" What he is saying is that if we give these employees a raise they will be happy and not try to improve themselves."
-Thats not what he is saying at all. In fact, its the opposite. When employees are happy and motivated they strive to do better. Thus, they are more valuable to the company and in return increases revenue. These happy motivated employees are the ones who get promoted.

"A populace that stagnates and gives up on any improvement. This is exactly what is wrong with the Progressive Liberal Democrat Party"
-It's literally called PROGRESSive. Progress is in the name. It is furthest from stagnation that you can get...

"How about cutting taxes so people to keep more of what they make now?"
-Trickle down economics has been proven not to work for a LONG time now. Time to update our thought processes. You realize if we 'cut taxes' then we the state will have even less $$ to pay for things like police officers, firefighters, national guard, state employees, etc?