Washington State Democrat Party appears to have particular difficulty with mounting any type of legitimate, thoughtful criticism of policies with which they do not agree. Whether it’s accepting funds from a known racist and bigot or using highly deceptive campaign schemes, sincerity and truth are two virtues that are entirely lost on them.
That’s why the latest case of Democrat deception is not all that surprising. On Monday, the state Democrat party sent an email to supporters accusing Republicans of attempting to lower the minimum wage. The email asserts that Republicans in the state Senate want to “chip away at Washington’s minimum wage laws.” Particularly, the truth-challenged Democrats point to a Republican bill that seeks to permit companies to pay less than minimum wage to a “segment of workers.”
The bill referred to is Senate Bill 5422 and the “segment of workers” it would impact are teenagers who need jobs but cannot find employment. SB 5422 would allow businesses to pay anyone under the age of 20 the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25, as opposed to the minimum wage in Washington State of $9.47.
GOP Sen. Michael Baumgartner, who is sponsoring the bill, says the “training wage” opens opportunities for teenagers seeking entry-level jobs and work experience. As the minimum wage has increased, so has unemployment rate among teenagers (currently at 30%). Business owners are choosing to hire more experienced workers. Baumgartner’s bill seeks to level the playing field.
Anthony Anton, President and CEO of the Washington Restaurant Association, has declared his support for the bill. He points out that in 2000, “17% of restaurant jobs were filled by teens.” Today, that percentage has dwindled to 7%.
“These are skills carried onto sales, onto management. They are lifetime skills,” Anton said. “We really want to get back to offering their kids their first job.”
Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of the state Democrats’ false attack is that, very recently, Democrat lawmakers actually agreed with the policy approach. In fact, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray favored attaching a “training wage” to the $15 minimum wage ordinance. He cited the same policy objective—though, nonsensically, he was also raising the minimum wage to an absurd level—for implementing the training wage.
The email’s attack is both hypocritical and deceptive—two characteristics we’ve come to expect from the Washington State Democrats.
Liberal Lies & Deception brought to you by the Washington State Democratic Party.
…Democrats point to a Republican bill that seeks to permit companies to pay less than minimum wage to a “segment of workers.”
Yeah, to hear them tell it, the Republicans are targeting a small and economically-vulnerable group which has little political clout.
Wait, what?
The bill referred to is Senate Bill 5422 and the “segment of workers” it would impact are teenagers who need jobs but cannot find employment. SB 5422 would allow businesses to pay anyone under the age of 20 the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25, as opposed to the minimum wage in Washington State of $9.47.
In other words, the Republicans are proposing to “chip away at Washington’s minimum wage laws…” via a bill that seeks to permit companies to pay less than minimum wage to a “segment of workers.” What, exactly, did the Democrats get wrong in their description?
As the minimum wage has increased, so has unemployment rate among teenagers (currently at 30%). Business owners are choosing to hire more experienced workers. Baumgartner’s bill seeks to level the playing field.
I’m sure all of the twenty-somethings in Baumgartner’s district, who would lose their jobs to lower-paid teenagers, are really, really happy their state Senator is working — on their dime! — to impoverish them.
Anthony Anton, President and CEO of the Washington Restaurant Association, has declared his support for the bill. He points out that in 2000, “17% of restaurant jobs were filled by teens.” Today, that percentage has dwindled to 7%.
Well, ain’t that a tragedy? Yet, I’ve been dining out many times over those years, and have never once noticed any decline in service. (Then again, I’m not a paid flack for a low-wage industry which uses undocumented labor.)
“These are skills carried onto sales, onto management. They are lifetime skills,” Anton said. “We really want to get back to offering their kids their first job.”
You can’t just ask, “Do you want fries with that?” and make it sound convincing in the first thousand times you say it. Such a skill requires years of regular practice. Years.
Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of the state Democrats’ false attack is that, very recently, Democrat lawmakers actually agreed with the policy approach. In fact, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray favored attaching a “training wage” to the $15 minimum wage ordinance.
Which was not approved. (Also, a Mayor is not a “lawmaker” under the American system of government.) So, if any Democrat disagrees with any other Democrat, it’s hypocrisy, but if they all agree, then you’ll say the “Democrat [sic] Party” has no diversity. Got it.
Oh, and bonus points for good writing in using the cliche, “to level the playing field,” to describe legislation whose stated purpose is to discriminate!
(By the way, how does the proposed bill square with our existing laws, which forbid workplace discrimination based upon age? Or does the good Senator intend to let the courts settle that, at public expense?)
Democrats, hypocritical, deceptive.
English 101, avoid redundancy in writing.
What was hypocritical or deceptive? As I described in my first comment, the Democrats’ description of the bill is completely accurate, and there’s nothing hypocritical about Democrats disagreeing with each other. (The equation of Mayor Murray’s proposal with this bill is not really apt, either.)
Did you bother to read the title?
Did you bother to read my de-bunking of the title? I explained how the Democrats had made a correct assessment of the bill, and therefore how the title of this post is wrong. Please read what I wrote.
tensor, we all know that the almighty democrats are always correct. They never enact failed or flawed policies. If that would happen it is called a “learning moment”, but if the republicans did have failed or flawed policies I am sure that the liberals would call it “idiots republicans failed and flawed policies”. Learning moments are just meant for the self righteous almighty liberals
You know, the real American, the great man whose name you have mooched, he innovated in business, science, and statecraft. By contrast, you laboriously erect straw men and then bash them down. While you obviously consider this to be a great use of your limited time on this earth, the rest of us just find it tiresome.
