Petitions for boosting Missouri's minimum wage and limiting payday loans have been submitted

They are fighting for increasing the minimum wage in the states but we have yet to hear from the President. Even Romney has come out in favor of increasing the rate. We know that raising the minimum would benefit the economy. So why has the President been silent since taking office?

Supporters of raising Missouri's minimum wage and limiting payday loans have submitted petitions to get the measures on the November ballot.

The minimum wage proposal would boost Missouri's minimum pay to $8.25 an hour starting 2013, with an annual cost-of living adjustment in subsequent years. Missouri currently follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

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Economist James Galbraith Calls for Raising of Minimum Wage Rate

Here we hear from a respected Economist, James Galbraith. If you want to save the economy raise the minimum wage. We are still waiting for Obama and the Democrats to propose the increase:

Bloomberg Editorial: U.S. Minimum Wage Needs A Raise

Why is a capitalist newspaper calling for raising the minimum wage and Obama refuses to mention the subject? And why is Democratic Party almost completely silent except for some States legislatures? Maybe because they represent the interests of big business:

Here’s an unhappy observation about the minimum wage: Congress last increased the rate in stages in 2006, topping it out at $7.25 an hour in 2009, or $15,080 a year.

That amount, when adjusted for inflation, is actually lower than what a minimum-wage worker earned in 1968 and is too meager to offer anyone the chance to climb out of poverty, let alone afford basic goods and services.

About 10 states are now considering raising the rate, and Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, is proposing to increase the federal rate in three increments to $9.80 an hour in 2014. Many of the initiatives under consideration would smartly tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, meaning that those workers’ wages would finally keep up with inflation.

[...]But a wave of new economic research is disproving those arguments about job losses and youth employment. Previous studies tended not to control for regional economic trends that were already affecting employment levels, such as a manufacturing-dependent state that was shedding jobs. The new research looks at micro-level employment patterns for a more accurate employment picture.
The studies find minimum-wage increases even provide an economic boost, albeit a small one, as strapped workers immediately spend their raises. A 2011 paper by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that a $1 minimum-wage increase lifts household income by about $250 and increases spending by about $700 a quarter in the following year. The spending increase is driven by a small number of households that primarily buy vehicles.

[...]A team of economists, led by Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, compared employment levels in contiguous areas with disparate minimum-wage levels over a 16-year period and concluded in a 2010 paper there are “strong earnings effects and no employment effects of minimum wage increases.” 

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