Speaker 1: City Council in Chicago has brushed aside warnings from Walmart
Speaker 1: stores to approve an ordinance that makes Chicago the biggest
Speaker 1: city in the nation to require big box retailers to
Speaker 1: pay a living wage. The ordinance past fourteen yesterday after
Speaker 1: three hours of impassion debate. It requires mega retailers to
Speaker 1: pay wages of at least ten dollars an hour plus
Speaker 1: UH three dollars in fringe benefits three dollars in fringe
Speaker 1: benefits by by mid two thousand and ten, it would
Speaker 1: only apply to companies with more than one billion dollars
Speaker 1: in annual sales and stores of at least ninety thousand
Speaker 1: square feet. Alderman Tony Preckwinkle said it's trying to get
Speaker 1: the largest companies in America to pay decent wages. No,
Speaker 1: it's not, then I'm waging in the Lloyd by the way,
Speaker 1: six and a half. The federal minimum is five dollars
Speaker 1: in fifteen cents. Mayor Daily and others warned at the
Speaker 1: living wage proposal would drive jobs and desperately needed development
Speaker 1: from some of the city's poorest neighborhoods and lead people
Speaker 1: like Walmart to abandon the city. It's exactly. Walmart will
Speaker 1: ring the city, Walmart will surround the city, but they
Speaker 1: will not go there. This is has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with a livable wage. This has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: making big companies pay livable wage. This is all about
Speaker 1: uh unions. This is all about the Democrats being loyal
Speaker 1: to unions. I think the Acorn group was behind this,
Speaker 1: a huge liberal group. It just let me the minimum wage.
Speaker 1: And it looks like the Republicans are going to propose
Speaker 1: one of their own increases. So this is all moot.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep talking
Speaker 1: about it because it's ridiculous. The minimum wage is an
Speaker 1: arbitrarily set wage, has nothing to do with market conditions.
Speaker 1: It actually reduces jobs. It it results in the loss
Speaker 1: of jobs. People don't believe that, but it is statistically true. Now,
Speaker 1: let's let me ask you people in Chicago at the
Speaker 1: at the city council ten bucks an hour in ten
Speaker 1: why not tomorrow? This is desperately needed, isn't it. Why
Speaker 1: are you gonna wait almost three years or four why
Speaker 1: wait four years? What's the point here? By the time
Speaker 1: we get to ten dollars an hour is going to
Speaker 1: be not that much different than the six fifteen or
Speaker 1: six fifty, That is, they required minimum wage in Chicago. Now,
Speaker 1: why wait, and by the why stomp at ten? If
Speaker 1: if ten dollars is a good livable wage, wouldn't fifteen
Speaker 1: dollars an hour be even better? And if that's true,
Speaker 1: then why stop at fifteen? Why why didn't you make
Speaker 1: the livable wage twenty dollars? If big corporations who was
Speaker 1: this has said this Tony preck Winkle. So they're trying
Speaker 1: to get the largest companies in America to pay decent wage. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think ten bucks an hours a decent wage,
Speaker 1: mss preck Winkle, I wouldn't work for it. Who do
Speaker 1: you think will big companies need to pay their fair share?
Speaker 1: Fifteen is better? But why stop there? Why didn't you
Speaker 1: do twenty dollars? And now, and what is this three
Speaker 1: dollars of French benefits? Three dollars won't even buy a
Speaker 1: gas and gallon of gas in Chicago, and you call
Speaker 1: it a fringe benefit. It's absurd, it's insulting. Make the
Speaker 1: fringe benefits. In fact, Ms prick Winkle, I have a
Speaker 1: better idea forget this hourly wage business in the first place.
Speaker 1: If we're talking about really making these companies come clean
Speaker 1: and be honest with the people who are making them successful,
Speaker 1: then let's just say that there is a required minimum
Speaker 1: salary of seventy five thousand dollars a year for everybody
Speaker 1: works at Walmart. Everybody gets healthcare, dental, no co pay,
Speaker 1: no deductible, and twenty dollars fringe benefits every year. Well,
Speaker 1: we can't do that. Why not? White? If you can
Speaker 1: go from six fifty to ten, why can't you go
Speaker 1: from ten to fifteen? And if you can go to fifty,
Speaker 1: why can't you go to twenty? I mean, go talk
Speaker 1: to your union buddies are doing whatever jobs they're doing,
Speaker 1: and ask them if they would go back to ten
Speaker 1: dollars an hour on the basis it's a livable wage.
