Jobs, Minimum Wage, and Oil Prices

CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo comments on the role the economy will play in the midterm elections.

Tavis: Is it your sense, though, that the economy is not playing the kind of critical role that you thought it might or perhaps should play in these elections, or am I misreading this?

Bartiromo: No, no, I think you're right on. But I do think that when people head to the polls, it will be a referendum on Iraq, and it will be a referendum on the economy. At the end of the day, people are gonna say, "Look, do I feel better today than I did four years ago? Six years ago?" And the truth is wages are up. Even though the minimum wage needs to come way up, it is just nowhere.

But wages are up. Job creation has been strong. And the corporate sector is quite vibrant. You see companies today with an enormous amount of cash. That's why they're paying dividends; that's why they're buying other companies, and they're buying back stock. These are all very positive things. So I think part of the reason that the economy - the White House called me and said, "Will you come and interview President Bush?" So, I did that last week.

And I think the reason - he could talk to anybody, right? He didn't need to call me to do this. I think the reason why he targeted me to do this interview is because he wanted to get his face in front of the economy. He wants the average American to think of him and his administration being attributed to this strong economy that we're seeing. And the reason, I think, that people don't do that is because they're worried. We've got terrorism, we've got the war in Iraq, and there's a lot of anxiety out there.

Tavis: I saw that interview. That's the one where he used the phrase the Google. (Laugh) "I used the Google," said the president. That's the interview you're talking about.

Bartiromo: I asked him if he uses Google.

Tavis: Yeah, the Google, I saw that. We'll leave that alone, Mr. President. That said, you've mentioned minimum wage, which is a fascinating issue for me. I totally get why it hasn't moved in the way that it should, from a political perspective. But you cover money matters, that's what you do. From a money perspective, why can't we move this? It seems like it makes so much sense, and yet in the industry that you cover, there's so much resistance to it.

Bartiromo: I don't know, Tavis, I really don't. I asked the president that. I think that there's such an enormous gap between the rich and the poor, and everyone would be so much better off if we evened this out a bit. And the minimum wage does need to come up. I think that at this point, 80 percent of voters do believe that the minimum wage has to come up. I think this is an issue that is not going away, and that it will move up. I think at some point, we'll actually see movement on this.

So, we'll see. I think it's one of the issues that voters will take to the polls, and if they feel that the Republicans are encouraged to do something about it, that will certainly be a positive for that side. But they'll continue to say, "Look, the stock market is at record highs, right? The economy is growing. So people are richer than they know." And that's true, to a certain extent. But I think more money in people's paycheck would go a lot farther than (laugh) an increase in their 401k.

Tavis: And how do you explain, how does Maria explain, what does Maria say to American voters about this juxtaposition, or the lack thereof, between Exxon-Mobil making more and more money every quarter, and the price of gas still being too high for the average person, who's gonna be casting his or her vote in just a few days from now?

Bartiromo: Well I have to say - look, I'm a Capitalist. I feel like people should make as much as they could make. You work hard, you climb the ladder, and you get to some success, you deserve, you should be making the money that you make. The problem that I have with the corporate CEO making so much money, and these large companies making as much money as they are is when they don't have a corporate citizen hat on, good citizen hat on, and they're actually giving money back, trying to make refineries so that they could actually move the needle when it comes to the price of oil.

That hasn't been enough. Look, oil prices are at very high levels, and Exxon-Mobil is an oil company. So it's going to benefit. I do not buy into the idea that the government should be regulating business and should put a tax on the oil companies. Because if we're gonna do that, then what's the argument not to say, "Hey, we're in a real estate boom. Let's tax the real estate companies. Well, the bank started energy trading desks, let's tax the banks."

You're going into a dangerous road there. But I do think that the oil companies have a fiduciary duty to say, "Look, Americans are paying this amount for gasoline. We need to be putting X number of dollars in a fund so that we could be making new refineries across the country so that we could have more gasoline, and then we could drill for more oil in this country."

The other side of the coin, though, 'cause I asked the executives this, why aren't you putting more money into helping this problem that we're so reliant on oil from the Middle East and elsewhere, and they say, "Maria, the same senators that want to tax us, a windfall tax, are the senators that say you can't drill in Anwar, this place is closed off to you, that place is closed off to you." Now I know, you have to take those answers with a grain of salt, but this is what the oil company executives will tell you.

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