Karen Handel: "I do not support a livable wage"

[videohead5]

If this does not cost her the election,I don't know what will?

[BeyondGeography]

1. I think that's called an unforced error

[shenmue]

2. "I do not want people to get paid jack squat"

[MattP]

3. That is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard a politician say

Who slipped her the truth serum

[kag]

21. Wow! Me too...

...and there's some real competition for that "honor".

I can't...even...geez!...I'm...holy...speechless...covfefe!!!

[Stuart G]

69. I heard this a couple of days ago...and....I agree 1000 percent............

..."....dumbest thing I[ve ever heard a politician say..."

So, we will see if she needs to find a job, or is elected to congress...

[Cicada]

4. She exudes dour grumpiness

She seems like she might also say that it burns her up whenever an innocent man escapes the chair

[iluvtennis]

36. typical Trumpian with that dour look. GAH #Resistance

[LonePirate]

5. How many more deplorables will turn out to vote for her now?

That statement has to be catnip for them.

[flor-de-jasmim]

6. Wow. SHe actually used the words "livable wage". Hope it"s a deal breaker for supporters.

[Alice11111]

74. Repubs really think like that. Many have told me their

perfectly thought out reasons.

[NoMoreRepugs]

7. checked my Webster's and yep...

right next to dunderhead was a pic of Handel.

[BeyondGeography]

10. And she looked so proud of herself at the end there

Bless her heart.

[MontanaMama]

23. Oh snap!

I just LOVE a well placed "bless her heart"!

[Demoiselle]

63. I second the applause for "Bless her heart." Snicker snicker.

[Plucketeer]

8. A truly GLEAMING example

of COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM !!!

[hibbing]

9. It's what they all believe

They don't even want a minimum wage let alone a livable one. This will endear her with her supporters.


Peace

[TexasBushwhacker]

59. Yup. The coal mining cow in Australia is the same way

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/billionaire-gina-rinehart-sparks-controversy-2-a-day-pay-remark-article-1.1152735

Another lucky heir.

[Hoyt]

11. Should cost her election, but this District elected Tom Price and Newt Gingrich.

[catbyte]

12. It won't make a bit of difference. I don't have a good feeling about this race, but I hope I'm

waaaaaaaaay off base. I think I'm still traumatized from November. I'll just shut up.

[videohead5]

14. Trump

Only beat Hillary there by 1%.he's got a good chance.

[Hoyt]

31. But Tom Price beat his by over 20%. I'm hopeful, but Price and Gingrich took this District.

[JHan]

13. Ossof's views perfectly mirror my own and he's got a good head on his shoulders.

more and more impressed with him.

[JHan]

15. Dear Karen, your view is crap.

[Rural_Progressive]

16. Okay, I'm going to put this out here for discussion

It is all very well and good to talk about a livable wage, a commendable goal and necessary objective. Here's the problem and I'll use our farm as an example.

We raise heritage pork. We are concerned about the welfare of our animals and we don't keep more animals than we can provide appropriate care for.

Here are our best numbers. If we raise 200 feeder pigs a year and we market them ourselves to get the best price here is our gross income:

200 pigs x 150 lb hanging weight x $3.50/lb = $105,000 gross
Feed costs for those 200 pigs and the breeding stock: $49,680

Net before even considering labor, fuel, wear and tear on trucks, marketing, delivery, supplements, equipment, facilities: $55,320

To take on a full time employee, provide them with no benefits whatsoever, but pay $15/hr (which ends up costing about $26/hr after taxes, L&I, SS, etc) we have to generate another $52,000 per year.

In other words, to employ one person full time on our farm we have to raise another 200 pigs just to break even.

This is the reality in the agricultural world of rural America. And that is what you're up against every time you talk about raising the minimum wage to $15/hr and you run into opposition from the people many of you consider uncouth despicables.

Anybody got any solutions because we'd sure love to hire someone and teach them real animal husbandry pass on our knowledge. I'm 64 and my sweetie is 62 so it's not like we're spring chickens.

[Phoenix61]

28. Ossoff didn't say raise the minimum wage to $15/hr

He stated the wage should be linked to the cost of living in that area and noted that that varies across the nation.

[SCVDem]

29. Have you thought about

a hog B & B?

A vacation getaway like a Dude Ranch, only with hogs. Enjoy working a real wildlife experience. Did I mention.....

Free Weed!

Let me know if that works?



I'm 62.