Speaker 1: Do you think louis down there in a stonemason, the
Speaker 1: bricklayers or whatever it's gonna tell you that he looks
Speaker 1: have ten dollars an hour and on the basis is
Speaker 1: livable wage. Don't you think that Walmart Automa at least
Speaker 1: have to pay the lowest union contract equivalent in Chicago?
Speaker 1: Where do you come up with these arbitrary numbers ten
Speaker 1: bucks chump change, fifteen chump change. Why the average illegal
Speaker 1: immigrant wouldn't work for that. You're gonna have to do
Speaker 1: better than that, Chicago, if you're gonna really talk about
Speaker 1: a living wage. But I don't know how you stop
Speaker 1: at ten. I don't know how you stop at twenty.
Speaker 1: And I don't know why you don't just go and
Speaker 1: make it official. Make it a hundred grand, miss preck Winkle,
Speaker 1: make it one hundred grand. Talk about a livable wage.
Speaker 1: Somebody might really be able to buy a car and
Speaker 1: not have to take Chicago public transit at a hundred grand.
Speaker 1: I have to teach them English, but well, no, you
Speaker 1: don't even have to do that. And make Walmart pay
Speaker 1: for that if they want to learn English. Go all
Speaker 1: the way with this Chicago City Council. You are just
Speaker 1: tiptoeing around here. You're dancing around the real truth. You
Speaker 1: don't care about these workers. You just want a double
Speaker 1: digit minimum wage because you know what this does. Can
Speaker 1: I tell you what the big secret of the minimum
Speaker 1: wages folks? Now, the so called livable wage. In addition
Speaker 1: to whatever political ploy it is to try to teach
Speaker 1: the downtrodden the forgotten the hungry and the thirsty that
Speaker 1: the Democrats care about them. What it really is is
Speaker 1: a way to goose union wages up because good old
Speaker 1: union negotiators in Chicago, A're not gonna say WHOA people
Speaker 1: that don't know how to count beyond ten and they've
Speaker 1: only been in a country for a couple of years
Speaker 1: are gonna make ten bucks an hour at a box store,
Speaker 1: at a checkout line or somewhere stocking things on shelves. Well,
Speaker 1: good for them. We want to raise our union contract
Speaker 1: next time it comes up. The higher the minimum wage goes,
Speaker 1: the higher the baseline for union contracts are. This is
Speaker 1: such a scam. And of course, since the city of
Speaker 1: Chicago and it's union deals that it makes with the
Speaker 1: city with other people is actually paid by Chicago taxpayers,
Speaker 1: people like Tony Preckwinkle don't really have to think of
Speaker 1: the money coming out of her purse or pocketbook or
Speaker 1: that pocket whichever she prefers. Al in in Chicago. Welcome,
Speaker 1: So nice to have you on the program. Nice to
Speaker 1: talk to you than at Moscow on Michigan. Uh. This
Speaker 1: is nothing more than a political act. It's also an
Speaker 1: act that will to impact greatly on the poorest of
Speaker 1: the people in Chicago. If you know Chicago, there's a
Speaker 1: ring of poverty around that very successful core downtown. Those
Speaker 1: folks rely on public transportation, they won't be able to
Speaker 1: benefit from the targets and the Walmarts and the discounts
Speaker 1: that are available. You know, Ben Stein, the economist has
Speaker 1: many times said that Walmart is the greatest poverty anti
Speaker 1: poverty program going. But this is also a political act.
Speaker 1: You know, they'll they'll cancel this out if they begin
Speaker 1: to see stores growing and being built right across the
Speaker 1: line in suburban communities. And that is what will happen,
Speaker 1: because it happened with gas stations, gas stations rim the city. Well,
Speaker 1: it's already started. Walmart's already said, are going to build
Speaker 1: a store in one of these economically depressed places, and
Speaker 1: the people live there love it. That's actually, that's an
Speaker 1: excellent point, an excellent point. If these stores get built
Speaker 1: outside the and you said it not I the ring
Speaker 1: of poverty uh in in Chicago, then the primary beneficiaries
Speaker 1: of a Walmart store won't be able to get there
Speaker 1: to take or they'll go broke getting there and won't
Speaker 1: be able to spend any money. Once they do get
Speaker 1: there absolutely. Can I tell you Kmart's home depot lows
Speaker 1: they're building right now in Evergreen Park. And these are
Speaker 1: communities that are one block. You know, they share a
Speaker 1: border with the city of Chicago. And they do it
Speaker 1: because also sales tax in Chicago, if you cross the street,
Speaker 1: you go into Indiana, you go from eight eight and
Speaker 1: a half percent down to six in Chicago is hurting itself.
