Say Anything Blog

I don’t know what’s more hilarious

-the Dems supporting what they would typically call “corporate welfare”

-or Republicans proding the Dems into exapanding the government’s interference in the free market.

Seems like a draw in a war between two groups that can’t see further than 2 feet in front of their face.

Free, I don’t think you’re getting the Republican criticism of this.  At least, not the Republican criticism from most Republicans who actually voted against the minimum wage.  What they’re pointing out is that the minimum wage is really a bad thing, and that the Democrats get that which is why they’re exempting their friends from it.

Or tried to, anyway.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Rob: Instead of doing the right thing, and giving us all an exemption from the minimum wage tax, the Dems are compounding their mistake, and inflicting it on everyone.  Duh. I guess we will wait and see how it impacts the economy of American Samoa, if the MSM reports it.

The only legitimate role of government with regard to economics is to prevent fraud and provide a remedy- civil and criminal penalties- in case of fraud.

People have the mistaken notion that the free market has no rules.  But it most certainly does.  All our problems are due to government meddling.

Washington Post

House Republicans yesterday declared “something fishy” about the major tuna company in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district being exempted from the minimum-wage increase that Democrats approved this week.
“I am shocked,” said Rep. Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican and his party’s chief deputy whip, noting that Mrs. Pelosi campaigned heavily on promises of honest government. “Now we find out that she is exempting hometown companies from minimum wage. This is exactly the hypocrisy and double talk that we have come to expect from the Democrats.”
On Wednesday, the House voted to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.
The bill also extends for the first time the federal minimum wage to the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. However, it exempts American Samoa, another Pacific island territory that would become the only U.S. territory not subject to federal minimum-wage laws.
One of the biggest opponents of the federal minimum wage in Samoa is StarKist Tuna, which owns one of the two packing plants that together employ more than 5,000 Samoans, or nearly 75 percent of the island’s work force. StarKist’s parent company, Del Monte Corp., has headquarters in San Francisco, which is represented by Mrs. Pelosi. The other plant belongs to California-based Chicken of the Sea.
“There’s something fishy going on here,” said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican.
During the House debate yesterday on stem-cell research, Mr. McHenry raised a parliamentary inquiry as to whether an amendment could be offered that would exempt American Samoa from stem-cell research, “just as it was for the minimum-wage bill.”
A clearly perturbed Rep. Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who was presiding, cut off Mr. McHenry and shouted, “No, it would not be.”
“So, the chair is saying I may not offer an amendment exempting American Samoa?” Mr. McHenry pressed.
“The gentleman is making a speech and will sustain,” Mr. Frank shouted as he slammed his large wooden gavel against the rostrum.
Some Republicans who voted in favor of the minimum-wage bill were particularly irritated to learn yesterday—after their vote—that the legislation did not include American Samoa.
“I was troubled to learn of this exemption,” said Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois Republican. “My intention was to raise the minimum wage for everyone. We shouldn’t permit any special favors or exemptions that are not widely discussed in Congress. This is the problem with rushing legislation through without full debate.”
A spokeswoman for Mrs. Pelosi said Wednesday that the speaker has not been lobbied in any way by StarKist or Del Monte.

The way I read it is Republicans are mad because Pelosi played favors for a big corporation - something she and her ilk accuse Republicans of doing on an hourly basis.

Publicly, this has nothing to do with a principled opposition of the minimum wage - it’s all about the ethics hypocricy of the Dems and makingthem look bad.

Well, yeah the Republicans are accusing her of playing favors to big corporations, but their problem isn’t so much being business-friendly as it’s being selectively business friendly.  Meaning that Pelosi is just playing nice to a company from her home district.

And it does have some to do with principled opposition to the minimum wage, though some 25 Republicans broke ranks and voted with the Dems.  Remember that the vast majority of Republicans voted against the minimum wage in the House.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Nice cut and past freeloader.  Too lazy to do it right?

[W]hat you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Free: The “fishy” part about the American Samoa exemption is that it reveals the harm of the minimum wage tax, in that someone needed relief from it.  The fact that the relief was a political favor is only the icing on the cake.  If the minimum wage tax is so good, why isn’t it good for everyone?  That is the question Pelosi should be asked.  What is the justification for any exemption at all?

The only legitimate role of government with regard to economics is to prevent fraud and provide a remedy- civil and criminal penalties- in case of fraud.

People have the mistaken notion that the free market has no rules.  But it most certainly does.  All our problems are due to government meddling.

Whistler,

You know I generally dont do that, I just wanted to bring the context over in whole.

Robert108,

There is no excuse for an exemption if it good.  However, by exempting the company based in SanFran, it is nothing but what the lefties themselves generally call “corporate welfare.”

The lefty activists should be upset that the big nasty mean corporations are controlling the office of the speaker.

The Dems are in the pocket of Big Tuna.

Excuse me, you were saying?

Proofreader,

What does Bill Parcels have to do with this?

;->

I just liked the sound of it!

Excuse me, you were saying?

sigh. when you get lemons, make lemonade, i guess.

the republicans knew they had no chance of stopping this juggernaut, so they did the next best thing.

they managed to stick PeloSSi pretty good, caught her thinking noone was looking. that’s a valuable lesson.

they managed to pin the democrats in an uncomfortable ideological position… one that forced one of their own (albeit a non-voting member) to admit the potential harm caused by a minimum wage hike. score.

the losers here (in the narrow sense) are the samoans… i genuinely hope this doesn’t impact them too negatively.

it puts US in the uncomfortable position of judging the overall value of socking it to the samoans to 1)score against dems and 2)produce an object lesson in free market economics.

enh. happy about sticking to the statist fascists, unhappy that it might hurt the poor samoans.

enh. happy about sticking to the statist fascists, unhappy that it might hurt the poor samoans.

What about the rest of us who are getting stuck with this odious minimum wage tax?  If it’s bad for the Samoans, isn’t it bad for all Americans?  It seems obvious.

The only legitimate role of government with regard to economics is to prevent fraud and provide a remedy- civil and criminal penalties- in case of fraud.

People have the mistaken notion that the free market has no rules.  But it most certainly does.  All our problems are due to government meddling.