“Since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage,” President Obama said during his State of the Union address, “19 states have chosen to bump theirs even higher. Tonight, let’s declare that, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty — and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.”

The only thing surprising about Obama’s call for a higher minimum wage is that it took him so long to make it. The chairman of Obama’s White House Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, is the co-author of a paper, legendary among liberals, purporting to show that minimum-wage increases had no effect on unemployment in two California and New Jersey counties. In fact, Krueger argued, government wage controls are great for businesses. They increase demand for goods and services, force business owners to rethink their business models, increase worker productivity, and decrease employee turnover. By his reckoning, it’s a win-win-win.