[brush]

44. Won't work. In raising pigs there's the smell factor. No one is gonna pay for that.

[Rural_Progressive]

67. Yet another misconception

When pigs are raised under appropriate conditions and at the proper stocking densities there is very little, if any, odor.

Amazing how much isn't known about raising food these days. A working hog facility really isn't a good place for bringing in lots of strangers. Our animals know and trust us, bringing strangers would make them uncomfortable and tense. One of the reasons we don't need to confine our sows when they give birth is because they are comfortable and can concentrate on not laying down on their babies. Not an easy task for a 350 to 400 lb animal to lie down to nurse when she has 9 to 14 piglets bouncing around wanting food. Our girls make it look easy but it requires focus, concentration, and grace to pull it off. Having strangers around could break that concentration and would result in unnecessary losses so, although it was a nice thought, we won't be offering a working farm experience for city folks.

We will be making videos once my sweetheart is here full time so we can share some of the wonder of working with these animals. Next best thing to being there.

[brush]

68. There was a pig farm in Las Vegas that closed down recently. The city grew out around it.

You didn't want to be downwind during feeding.

Been there, done that.

Good to hear modern technology has cut down on the smell.

[Rural_Progressive]

71. Read about that as well

those guys were raising 1000s of pigs in comparison to our couple of hundred so that is a significant difference. We can keep up on our manure and get it into our compost facility.

The type of food pigs are eating makes a huge difference as well. Leftover scrape material is going to result in a very different smell as that coming out from the ration we feed supplemented with alfalfa.

I appreciate what those guys were doing and I'd much rather have those food scraps going into pigs than a land fill but let's face it, a steady diet of Las Vegas strip food and your fecal matter might take on a particularly unpleasant odor as well.

Totally different operations in just about every way. There are days you know that we have livestock on the place but you get some smell from our sheep as well.

Not modern technology just good animal husbandry and a healthy diet results in much less odor .

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. I keep on seeing justifications like this for opposing a livable, living, or even

a minimum wage.

First off, if you're doing just fine on your 200 feeder pigs a year, then bringing up hiring an employee is simply irrelevant. Second, the essential notion that a person working a full time job ought to be able to afford rent, food, and an occasional new change of underwear, shouldn't be that radical.

Any proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour (or any other stated amount) always envisions that rise taking place of several years.

[Lil Missy]

33. You can do it yourself then. Your choice.

[niyad]

54. while you raise a valid point, my question is, how many people are involved in your kind

of agriculture/farming, etc? how many workers industry-wide?

[treestar]

56. Capitalism may not allow it

In fact the value of some labor on the market it less than minimum wage.

Probably we should do the minimum income paid for by the rich, so if the job's labor is not worth livable wage, we can make up the difference that way.

Then more businesses could start. Putting social costs on employers may not be the best idea. Though of course going via government is more purely socialism so it will take a voting public that is different from what we now have.

[progressoid]

58. I understand your dilemma. I often have clients tell me I need to hire an assistant.

But in order to afford one, I'd have to raise my rates which my clients wouldn't want to pay.

Not to sidetrack your question, but do you think you could find someone to work full time even if you could afford it? Around here, farm help is hard to find at any wage (lots of hogs around here too). And my sister lives on the west coast. Lots of fruit will go unpicked because Trump has scared away migrant workers.

Food supply is going to be fucked up in the near future.

[athena]

62. You're missing the big picture.

If the minimum wage were increased to $15, wages would go up across the board. Someone who currently makes $15 would be able to get a job working at McDonald's for the same pay, so there would be huge pressure on his/her employer to raise his/her wage to keep him/her. With everybody's wages going up, there would be less income disparity. As a result, more people would be able to afford your products. You would be able to raise your prices, and you would make more money.

Instead, you seem to want to hire someone to work on your farm full-time who would not be making a living wage. You seem to want to have someone go hungry and not be able to pay his bills, just so you can have someone help you on your farm. There is nothing even remotely respectable about that. We abolished slavery for a reason.

By the way, the minimum wage is not $15. It's $7.25. So what are you complaining about? If you absolutely have to pay someone less than a living wage, why aren't you hiring someone? Instead of posting here, you should be passing your knowledge on to a low-paid worker!

It's sickening that Trump supporters come here and complain about Democratic policies when they have a Republican president, a Republican Senate, a Republican House, and probably also Republican local and state governments. The right wing's hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[Rural_Progressive]

64. Wow did you miss on just about everything

First, I hosted a number of events for Sanders during the primary. Then I held my nose and voted for Clinton since it was clear to me that dRump would be the disaster he has turned out to be, so you missed there.

