All The News Thats Fit to Blog: July 2015

Sunday, July 26, 2015

AirBnB has a genius plan to steal more business from hotelss

http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-has-a-genius-plan-to-steal-more-business-from-hotels-2015-7?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=webfeeds

Thursday, July 23, 2015

[VIDEO] Allen West Unleashed in Fiery Speech About Iran Deal

http://feedly.com/i/subscription/feed/http://tpnn.com/feed/

Ted Cruz On A Tear Against Illegal Immigration: THIS is AWESOME

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) used his level-headed intellect to blow away the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sarah Saldana, at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

The subject of the hearing was the Obama administration’s routine release of illegal immigrants who are convicted felons rather than deporting them.Via RCP:

CRUZ: In the year 2014, how many criminal illegal aliens did the Obama administration release?

SALDANA: In 2014 it was a little over 30,000.

CRUZ: How many murderers?

SALDANA: Sir, I can’t remember the number right now, but I know we had the statistic that was said earlier… but I can’t provide you the exact number…”

CRUZ: How many rapists?

SALDANA: Umm. I am not sure right now.

CRUZ: How many drunk drivers?

Yesterday, how many murderers with the Obama administration release?

SALDANA: I can’t answer that question. I want the American people to know and understand our job and our mission. We don’t release people willy nilly. …

CRUZ: I want to know that your testimony here, on how many criminals ICE released in 2013, you were off by a factor of three. You said 30,000. The correct answer is 104,000. There were 68,000 criminal illegal aliens that ICE declined to begin deportation proceedings against. Despite the fact, that as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 92% observed the federal law that you are holding up there says they “shall” be deported.

The Obama admin refused to deport them. That is 68,000. In addition to that there are 30,000 in deportation proceedings with criminal proceedings that the Obama administration released. I would note that among those were 193 murderers with homicide convictions. 426 people with sexual assault convictions. 16,000 criminal illegal aliens with drunk driving convictions released by this administration because they refuse to follow the law.

SALDANA: Sir, those numbers, I am looking straight at them. You asked me I thought about 2014. That is 30,558. And the good news is, at least it went down from 2013, when it was 36,007.

CRUZ: But you are omitting the 68,000 criminal illegal aliens that ICE did not begin deportation proceedings against at all. You’ve got to add both of those together, it is over 100,000.

SALDANA: Yes, sir, that is absolutely right, all pursuant to the statute that the Congress has outlined…CRUZ: There are too many politicians in Washington that talk a good game but don’t act. If you want to honor Josh [Wilkerson], if you want to honor Kate Steinle, start enforcing the law and stop releasing murderers, and rapists, and drunk drivers…

CRUZ: I don’t want to hear from the Obama administration they’re sorry while they continue to do the exact same thing because what we know – more people will be murdered, more people will be raped, more people will be killed by drunk drivers because this Administration refuses to enforce the law. That is wrong. No man is above the law, and that includes President Obama…It is within your power to follow federal law. And this administration refuses to do so, and that is altogether unacceptable.

Cruz is getting down to brass tacks and getting things done, unlike many of his Presidential rivals, who seem more concerned with pouncing on Donald Trump’s latest soundbite.

Do we want a leader of action or one of reaction as President? The American public is sick of the whiney Washington Cartel. It’s time to address the issues about which Americans care deeply, instead of acting like children in a schoolyard.

H/T Real Clear Politics

Obama CHANGES Oath of Allegiance for New Americans, Takes OUT Pledge to Defend the U.S.A.

Newly naturalized Americans will no longer have to pledge to defend the United States.

You read that right. Thanks to the Obama administration’s decision to remove the lines requiring new citizens to bear arms on behalf of the United States or perform noncombatant duties in the armed forces in times of war. Lines that have been read by tens of millions of immigrants since the days of Ellis Island.

As Warner Todd Huston of RWN reports, Obama’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ruled thateffective on July 21 of this year, some candidates for naturalization will skip the services clause while taking the oath to become Americans.

So that means that in an age when people are streaming here to pretend to become Americans in order to commit acts of terror, now Obama won’t even ask them to voice the words that they will defend the USA.

The current oath reads as follows:

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

Oh, and that pesky: “so help me God”? Breitbart reports that Obama will allow them to simply leave that off, if they prefer, for “religious objections” to the “language.”

“Fundamentally transform,” indeed.

Report: States Could Stop Iran Nuclear Deal

State governments can kill the nuclear deal the Obama administration has reached with Tehran because of a 2008 Supreme Court decision in a case argued by then-Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz.

The justices ruled in that the Constitution bars states from being forced to comply with international treaties unless Congress has passed statutes giving them effect, Breitbart News reports.http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/22/surprise-the-states-can-reject-the-iran-deal/

In other words, states cannot be required to implement an international treaty or agreement that requires new laws from Congress in order to be implemented.

