Leadership Quote by John Sununu

Sununu’s line is less an economic argument than a bid to seize the referee’s whistle. By framing his position as “the economic reality,” he tries to move the minimum-wage debate out of the messy realm of values (who deserves what, who bears costs) and into the supposedly settled territory of physics. The phrase “priced out of the market” does heavy lifting: it’s clinical, impersonal, and quietly absolving. Jobs don’t disappear because employers choose to cut hours or invest in automation; they vanish because “the market” does what it does. Agency dissolves into inevitability.

The structure is also strategic. “I do not support… and the reason is as follows” performs transparency while narrowing what counts as a legitimate reason. If you disagree, you’re not just disagreeing with Sununu; you’re ignoring “reality.” That’s why the closing jab lands: “missing from this discussion” paints opponents as sentimental or economically illiterate, a classic Washington move that turns policy dispute into a competence test.

Context matters here: Sununu is speaking from a late-20th-century Republican toolkit that prized market discipline, warned about government “distortions,” and treated wages as a price best left to employers and competition. The subtext isn’t simply “minimum wages hurt employment.” It’s “the moral impulse to help low-wage workers is understandable but naive, and my side has the hard truths.” Whether the economics bear out in every case is almost secondary; the rhetorical aim is to make doubt itself sound irresponsible.