Second, you're missing the big picture. Many small enterprises in this country, particularly those that are competing against heavily subsidized, commodity type industries (like agriculture) can not survive with a "one size fits all" solution to the minimum wage. Currently very few small farms in this country survive without one or members of the family having employment off the farm.

If my wife and I were making minimum wage on the farm here currently based on your numbers we'd be making $14.50 an hour times 40 hours equals $580 a week times 52 equals $30,160 a year. For starters no farmer works 40 hours a week. And after you take out all our expenses we aren't making that much and in our county we are "successful" farmers.

We don't do what we do to get ahead financially but we do need to survive. Fortunately for most of us in alternative, sustainable agriculture our work is our calling and our life. That said, it's depressing when we can't even find support with many in the "progressive" movement.

But that's not the point. The point is the democrats lose support in rural, agricultural communities when someone like Pelosi says that the first thing that will happen when the dems regain control of the House is to jack the minimum wage up to $15 and hour.

You missed the fact that I am presenting the big picture and boy, howdy did you miss when you assumed I am a support of the bloviated orange one.

The truth is artificially low food prices are due to subsidized input prices for big ag and that is a major problem. But since Big Food and Big Pharma benefit from feeding people food that is unhealthy for them there really isn't much incentive for them to change the paradigm.

Feel free to apologize for your outburst. Posts like yours demonstrate the disconnect many "liberals" seem to embrace with a display of outraged self-righteousness.

[athena]

65. I note that you did not actually address any of the points I made.

All you did is accuse me repeatedly, and incoherently, of missing all kinds of things.

First of all, as a farmer, you are a small business owner. There is no law that says that you need to be paying yourself minimum wage. The fact that your business does not produce a profit that is equivalent to the minimum wage is not an argument that you should be allowed to pay others less than a living wage. In a civilized society, when a business owner cannot make ends meet, he goes out of business. He does NOT get to hire people to work for him for free in order to make ends meet.

Second, you conveniently ignored the points I made. Let me summarize and reiterate them:
1. Increasing the minimum wage would raise wages and prices across the board.
2. Employing someone to help you in your business, but not wanting to pay them a living wage, is despicable.
3. The current minimum wage is $7.25. You're claiming that the $15 minimum wage is preventing you from hiring people to help you on your farm. The current minimum wage is not a living wage. If having to pay workers a living wage is the only thing preventing you from hiring workers, why aren't you hiring workers now? Your problem is clearly not with the idea of raising the minimum wage to $15; it is with the minimum wage -- ANY minimum wage. You seem to want to hire workers to help you and pay them nothing. That is called slavery, and it is illegal for good reason.
4. The reason I assumed you were a Trump supporter rather than a Sanders supporter is that it is Trump and his supporters who are against the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage to $15 was part of Sanders's platform. Sanders even attacked Hillary for wanting to raise the minimum wage to $12 rather than $15. Instead of attacking Sanders, though, you're attacking Nancy Pelosi. That is at best irrational.

Feel free to respond in a logical way without resorting to personal attacks. Or not. I love personal attacks because they reveal that the person attacking me cannot make a logical argument and therefore has no choice but to attack me personally.

[Rural_Progressive]

66. I'm going to make this quick

since I've just had sow present me with an unexpected litter of piglets.

Do me a favor, go over my posts and show me where I once say I'm against raising the minimum wage. My point was, still is, and will continue to be that one size does not fit all. When dems do things like Pelosi making her announcement about raising it the way she announced it she loses lots of people in situations similar to mine.

People who work 40 hours a week deserve to make enough to lead a decent life. The means of getting to that place is more complicated than many people believe. A friend of ours used to own a restaurant. He was just hanging in there with the minimum wage at the time in WA state. He and his wife were leading very modest lives, they are good friends so we know that is true, and doing the best they could by their employees. WA state raised the minimum wage. They ran their numbers every way they could but couldn't come up with a way to absorb the additional cost at that time. They had a meeting with their employees to let them know they'd have to let a couple of people go. One of their workers asked "Why do you have to let anybody go, isn't the state going to give you the money to cover the increase in our wages?"

Lots of misconceptions like that, the system is screwed up and needs to be fixed, other countries in the industrialized world have figured it out, we should be able to also.

BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO BE SIMPLE OR EASY. So you think what you want about me, I really don't care. What I do want people to understand is that if you want people to vote for intelligent and sane candidates then you need to understand and address the issues that affect them. Statements like Pelosi's don't do that and provide ammunition for the conservatives to say, "See the tax and spend democrats don't understand your problems." This election clearly showed that writing off rural America can cause a problem.