House Republican: Obama Administration Won’t Release Full Iran Deal to Congress

President Obama won’t allow Congress to review two key aspects of the Iranian Nuclear deal, Republican lawmakers learned from international partners last week. Under the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the International Atomic Energy Agency would negotiate separately with Iran about the inspection of a facility long-suspected of being used to research long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. “The Obama administration has failed to make public separate side deals that have been struck for the ‘inspection’ of one of the most important nuclear sites—the Parchin military complex,” said Representative Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) in a statement Tuesday. “Not only does this violate the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, it is asking Congress to agree to a deal that it cannot review.” The IAEA has been trying to gain access to the Parchin site since 2005, but Iran has refused, even as it apparently demolished various parts of the complex. “The hardliners do not want to grant any concessions unless Iran is suitably rewarded,” International Institute for Strategic Studies director Mark Fitzpatrick told the BBC in 2014, after reports emerged of explosions at the base. MORE IRAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS MORNING JOE: STATE DEPT SPOX WON'T COMMENT ON SECRET DEAL BETWEEN IRAN, IAEA IAEA TELLS CONGRESSMEN OF TWO SECRET SIDE DEALS TO IRAN AGREEMENT THAT WON’T BE SHARED WITH CONGRESS ON IRAN, THE U.N. GOES FIRST The terms of the current agreement wouldn’t allow Congress to review any concessions the IAEA makes to get into the site. “Even members of Congress who are sympathetic to this deal cannot and must not accept a deal we aren’t even aware of,” said Pompeo. ADVERTISING The IAEA will also separately negotiate “how the IAEA and Iran will resolve outstanding issues on possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program,” according to a release from Pompeo’s office. Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Pompeo,

who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, learned of the arrangement while meeting with the

IAEA in Vienna, Austria last week. “That we are only now discovering that parts of this dangerous

agreement are being kept secret begs the question of what other elements may also be secret and

entirely free from public scrutiny,” Cotton said in a statement to the press.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421453/iran-deal-hidden-congress-Obama-admin-house-republican-

The man behind Donald Trump's run

The highly paid, PR-savvy “bomb thrower” managing Donald’s campaign is a lot like his new boss.

The man behind Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has a knack for spectacle, an eye toward making money and a proven willingness to defy the Republican Party.

In other words, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is a lot like his new boss.

Lewandowski, who has been advising Trump since January and managing his improbable — and, for many Republicans, headache-inducing — run to the top of the GOP primary field in national polls has spent the past decade and a half drifting away from the party establishment.

He left a short stint at the Republican National Committee in 2001 to manage the failed reelection campaign of a rogue senator before landing eventually at the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, where he primaried New Hampshire Republicans and mocked the state’s Democrats until joining up with Trump.

In that time, Lewandowski cemented a reputation in New Hampshire political circles for getting things done, even if it means ruffling feathers. “He’s a good guy personally, [but] he’s a bomb thrower,” said one longtime New Hampshire Republican political operative.

“Corey was a pretty aggressive guy on issues. He was a go-getter … and he was not afraid to air out an issue,” said Bruce Berke, a Granite State lobbyist and an adviser to the Republican primary field’s latest entrant, Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

He’s also drawn attention for his new Trump-sized paychecks, which would add up to close to a quarter of a million dollars annually.

“Corey has mouths to feed, and a business opportunity to go and make $20,000 a month doesn’t come around every day,” said former state party chairman Fergus Cullen, pointing out that Lewandowski, 40, supports a family of six and lives in a spacious home in Windham, on the Massachusetts border, valued at over $800,000 (that’s a lot for New Hampshire).

The Trump campaign and Lewandowski declined to comment for this story. “Only one guy on the campaign that matters!” texted a spokeswoman.

“He certainly wouldn’t be supporting Donald Trump if he didn’t believe in him,” said Jerry DeLemus, a Republican activist in New Hampshire best known for his support of rogue Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who officially became a Trump supporter over the weekend and called Lewandowski a “really decent man.”

The grandson of a union printer, Lewandowski grew up poor in the 1980s in the hardscrabble mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts, playing pond hockey in the winters and going on to graduate from the city’s branch of the University of Massachusetts.

Drawn to Ronald Reagan’s unabashed work-hard, get-rich version of the American dream, Lewandowski became an active Republican and moved to Washington after graduating. There, he worked on Capitol Hill while earning a master’s degree in political science at American University.

Lewandowski worked briefly for the RNC in 2001, as the legislative political director for the Northeast, before leaving the establishment behind.

His rift with “the country club Republicans,” as he’s known to call them, can be traced to another presidential campaign that ticked off the party.

In February 1999, New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith launched a long-shot bid for the Republican nomination, irking the local GOP, which worried he could catch on in his home state and make the first-in-the-nation primary irrelevant by discouraging other candidates from campaigning there.

