Trump Expected To Name Critic of Minimum Wage, Workplace Regulations as Secretary of Labor
Update: And He's a Huge Booster of... Amnesty and Dramatically Expanded Replacement Worker Visas

American Thermidor.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name fast-food executive Andy Puzder as labor secretary, according to people familiar with the decision.

Mr. Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., the parent company of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains, has been a vocal advocate for cutting back regulations he says have stifled growth in the restaurant industry, which represents 10% of the American workforce.

An adviser and contributor to Mr. Trump’s campaign, Mr. Puzder has criticized the Affordable Care Act and argued against raising the federal minimum wage higher than $9 an hour. Democrats have called for raising the federal minimum wage to as high as $15, alongside union groups that have waged a campaign to push pay floors higher at the state, local and federal levels.

...

Critics were swift to denounce Mr. Puzder as a choice for labor secretary.

"With Mr. Puzder, the fox is in the hen house," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees funding for the Labor Department. "His nomination represents the greatest assault on workers that we have seen in a generation."

Why you gotta talk so sexy like that when I'm on the job, Rosa?

By the way, as the CEO of the parent company of Carl's, Jr., he's been assailed by feminists for running commercials featuring hot girls in bikinis.

Here's what he had to say about that: Shut up, babies.

The CEO of Carl's Jr. doesn't care if you find the burger chain's racy ads offensive. Well, he cares in one respect – if no one is offended, he's going to convince the marketing department to craft an even sexier commercial next time.

"If you don't complain, I go to the head of marketing and say, 'What's wrong with our ads?'" says Andrew Puzder, CEO of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's parent company CKE Restaurants, describing a conversation with the head of an unnamed organization that regularly protests company marketing. "Those complaints aren't necessarily bad for us. What you look at is, you look at sales. And, our sales go up."

...

"I like our ads. I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it's very American," he says. "I used to hear, brands take on the personality of the CEO. And I rarely thought that was true, but I think this one, in this case, it kind of did take on my personality."

Every parent knows that at some point, you must begin ignoring the Crying Babies so that they learn that Crying will not buy them attention.

Caution Flag: I just saw Mark Krikorian, an immigration critic, write "#NeverPuzder" on Twitter, while one of CATO's Amnesty Forever thugs praised the choice and gloated "Time to roll back visa restrictions," presumably for H1-B's.

I wrote to Krikorian to ask for more information.

Maybe this isn't good at all.

Krikorian: Maybe the Worst Possible Choice. Not liking this now.

Trump’s pick for Labor secretary is perhaps the worst person imaginable for that role: Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of fast-food chains Carl's Jr., Hardee's, and others. He is one of the nation's most outspoken business voices for Gang of Eight-style immigration policies. He didn't just sign an open letter once as a favor to a friend; he's been a high-profile champion of amnesty and huge increases in immigration and guestworkers. This op-ed in Politico, timed to coincide with the launch of the Gang of Eight effort in 2013, could have been written by Jeb Bush. Here he is at AEI in 2013 making the case for importing more low-skilled workers. Here he joins with the Bloomberg-Murdoch Billionaires for Open Borders outfit and Grover Norquist in an effort to "push 2016 presidential candidates and congressional Republican leaders to support immigration reform this year." There's plenty more.

Krikorian provides a link to each statement beginning with "This Op-ed" or "Here here is...," etc. You'll have to go to his piece for those links.

posted by Ace at 02:03 PM

| Access Comments