Minimum Wage is the "Black Teenage Unemployment Act". Yes, it was on FoxNews.

Crossposted on DailyKos

Where else would you hear such a stupid, bigoted statement?

Art Laffer is a Fox News regular who they always trot out to defend the failed trickle-down economic experiment. He meets Fox's requirements: He supports taxes on poor people but not rich people. He hates the minimum wage. He's a a con artist. And to top it off, he's a bigot.

"The minimum wage makes so sense whatsoever to me. I mean, honestly, it's just the teenage.. the BLACK Teenage Unemployment Act"

I dropped my jaw when I heard that.

But if you were waiting for the Fox News bobblehead, in this case Jenna Lee, to call him out on that--you would be... not surprised. She ignores his statement completely and instead fawns all over his "new ideas". She was the "moderator" of this deep intellectual discussion between two men, because Fox is fair and balanced. On one side, you had the far rightwing nutjob. The other was Art Laffer.

By the way, this is what other guy who wasn't Art Laffer said in response:

I certainly agree with Art that we should LOWER the minimum wage for teenagers. I also think we should lower the minimum wage for the long-term unemployed.

I think you can all join me in saying... WHAT??..

Jenna Lee played the airhead role very well, looking confused when the men were talking, complaining she needed a calculator and couldn't keep up with the discussion, and getting her basic facts wrong (no, Laffer didn't work "in different administrations"--just Reagan. And that was one too many).

The bottom line is that Fox and their conservative guests know their audience. There is no subject that you can't sprinkle in some bigotry to appeal to their fears and biases. You name it: minimum wage, economics, immigration, gun control, etc. Heck, Megyn Kelley found a way to give a nod to bigots over freaking Santa Claus!

Fox News viewers know LESS than people who watch no news at all. But intellectual discussions and real news were never the purpose of Fox "News". It was always to appeal to the Republican base by playing to their stereotypes and fanning their fears; which in turn inspires them to fight to keep the plutocracy in power.

It is my hope that in my lifetime we can one day look back on the Fox News era with the same disgust as we do the McCarthy era, and wonder in awe just how many Americans could have been so fooled.