If you are so unaware that you can't appreciate the challenge of providing healthy, nutritious meat from animals that are raised appropriately and with respect at a price middle class families can afford while having to compete against a heavily subsided, inhumane system, then you really are clueless. Feel free to take that as a personal attack since you claim to love them.

[turbinetree]

17. Donate to Jon Ossloff / We can win this election

https://electjon.com/

[Duppers]

72. Done.

Thank You.

[LenaBaby61]

18. If this does not cost her the election, I don't know what will?

We have a set of circumstances where:

We have to worry about GOP-lead voter-suppression there in GA.
WILL the ruskies be interfering into this special election?
WILL people get out to vote for Ossoff, and if they do will their votes count?

PLUS:

Re: should this comment (Against livable wage) cost Handel the election:

tRumputin said that he thought the federal minimum wage was too high at $7.25 per hour then HE said he didn't believe in a minimum wage. Yet thanks to GOP voter-suppression and ruskie interference he was installed into the White House.

[videohead5]

19. Yeah but Trump also

Said he was for hiking the minimum wage to $10 an hour after that.it was in the primary's when he said minimum wages was too high.of course he would say anything to get elected.

[LenaBaby61]

39. To be honest ....

Whenever his lips are moving, we all know he's lying ALWAYS

[INdemo]

22. She probably has the Russians on her side to flip votes so

lets hope there are ways we can counter.

[LenaBaby61]

41. She probably has the Russians on her side to flip votes so.

"lets hope there are ways we can counter."

From your lips to the voting God's ears INdemo

[Gothmog]

20. I hope that Ossoff wins

[SCVDem]

34. So say we all !

SO SAY WE ALL!

Ever watch BSG?

[-Steph-]

24. Whoops, she accidentally let the truth slip out!

[kag]

25. She might as well have said...

"I'm for bringing back slavery!"

[sarcasmo]

26. This woman is vile.

[Lyricalinklines]

27. What I'm hearing is....

...I support corporations. They shouldn't have to pay workers (VOTERS) a wage to sustain themselves in dignity. I support corporations to have the right to not pay their workers less than the dignity of working for their living.

Look, small business are taxed at higher rates than corporations when loopholes and tax write-offs and other special protections for corporations are brought into the final net gross. That's why small businesses are hurt most by liveable wage laws. We eliminated many unions so corporations don't have the expenses of taking care of workers (VOTERS). But those are corporate rights because they pay lobbyists to ensure special protections for them become law. If small businesses want lower taxes, then maybe they should grow their business better. Maybe they should think about lobbying us for lower taxes. Corporations make it a priority so it must be important. Why don't small businesses?? Corporations are the lifeblood of the economy. Without the corporations, what do we have? We must protect them at all costs! Workers can always be replaced, corporations can't. Small business comes and goes, corporations are here to stay.

I was voted into office to serve those who vote for me and pay me (CORPORATIONS).

No I don't support a liveable wage.

[bagelsforbreakfast]

30. I'm in LA and the interesting thing is...

I've noticed in the past few years low end jobs have gone from $7.50 to about $12-15. That's progress. Not thanks to the likes of her.

[blue-wave]

35. I hope this shakes

and quakes down in Georgia. Her statement personifies what the repukes are all about. A small group of super wealthy elites telling us how to live our lives while keeping all of us dirt poor. The concept of feudalism, slavery or however you label it is alive and well in the republican party.

[DFW]

37. She is unpleasant, not very bright, white and has an R in front of her name

In her district, that usually means she has everything going for her.

Here's hoping this time, there will be an exception.

[brush]

45. You're right. Unpleasant looking is the perfect description of her.

And isn't she the vile one who destroyed the "run for the cure" fund-raising effort?

[DFW]

49. I was referring to her manner

She can't help how she looks, but she is under no obligation to be an ignorant boor like most of the rest of her party.

I don't know much of her personal history. I just saw a brief interview with her in some video clip recently, and was disgusted.

[old guy]

52. How did you know that's what I was thinking?

[workinclasszero]

38. Karen Handel: Let the peasants

eat cake.

I hate republicans.

[aeromanKC]

40. Handel: Good paying job does not equal a livable wage

WTF is Good then!!?? A F'n Walmart job where Taxpayers subsidize Walmart workers with food stamps and government assistance.