Speaker 1: But Chicago has always done this. It's not unique. What
Speaker 1: I call a captive constituency, that's the captive but that's
Speaker 1: that's not I mean that that's true in the sales tax.
Speaker 1: I mean uh, in in New Jersey they bumped up
Speaker 1: the sales tax on some luxury cars and boats once
Speaker 1: and people just went to Pennsylvania. Uh then and they
Speaker 1: ended up having to resend the tax. Because liberals raising
Speaker 1: taxes raises revenue. They do not understand the dynamic aspects
Speaker 1: of raising or cutting and lowering taxes. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something here. This is uh. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you about the mayor because you're obviously
Speaker 1: in Chicago, you're closer to it now. And the other day,
Speaker 1: this wackle bunch of City Council people actually passed a
Speaker 1: trans fat ordnance or they're working on it, and and
Speaker 1: and and and Mayor Daily said, what the hell are
Speaker 1: we doing? We got serious problems with kids in this country.
Speaker 1: They've got a drug problem, got a crime for. What
Speaker 1: the hell are we regulating people's menus for? And he
Speaker 1: opposes this living wage thing? Now, what's with that? The
Speaker 1: City Council of Chicago has nothing better to do? No,
Speaker 1: I mean, what's no, no, no, what's with Daily opposing that?
Speaker 1: Daily's a Democrat to Daily sounding like a Republican, almost
Speaker 1: a conservative Republican on this. Yeah, but Daily's you know,
Speaker 1: Daily is not running for anything at the moment. U He's, well,
Speaker 1: he will be soon, but he's yeah, he's doing a straddle.
Speaker 1: He you know, he's doing what Clinton always does. He
Speaker 1: wants to be on the right side of the issue.
Speaker 1: It's it's not a matter of principle, it's a matter
Speaker 1: of positioning. And that's how Daily always opened in a second,
Speaker 1: the living wage, minimum wage. That's a fundamental, defining issue
Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party. And he's ripping people like Tony
Speaker 1: PreK Winkle. By the way, how long has Tony PreK
Speaker 1: Winckle been a member of the City Council in Chicago.
Speaker 1: I think forever. Is she married? You know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I can't, can't just wondering if it's a maiden name.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm just wondering. If it's her maiden name,
Speaker 1: I could google it. You don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 1: I'll handle it. Uh anyway, Thanks, Thanks, Al, I appreciate,
Speaker 1: appreciate the input. This, this is this is just fascinating stuff.
Speaker 1: But it is big cities, big democrats. Cities are locked
Speaker 1: back in an old era drive by media, locked in
Speaker 1: an old era. There are major transformational changes happening in
Speaker 1: front of all of them, the Middle East, in this country,
Speaker 1: and they're so locked in that old lens and a
Speaker 1: prism through which they look at news that they're missing
Speaker 1: all of it. You know, here, here's something else. For
Speaker 1: the Chicago City Council and for everybody else here. That
Speaker 1: toying around. It is lunacy, and it is sheer lunacy
Speaker 1: of raising the minimum wage. And I can demonstrate it
Speaker 1: to anybody who thinks they want to call and argue
Speaker 1: with me about it, because I know how you're gonna are.
Speaker 1: You're gonna the race who can live on five dollars
Speaker 1: it can live? Well, Uh, a lot of people are
Speaker 1: not living on it. As the point, it's an entry
Speaker 1: level wage. It's many of them are the equivalent of babysitters.
Speaker 1: There are entry level jobs in America, the newest one
Speaker 1: being the illegal immigrant job. And then there are other
Speaker 1: jobs that you just your first job in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: There is a myth out there that heads of households
Speaker 1: supporting the uh family Sadan and a two point eight
Speaker 1: kids in a white picket fence in suburbia on five
Speaker 1: dollars an hour or five fifty and six fifty, whatever
Speaker 1: the hell it is, is a myth. Head of households
Speaker 1: are not earning. I mean, there may be some, but
Speaker 1: it's you're you're gonna react to this totally emotionally. They're
Speaker 1: not nothing. You hear it. I know, well, how many
Speaker 1: of you think what you're earning right now is enough?
Speaker 1: I bet you're all saying, no, I need more. Even
Speaker 1: I say that, even I said, now, what are we
Speaker 1: doing about it? Are we running around? He needs a
Speaker 1: government program to raise my wage. There's a minimum wage.
