West Virginia State Senator Charles Trump (R-Morgan 15) is open to the repeal of the state’s minimum wage law.
When asked whether he would repeal the minimum wage altogether, Trump said “it would certainly be something I would give consideration to.”
“An elected official or a candidate who walks out on a limb and talks about it runs the risk of being painted as anti-decent wages or anti-workers,” Trump told This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber. “And that’s not true. I would flip the argument and say — why don’t we just have a minimum wage for everybody that is $75 an hour?”
“Everybody recognizes that if you said — everybody has to be paid $75 an hour — lots of jobs would vanish,” Trump said. “There are complete business models that can’t exist in the current climate with that sort of mandate.”
Trump said he considers himself a “Friend of Coal” and opposes what he calls “government mandates” to push the state toward solar and renewable energy.
“What nobody seems to be talking about is the misery, cost and expense when their power rates — the costs for energy — double and triple because of mandates for renewable sources,” Trump said. “It’s going to mean, I fear, constituents of mine — elderly people living on fixed incomes — aren’t going to be able to make their power bills, aren’t going to be able to pay to heat their homes because the price of electricity is going to be increased dramatically if the power companies are mandated, as apparently they are in Hawaii, to use higher percentages of renewables.”
Is the political power of coal in West Virginia preventing the state from moving toward more renewables?
“I don’t think the state is being prevented from moving toward renewables,” Trump said.
“It’s happening. The guys at Mountain View Solar do a great job. I had the pleasure of working with Mike McKechnie and Colin Williams through the last legislative session on some legislation they were interested in. They were interested in making sure that the net metering that is available to the people who have solar installation remains available to them. That means that they get to sell their power back to the power company.”
“I’m not for having everything frozen in time,” Trump said. “But I don’t know that it serves anyone’s interest for the government to interject itself into that process and decide for everybody for all time how it’s going to be. Market forces have a role in this too. If the government intervenes in that fashion, it’s going to mean little old ladies aren’t going to be able to pay their heating bills in the winter.”
“There isn’t anybody who is on solar that at this point can rely on that 100 percent,” Trump said. “The sun doesn’t alway shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. The renewables don’t generate the energy that we need in this country.”
Trump also says he’s opposed to a nationwide citizens movement — nationalpopularvote.com — that would bypass the Electoral College and allow for the popular vote of the President.
Over the course of American history, four Presidential candidates who came in second in the popular vote were elected President by the Electoral College — John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and George W. Bush in 2000.
Under the National Popular Vote legislation, all of the state’s electoral votes would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538).
So far, the National Popular Vote law has been enacted by eleven jurisdictions possessing 165 electoral votes — 61% of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate it.
Trump called the National Popular Vote proposal “outrageous.”
“I would never support that,” Trump said.
“Under the National Popular Vote scenario, you could have a situation where the citizens of West Virginia voted overwhelmingly — 75 percent to 25 percent — for a particular candidate, but the state’s electors would have to vote for the defeated candidate in West Virginia because that candidate won the national popular vote. The people of West Virginia deserve to have their voices heard.”
Trump said that many people who support the National Popular Vote proposal start from the premise that the President of the United States is to be elected by popular vote.
“But the Constitution of the United States leaves the election of the President to the states — not to the people — to the states themselves,” Trump said. “The Constitution allocates a number of electors. It is related to population, because the number of electors assigned is based on the representation in Congress. But it’s not a national popular vote contest. Never has been.”
Trump said that the move to secure the popular vote of the President is being driven by “big states pushing to have small states surrender their authority and autonomy to the more populated states.”
“It would say to the people of California that the people of West Virginia are surrendering their part in determining who the President of the United States is,” Trump said.
“I do not agree with it and if it ever passes in West Virginia, it will be over my no vote and strenuous objection,” Trump said.