The Chicken's are Coming Home to Roost

Remember when President Obama's minister/mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said those words in describing why 9/11 happened? Well, you could say that those unfortunate words could describe the policies that Pres. Obama and the Democrats have tried to force down our throats against our will these past 6 plus years.

Look at what is and what has happened in our country since 2009. We have been saddled with that health care abomination called Obamacare, that has turned our health care system on its head while the people who now have to have health care are, in most cases, when no subsidies are given, are paying more in premiums and have to meet higher deductibles, while not being able to keep their doctor or the insurance company they had before. I guess we are finding out what's in this law now that it has been passed and signed. The results of those findings are not pretty.

Next, energy policies put forth by Obama, through his EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), have put quite a number of coal companies out of business with the resulting loss of many thousands of coal workers jobs in mostly depressed areas of the country. The EPA is now being accused of making the devastating drought out West much worse by instituting policies that protect the “fish darter” over the need for water by the agriculture interests which produces almost half of our fruits and vegetables. It's insane to say the least.

Another area where government policies have had unintended consequences, is in the area of the minimum wage. So far, the federal government hasn't injected itself in the raising of the federal minimum wage (although Obama and the Democrats are trying mightily to do so). Last fall, voters in the Bay Area cities of San Francisco and Oakland followed Seattle's lead and approved new minimum wage mandates ($15 an hour and $12.25 an hour respectively) for most businesses in the cities boundaries. Now, some of the bills have begun arriving, and some businesses can't pay them.

In research published by the Institute for the Study of Labor (Univ. of California/Irvine) found that each 10% hike in the minimum wage in Oakland has caused restaurants to raise prices by as much as 20%. Many fear they will lose customers to higher prices. Even the low cost Salvation Army is scrambling to find ways to keep their doors open in response to increased labor costs. Some restaurants, some that have been in business for many, many years, have already closed their doors and quite a few more might follow suit in the near future as these businesses try to meet the increase in payroll costs. If a company can afford to pay more in wages, and do so, I'm in favor if those increases were voluntary on the part of that business and it was not government mandated. The market should dictate labor compensation not the federal or state governments.

It's probably too late to save other Oakland and San Francisco businesses. But, it's not too late for cities like New York and Los Angeles to heed the evidence before following in their footsteps as the “chickens are coming home to roost” by inane liberal sponsored government intrusion into the free market.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann