Pirate's Cove

I would have guessed that it would have been about something like the pressing issues in the Eastern Pacific, seeing as how Obama is on a trip to visit our allies in the region. Or, perhaps, the issue of Ukraine, of which there is a worry about open warfare. Nope (video here)

Hi, everybody. In my State of the Union Address, I talked about pizza. More specifically, I talked about a pizza chain in Minneapolis – Punch Pizza – whose owner, John Soranno, made the business decision to give his employees a raise to ten bucks an hour.

A couple weeks ago, I got a letter from a small business owner who watched that night. Yasmin Ibrahim is an immigrant who owns her own restaurant – Desi Shack – and plans to open another this summer.

Here’s what she wrote. “I was moved by John Soranno’s story. It got me thinking about my … full-time employees and their ability to survive on $8 an hour in New York City.” So a few weeks ago, Yasmin put in place a plan to lift wages for her employees at both her restaurants to at least $10 an hour by the end of this year.

But here’s the thing – Yasmin isn’t just raising her employees’ wages because it’s the right thing to do. She’s doing it for the same reason John Soranno did. It makes good business sense.

Yasmin wrote, “It will allow us to attract and retain better talent – improving customer experience, reducing employee churn and training costs. We believe doing so makes good business sense while at the same time having a positive impact on the community.”

Yasmin’s right. That’s why, two months ago, I issued an Executive Order requiring workers on new federal contracts to be paid a fair wage of at least ten dollars and ten cents an hour.

And, of course, Obama whines about Congress not raising the minimum wage to $10.10. More specifically, he whines at Republicans. Because the best way to get someone to do something politically is to whine in a video. Where is the phone in Obama’s “pen and phone”? Why not pick it up and call some Congress critters? Why not invite some folks to the White House or to that burger place around the corner he goes to? Or head to Capitol Hill? Because there is no plan beyond yapping from the podium, in videos, etc, which is much like his foreign policy.

Anyhow, it’s not unsurprising that Obama fails to understand how the free market works. The two examples he mentioned decided on their own to raise wages for the betterment of their businesses. They felt that an increase in the wage would bring value. No one coerced them. No one forced them. Government did not say “do this!” What Obama wants to do is artificially raise the minimum wage regardless of value through Government force.

Crossed at Right Wing News.