WILLisms.com: Quotational Therapy: Part 119 -- Reckless, Unintended Corruption Is Still Corruption.

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Quotational Therapy: Part 119 -- Reckless, Unintended Corruption Is Still Corruption.

Troubled By Your Own Vote-

By now, you may have already heard that the Queen of Corruption, Nancy Pelosi, got caught-- red-handed-- doling out crooked favors to a large corporation:

On Wednesday, the House voted to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour....
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.

Okay, typical. Not all that shocking. Pelosi clearly gets that the minimum wage can hurt certain businesses. But raising the minimum wage is what the unions wanted, so that's what the unions will get.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle:

"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."

Okay, sure. Rushing legislation through is generally a bad idea. Most legislation, though, rushed or not, is a bad idea.

The real problem, in this case, at least, is not rushing legislation through without full debate. It's that Representative Kirk, ostensibly a Republican, would vote for wage controls by government edict in the first place. The problem is that so many Republicans joined so many Democrats in voting for poor public policy, simply because it polls well. The real problem is that Mark Kirk put his trust in Nancy Pelosi and her party, the most corrupt collection of characters in the history of the United States Congress, by just about any measure.

Some advice: be thoughtfuller.

Representative Kirk, you are part of the problem. Try harder next time. And, please, no more after-the-fact excuses for why you are a failure at your job.

Previous Quotational Therapy Session:

Churchill On Wartime Christmas.

The right quote can be therapeutic, so tune in to WILLisms.com for quotational therapy on Monday and Friday.

Posted by Will Franklin · 12 January 2007 02:27 PM

Comments

As much as it sickens me to say, I can't give Republicans too much grief for voting to raise the minimum wage. As much as I think it's bad policy (or at best, a wash), raising it is extremely popular at the moment (actually at most moments). The battle has been lost, so why continue to take casualities?

For some reason I can't fathom, the populace really wants to see teenagers driving around in nice cars. Oh well.

Posted by: Jason at January 12, 2007 02:56 PM

Will, you need to bring out the pimp hand more often.

Posted by: Hoodlumman at January 12, 2007 02:59 PM

Way to go Will...

Posted by: zsa zsa at January 13, 2007 08:53 AM

Yeah Nancys house is the corrupt one. *rollseyes*

just ignore the last few years

Posted by: Happy at January 15, 2007 12:05 AM