Elsewhere in this comment thread, I have described how the title of this post is wrong. If you have issue with any of that, please quote from it, and show my errors. Otherwise, there is no point in my responding to your rants.
You’ll get bonus points if you can show how SB 5422 would have any beneficial effect upon Washington state’s economy. Our minimum wage, the highest in the country, has proven very beneficial to our economy:
March 8 (Bloomberg) — When Washington residents voted in 1998 to raise the state’s minimum wage and link it to the cost of living, opponents warned the measure would be a job-killer. The prediction hasn’t been borne out.
In the 15 years that followed, the state’s minimum wage climbed to $9.32 — the highest in the country. Meanwhile job growth continued at an average 0.8 percent annual pace, 0.3 percentage point above the national rate. Payrolls at Washington’s restaurants and bars, portrayed as particularly vulnerable to higher wage costs, expanded by 21 percent. Poverty has trailed the U.S. level for at least seven years.
First of all, that is my name and I am not related to that man. The effects of failures will be long term, talk to me in 5 years with your rethoric of today. You are full of hot air and nothing else. You quote all biased left wing information that doesn’t help telling the truth but masking it with some smoke and mirrors.
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In your delusional mind you are always correct because you are biased and everyone else is wrong. I don’t buy you Dog and Pony Show.
The effects of failures will be long term, talk to me in 5 years with your rethoric [sic] of today.
Ah, yes, the imminent dystopia, borne from policies which well-meaning, but unrealistic, liberals implemented — policies which hard-nosed, clear-thinking conservatives immediately saw as obviously flawed — where, oh where, have we heard that before? (Harp music plays, screen blurs; when it clears, everyone has unstylistic haircuts.)
Big government should not try to fix every economic worry. The marketplace has proven to be a much better regulator of the economy than the government. To help small businesses continue to offer good opportunities for young people and to keep prices from rising out of control,vote no on I-688.
Fifteen years later, Washington state’s economy is exactly as Bloomberg News described. How are small businesses doing here?
In Washington state, small businesses are adding jobs faster than any other state in the country, according to a report from Paychex and IHS.
You guys should call your customer account representatives at Dystopian Futures, Inc., and tell them that their chronic failure to deliver is making you all look like utter fools. Just sayin’
Keep it up your distorted news. Your head is swollen .
Still believe that Bloomberg News is “biased left wing information”? If you can’t explain Washington State’s superb economic performance over the fifteen years our minimum wage has risen to become the highest in our nation, just say so. Of course, then you’d have to drop the whole, “higher minimum wages mean less employment” equation you’ve been flogging here, wouldn’t you? It’s best for you just to dismiss all actual economic evidence, and lecture from long-discredited right-wing mythology as if it was real history.
I don’t trust neither party left or right. They are both corrupted and destroying our freedom.
I didn’t ask about political parties; I asked if you believe Bloomberg News when it reported how fifteen consecutive years of Washington state’s raising of our minimum wage has resulted in excellent economic performance here. If you don’t believe Bloomberg News on this point, please say so. If you do, please explain how the highest minimum wage of any state in the country has produced higher economic growth, a lower rate of unemployment, and a lower rate of poverty, compared to the rest of our country.
You’ve been lecturing us liberals, and me in particular, about how a higher minimum wage produces economic problems. Now, you’re faced with evidence showing your claim is not true. Either produce evidence to support your claim, or admit it is groundless. Put up or shut up.
I don’t trust Bloomberg News or any type of news that are biased (either left or right). I would be skeptical of news that are owned by people that are one sided. I would like to see real news that will tell us the truth above both sides with no mud slinging.
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I have to read through a bunch of news and article known and unknown in order to decipher what is true and what is one sided. Do you know how hard is to find a nuetral news nowadays? I believe that you know what I am talking about.
I don’t trust Bloomberg News or any type of news that are biased (either left or right).
Alright, then, who do you trust, and why? You seem to have believed what shiftwa.org told you in this post. Why is a partisan, corporate-funded, right-wing attack site more credible to you than Bloomberg News?
ShiftWA is another leaning biased news, but you cannot assume it is a corporate-funded program, you sound like the 89% occupy.This outlet sounds like a right wing trash but there is a few truths (1-3%) like any other news organizations where the percentage of truth is a little higher (5-10%). The 10% and I have to decipher from all the biased known and unknow media to put the truth together. If you wandering why we don’t have our own outlet, the answer is simple. no one will believe it because of the contraversy and it doesn’t fit with the left or right leaning minds. It does not fit with the left and right leaning minds because they forgot what is meant to be Americans self reliant, self responsible, and no interference by Big Daddy in our daily life. The 90% (including the 1%) made a country of modern day slavery.
Whose name are you mooching, tensor? Is that your real name? At least I did made my name public, yes my birth name. Yes tensor it is my name and not the other guy.
Tell us what is your real name, perhaps you are too scared and will not want everyone to know that you still live in your mom’s basement at age 30.
the Democrats in WA are against business, and anything else other than Muslims and homosexuals.
the democrats are money hungery, and point the blame to others, the bill sounds fair, teens don’t work crime happens and drugs, we need a republician government in wash st