Speaker 1: You know something else that's not talked about with the
Speaker 1: minimum wage, that tax burden. Why isn't the tax burden
Speaker 1: which cuts the net minimum wage ever discussed? If the
Speaker 1: minimum wage is so crucial, shouldn't it be free of
Speaker 1: any taxation? Like Mrs ms prick Winkle in Chicago the
Speaker 1: ten dollar living wage, Make it tax free. I know
Speaker 1: that they're not gonna be fun income tax out of that,
Speaker 1: but they are gonna pay state. They're gonna pay through
Speaker 1: the nose on state income to X. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: Social Security, Medicare taxes withheld, and a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: other things unemployment insurance, workers compensation. Now, I mean, how
Speaker 1: is that fair? You? You people in government talk about
Speaker 1: how unfair it is that there's minimum wage is so low,
Speaker 1: and then whatever the minimum wage is gets eaten up
Speaker 1: by your taxes. So if you really believe all this,
Speaker 1: those of you at the Chicago City Council or any
Speaker 1: other you pro minimum wage geeks, if you actually believe this,
Speaker 1: then make the next time you propose it all the
Speaker 1: way through no taxes. Every minimum wage recipient is exempted
Speaker 1: from taxes. It's too important. People need to live, Mr Limbaugh.
Speaker 1: They need to be able to eat and feed their family.
Speaker 1: I understand that, and I wouldn't want to do it
Speaker 1: on five dollars an hour. I wouldn't want to do
Speaker 1: it on ten, although I've done it on the equivalent
Speaker 1: we all have as the point, well other than you
Speaker 1: trust funders and you Walster people. His first job out
Speaker 1: out of Harvard, your hedge fund as a couple hundred
Speaker 1: grand a year. But most people have earned the equivalent
Speaker 1: of I did when I was thirteen. I got it
Speaker 1: out of the way when I was sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen.
Speaker 1: That's when I earned. The equipment was a bucket a
Speaker 1: quarter an hour, and I didn't even care. It was
Speaker 1: so little. It didn't care. I just I just love
Speaker 1: the experience. I gave the money to my dad because
Speaker 1: I he had fronted me the money to go to
Speaker 1: broadcast school. It's not a broadcast schools, electronic school went
Speaker 1: down to Dallas when I was sixteen. Had to have
Speaker 1: a radio license. That's the irrelevant now, but I had
Speaker 1: had one then in order to work at this radio
Speaker 1: station in my hometown, and he required me to be
Speaker 1: a cost six hundred bucks to fly me down there,
Speaker 1: living some old woman's house for the six weeks. Well
Speaker 1: that then they had a whole row of houses down
Speaker 1: there next to the school, and they the owners of
Speaker 1: the houses, rented out rooms for very cheap. It was
Speaker 1: a school, it was a factory. All kinds of guys
Speaker 1: going through their women too. And I was sixteen when
Speaker 1: I did it. And when I got back and started
Speaker 1: work and gave my dad the money paying back, and
Speaker 1: unbeknownst to me, he set up a bank account. Uh,
Speaker 1: and that just all that money. After after three years,
Speaker 1: it was like three thousand dollars. So I made a
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year and I was working full time.
Speaker 1: Now I was a teenager. But that's what the minimum
Speaker 1: wage is. It's exactly what it is. It is misrepresented
Speaker 1: as something that a majority of Democrats, a majority of
Speaker 1: Democrats want you to believe, a majority of Americans are
Speaker 1: just one paycheck away from homelessness, destitution, And it's all
Speaker 1: Bush's fault, the Republicans fault because they won't raise the
Speaker 1: minimum wage and so forth. I'm just saying, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna go out there and raise the minimum wage as
Speaker 1: city council member, a member Congress, whoever, whatever governmental body
Speaker 1: you're part of, be fair, go all the way exempt
Speaker 1: all taxes. I mean, okay, ten dollar livable wage, three
Speaker 1: dollar fringe benefit. That's true, really cute. That's three dollar
Speaker 1: fringe benefit. That's just so thoughtful and compassionate. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have thought of that myself. That shows how much smarter
Speaker 1: the liberals are than I am. But after the taxes,
Speaker 1: the state taxes, the medicare, if there is federal income tax,
Speaker 1: ten dollars an hour, probably gonna pay any uh, most
Speaker 1: taxes paid. But the rich uh in this country. Um,
Speaker 1: but Medicare, Medicaid, social Security, one armed amputees, Grantwich Village
Speaker 1: of fund. Whatever is taken out of the ten bucks
Speaker 1: is going to add up to about five or six
Speaker 1: an hour? Now is that really compassionate? I don't think so.