Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, and Members of the House, today is a remarkable day, because after 10 years, we are going to have an up-and-down vote on whether the poorest people in our Nation, who are working every day and, at the end of the year, end up poor, deserve a raise. That is what we are going to do today.

For 10 years, we have struggled to have this vote, and now we are finally going to have it. We have had a lot of excuses why we couldn't have it. We have had votes hijacked, and we have had votes pulled off the floor, but we could never have this vote. Today, the beginning of the 100 hours, we are going to have this vote. We are going to have this vote, because this is a major concern. This is a major concern to the American society.

What so many of my colleagues made clear today in the debate is that after you have stalled this vote for 10 years, this goes way beyond the dollars and cents of the minimum wage. It goes to the core values of America and economic justice and social justice and fairness and whether or not every American is going to get to participate in the American economic system and also be able to provide for their children and their families.

But my colleagues didn't disappoint me today on the other side of the aisle. We have one more bump in the road. This last moment, they have offered us a motion to recommit where they say, if you offer your employees a health care plan, you can keep the minimum wage at $5.15. Now it doesn't say that health care plan has to be affordable. It doesn't say what the deductibles are, the copayments, which I am sure if you are a minimum wage worker at $5.15 today, a wage that is 10 years old, I am sure you can pay the copayments and the deductibles and the premiums. That will not be a problem.

What is it you don't understand about being poor? What is it you don't understand? You are stuck at $5.15 in today's world. You can't buy the gasoline to go to work, the bread to put on the table, the milk out of the refrigerator. Your utilities are going up. The rent is going up.

Now you say, by the way, if you can pay for a health care plan, you can stay at the minimum wage, you lucky ducky . I don't think that is what America was talking about when 89 percent of them said they want this Congress to raise the minimum wage, not trade it in, not trade it in.

They didn't ask us to trade in the increase in the minimum wage for some phantom health care proposal. You know what the average premium is for a family? The average premium is $10,880. Okay. That is good plans and bad plans together. Cut it in half. You are at the minimum wage. You have got to pay $5,000? Cut it in half again. You are at the minimum wage. You can pay another $2,000 for your health care? I don't think so. I don't think so. Let us get on with the Nation's business, with the people's business, and with the minimum-wage workers' business. Let us reject this motion and pass this bill now.