The liberals being used as fronts for organized labor in the debate over a statewide minimum wage initiative were quite surprised at their own press conference yesterday, when the job-killing truth about minimum wage hikes was put front and center by one of their chosen speakers.
But they sure were quick to try and get him away from the cameras, though somewhat unsuccessful.
Both KIRO and KING were covering the event being staged at the ice cream shop of uber-liberal Molly Moon Neitzel. Unfortunately for her, the owner of a Central District restaurant told the truth about how the initiative has impacted his business.
Small business owner Felix Ngoussou framed the debate perfectly – for those with the sense to oppose the initiative – by pointing out that “he had to cut staff in the wake of the minimum wage hike. ‘I used to have four. I now have two.’ He was asked again for clarification. You reduced employee numbers? ‘Yes.’ Because of the minimum wage? ‘Yes.’”
Leave it to the host to try and gloss over that outburst of truth from Ngoussou. According to KING, “Campaign sponsors scattered in a panic. Molly Moon Neitzel noticeably looked agitated by the turn, and she interrupted Ngoussou. ‘He’s talking about a plurality of issues,’ she interjected, trying to steer the ship back to the message. But the ship never got back on course. In fact, Ngoussou stepped outside, and doubled down on his claims.”
As KIRO reported, “Ngoussou says businesses like his need a break on taxes and fees. And he echoed critics who decry a one-size-fits-all minimum wage. ‘You can apply it in Capitol Hill, Bellevue, Redmond, everywhere, but you cannot apply it in poor neighborhoods, like Tukwila, SeaTac’, he said.”
Then, Moon Neitzel stepped in the mess herself, going way off message by introducing the real goal for the union bosses and their Democrat allies. “’We cannot attack our, yes, very messed up tax system in the State of Washington,’ Neitzel said. ‘The fact we have no income tax in the State of Washington – but this is not the initiative to tackle that.’”
The liberal ice cream activist caught herself before finishing her sentence about the need to create a state income tax – which is a plank in the Democrat Party platform – but her choreographed event was in shambles. KING picked up on Moon’s business for a metaphor on what had become of the initiative’s message at the event: “It was a message that at least on this day appeared like a scoop of ice cream, to melt under some new heat.”
Of course, the truth rarely gets in the way when union bosses are pushing their job-killing agenda. They just change the messengers, as reported by KING: “The I-1433 campaign sponsors sent out another press release late in the day, but this time, Ngoussou was not in it.”