[SergeStorms]

42. Bingo......

and I wish there was a follow-up question about taxpayers subsidizing Walmart employees, just like you said. They have to get on Medicaid (if it's still going to be available in the near future), food stamps, WIC, and every other government program they can get, JUST TO STAY ALIVE! In essence, it's more corporate welfare. But somehow that's GOOD for America?

[Astraea]

43. then go fuck yourself

You hatched faced witch.

[BainsBane]

46. She still has an R after her name

and for a certain percentage of the population, that is what matters.

[IronLionZion]

47. GOP always think it's a 0 sum game

that raising the wages takes money away from the employers. They think low wages means more jobs. Getting rid of the minimum wage altogether gives full employment for everyone.

Liberals understand that raising wages gives consumers more income to spend on the necessities of life which are often local, stimulating the economy from the demand side.

[Perseus]

48. Translation

Everyone earning minimum wage can screw themselves, what I support is lowering taxes for corporations and the very rich, that is the real difference between conservatives and liberals, liberals want to look out for the little guy, republicans look out for the big guys, those who fill our coffers with campaign contributions and give us million-a-year jobs after we screw the economy and get out of politics.

[mountain grammy]

50. Exactly!

[democratisphere]

51. Karen Handel has hopefully ended her opportunity to be elected with her

brilliant statement in not supporting a livable wage. How can redumbliCONs be such idiots? One look at her sourpuss face tells you she is a real miserable "charmer". Karen speaks in simple terms even a deplorable can understand.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

53. But $174,000 a year with perks?

Karen Handel wants to make that! Work far less than one working 2 to 3 jobs to make ends meet and take more than half the year off? Nice gig if you can get it.

Sad thing, she just might get in.

[Gothmog]

55. Ossoff kicked butt in this debate

[yuiyoshida]

57. I will say it again

She wants thousands of Americans to be wandering the streets homeless and no work, well fuck you Karen Handel and may you die in a ditch!

[Permanut]

60. This would be the same Karen Handel..

Who resigned from the Susan G. Komen Foundation after she was "involved in the process" of defunding Planned Parenthood, which as we remember, caused a shitstorm for the foundation in 2012. Vile, evil, nasty, dogmatic, belligerent wacko wingnut.

[Lady_Chat]

61. Yes, it is the same Karen Handel.

How any woman can vote for her, is beyond me. But unfortunately, she perpetuates the same GOP lie, that all Planned Parenthood does is "kill babies" and that abortions are federally funded. I don't know how many times I have argued about this with people. They can't seem to grasp, Planned Parenthood does so much more, like low cost cancer screening for both men and women, access to birth control (which could really cut down on the need for abortions), and so much more. That women, are not walking incubators, and should have the right to decide whether or not they can deal with a pregnancy, especially those who have been victims of incest and rape.

Handel is a disgusting hack, but it's up to Georgia now. Keeping my fingers crossed that she loses.

[Iplayoneontv]

70. I hope it kills her chance

Wonkette said it may work for her with the empathy challenged.

My question is, who is running her campaign? I've worked on campaigns and I would quit on the spot because damn.

[TUMERIC123]

73. I wonder why this woman thinks she's worth what probably is a pretty good salary.

What the hell does she contribute to society? I am sick and tired of hearing about small business owners -small business owners wouldn't have a small business if they didn't have people to do the work for them and they should be paid fairly. Is she really saying that they shouldn't make a living wage? What the hell are they working for then? Not everyone is going to run a small business and not everyone is an entrepreneur. Small businesses need customers to make money and if workers regardless of what kind of work they do don't make a living wage then how are they going to patronize these small businesses or any other business in fact.

[colorado_ufo]

75. Wait - what?

The reason she does not support a livable wage is so that employers can grow their businesses and pay good wages? On what planet does she live? If they are growing their businesses without paying livable wages, why would they suddenly get all altruistic and raise their employees' pay? They will just pat themselves on the back for what smart business people they are and pocket the profits, then hire more workers who have to moonlight at a second job for a non-livable wage. Or a third.

[beachbum bob]

76. this clip should be THE cornerstone for ALL democratic candidates to paint their

conservative rivals as Handel wannabees.....she said what almost all believe in, screw the american worker, enrich the corporations and the wealthy

god I wish like hell democrats had smart campaign managers....

[JenniferJuniper]

77. Stupidity too.

Just because the questioner said "livable wage" doesn't mean she had to use the same phrase in her response. Just saying, "I don't support an increase in the minimal wage right now" for the usual bullshit right wing reasons would have sufficed. But no....

When you say you don't support a livable wage, that means you support unlivable wages. Which basically means you are fine with hard working people starving.