At last night’s second-round Democratic debate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg took aim, yet again, at the faith of those on the opposite side of the aisle.
Addressing the issue of Republican senators blocking a bill which would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, Buttigieg went on the offensive.
“This is so much bigger than a trade fight. This is about a moment when the economy is changing before our eyes. There are people in economy who go through more jobs in a week than my parents went through in the lifetime. The minimum wage is just too low, and so-called Christian conservative senators right now, in the senate, are blocking a bill to raise to minimum wage,” Buttigieg said, before declaring that, “scripture says, ‘whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker.'”
The Democratic hopeful was citing Proverbs 14:31, which reads: “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Despite the accuracy of Buttigieg’s scriptural reference, radio show host Dana Loesch, a Christian, picked apart his argument, insisting that there is no basis to being labeled a bad Christian for refusing to support a set minimum wage.
Christians, she wrote on Facebook, are “instructed to be good stewards of their fellow man and encouraged to willfully be a cheerful giver,” citing
2 Corinthians 9:7 as a scriptural anchor point.
“It’s just as much spiritual edification of the giver as it is lifting up someone in need through the manner in which you’ve been blessed,” Loesche continued. “The manner in which Buttigieg represents it here is devoid of any grace and entirely omits the point, Scripturally supported, as to why even God gives people the free will to not just be Christians, but disciples, in practice of faith.”
Democrat Bernie Sanders has called the current minimum pay wage of $7.25 a “starvation wage.” All the Democratic presidential candidates support the bill raising the minimum wage to $15, with Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi insisting that it would “open up opportunities for working families and drive economic growth that lifts up all communities,” according to Yahoo News.
Opponents, however, believe it could kill the competitive jobs market and argue that states, dictated by their individual economic conditions, should be able to decide set an appropriate minimum wage themselves.
“Direct charity is more effective than the government wastefulness,” Loesch added. “States should — and have been — determine their own minimum wage. Cost of living in Alabama is quite different than NYC. Furthermore, make people easy in prosperity, in success — this idea sells people on the lie that they will only ever stay in one economic status.”
“Reject this nonsense,” she concluded.
This is not the first time Buttigieg has attacked Republicans for espousing their Christian faith. In the previous Democratic debate, the South Bend, Indiana mayor jabbed that the Republican party “likes to cloak itself in the language of religion.”
Republicans have “lost all claim to ever using religious language again,” Buttigieg added, in reference to their handling of the border crisis.
A month prior to those comments, the Presidential hopeful told NBC’s “Today” show that God wouldn’t be a member of the political party “that sent the current president into the White House,” despite repeatedly insisting that religion should not be used as a tool of political point-scoring.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been widely confirmed as the winner of last night’s debate, though the event has been interpreted as something of an “undercard” ahead of tonight’s showdown which will feature frontrunner Joe Biden go head-to-head with Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and others.