at a Wall Street Journal breakfast about the president's plans
to make changes through executive orders when stymied by Congress,
Republican Senator Marco Rubio said they were "deeply
counterproductive to making progress."
"All presidents get frustrated with the congressional branch. This
president seems to have an extra frustration with it and reacts to
it through unilateral actions that I think are counterproductive and
in my opinion in some instances borderline unconstitutional," said
Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate.
At the Costco store in Lanham, Md., flanked by boxes of paper towels
and garbage bags, Obama said that in coming weeks he would sign an
executive order raising to $10.10 an hour the minimum wage for
federal contract workers. But he said Congress must act to raise it
for millions of other American workers. The current federal minimum
wage is $7.25 an hour.
"If you work hard, you should be able to pay your rent, buy your
groceries, look after your kids," Obama said at the big-box retail
store, whose wage practices he had praised. "If you put in a hard
day's work you deserve decent pay for it."
RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE
Obama noted that many state governors had already taken steps to
raise the minimum wage in their states.
"While Congress decides whether it's going to raise the minimum wage
or not, people outside of Washington are not waiting, and I'm not
either," he said.
Obama's travel had a political motive. He is trying to help
Democrats win seats in November's congressional elections by
focusing on a popular theme that touches on the economy and income
inequality.
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(For a Reuters graphic on U.S. minimum wage and poverty, see
http://link.reuters.com/nuw46v.)
Obama's action on the minimum wage will affect only a relatively
small number of workers, but it drew praise from members of his
Democratic Party who were discouraged by the flawed roll-out of his
signature healthcare reform law last fall.
"The increase in the minimum wage is a very powerful message. It
resonates across the country," said Senator Ed Markey of
Massachusetts. "I think this will really give some wind to this
year's Obama agenda."
Republicans oppose a broad increase in the minimum wage, saying it
could cause employers to cut jobs and harm the economy.
The president's determination to resort more to executive action
follows a year in which his policy proposals failed to gain traction
in a divided Congress, in which Republicans control the House of
Representatives.
Vice President Joe Biden, however, said in television interviews on
Wednesday that the president did want to work with Congress and was
confident of cooperation in some key areas, including reform of
immigration policy.
House Republicans plan to discuss immigration during a three-day
retreat in Maryland starting on Wednesday but conservatives in the
party were wary about moving forward on the issue.
"We're ready to work with the Congress," Biden told NBC's "Today"
program. The low public approval rate for the legislature, many of
whose members face elections in November, would help motivate them
to action, he said.
Democrats are trying to reinforce the image of Obama, whose poll
numbers are low, as a hero of the middle class, much as he presented
himself during the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.
"Raising the minimum wage is not just a matter of fairness or a
means of combating inequality; it is also needed to jumpstart our
economy," the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning
Washington think tank, said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Mark Felsenthal, Doina
Chiacu and Steve Holland; graphic by Stephen Culp; editing by David
Storey, Sofina Mirza-Reid and Dan Grebler)
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