As it turned out, Smith didn’t catch on anywhere, so he left the party in July to seek the nomination of the Taxpayers’ Party, before disavowing that party, too, and running as an independent. That lasted until Rhode Island Sen. John Chafee died in October, when Smith dropped out of the race and repledged his fealty to the Republican Party so that he could inherit Chafee’s chairmanship of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

The Republican Party was ready for Smith to retire at the end of his term, but he sought reelection in 2002, recruiting Lewandowski from the RNC to manage his campaign. Several of Smith’s GOP Senate colleagues took the unusual step of endorsing his primary opponent, then-Rep. John E. Sununu, the son of the state’s former governor, who won the primary and the seat, putting it safely back in the hands of the country club Republicans.

By his association with the ousted senator, Lewandowski had burned bridges with the party, said Cullen.

He spent five years as a lobbyist, starting at the New England Seafood Producers Association, before landing with the deep-pocketed Americans for Prosperity in 2008. AFP’s ability to outspend candidates in small, local races made it a factor in New Hampshire Republican primaries, and Lewandowski again became a thorn in the state party’s side.

Most notably, in 2012, AFP backed computer-repair magnate Josh Youssef over a more moderate Republican in a state Senate primary, despite reports that Youssef owed $50,000 to the IRS and allegations that he was hiding assets to avoid making child-support payments to his ex-wife, because Youssef’s views aligned more closely with the group’s anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda.

Days after Youssef won the primary with Lewandowski’s support, the Republican leadership publicly called on their nominee to answer for allegations that he violated campaign laws by misusing the identities of local Republicans to make it look like they supported his candidacy.

Youssef lost in the general election, contributing to a narrowing of the Republican majority from 14 seats to two in the Senate and hard feelings in the party. “That’s a seat that Republicans should hold,” said Berke. Youssef is now a county chairman for Trump in New Hampshire.

At AFP, Lewandowski also showed an ability to draw crowds to events and pull off attention-grabbing gimmicks. At the group’s Tax Day rally in 2010, he pulled a cardboard cutout of Democratic Gov. John Lynch onto the steps of the Capitol building in Concord and began debating it, to the crowd’s delight.

In April 2014, AFP and Citizens United held a “Freedom Summit” in New Hampshire, the first Republican cattle call of the 2016 presidential cycle, where Trump and Lewandowski met. They kept in touch over the intervening months, and Trump evidently decided he had found a kindred spirit.

One Trump insider joked the two had found each other on Match.com.

They even dress alike. “He wears a suit a lot, which for New Hampshire is odd,” the longtime Granite State political operative said of Lewandowski. “You don’t really wear suits in New Hampshire.”

The operative, who did not want to speak negatively about a fellow Republican on the record, had another theory of Lewandowski’s and Trump’s decision to partner up: They both had few other options. “Any serious person in Washington could never work for [Trump], because it would just destroy your career and you’ll never be respected by anyone around here.”

Since the two joined forces in January, Trump has taken care of the bombast, while Lewandowski has been executing on the logistics, which so far consists largely of getting Trump in front of cameras and crowds.

Despite all the bridges burned, an ability to execute may save Lewandowski from political career exile should Trump’s campaign fizzle, as many Republican leaders say they expect it to, when the cameras and the crowds move on.

Greg Moore, who replaced him as AFP’s New Hampshire director, said his old boss excels at the “blocking and tackling” of political agitation.

“He always made sure the ‘i’s are dotted and ‘t’s are crossed,” said Moore. “I assure you the trains will run on time.”

ON-DEMAND DOCTOR APPS BRING UBER APPROACH TO MEDICINE

BY MATTHEW PERRONE
AP HEALTH WRITER

AP Photo/Uncredited

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- It was 8 o'clock on a weeknight and Brooklyn resident Sarah Sheehan was reeling from a painful earache.

She wouldn't be able to see her doctor until the next morning, and that would require a 45-minute subway ride uptown. That's when Sheehan, co-founder of an education technology business, remembered receiving a promotional code for a new company called Pager, an Uber-like service that sends doctors to patients' homes.

Pager and similar companies like Heal and Medicast aim to streamline medical care -- cutting out waiting rooms, receptionists and trips to the doctor's office.

"It's a completely different experience when you're sick and able to stay in your pajamas," says Sheehan. "Someone comes to your home, they're kind to you, they answer all your questions and give you all the time you need."

But some doctors warn there could be drawbacks to convenience-driven medical care, especially if it disrupts an already complex, fragmented health care system. As the app makers search for a sustainable business model, however, it appears they are more likely to end up working with traditional medical providers, than against them.

HOUSE CALL COMEBACK?

House calls were once commonplace in the U.S. Today, 9 out of 10 general practitioners say they do not typically make house calls, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

But new phone apps may signal a comeback for house calls.

Pager is currently only available in New York City but it will expand to San Francisco in coming weeks. A rival company on the West Coast, Heal, already operates in San Francisco, Orange County and L.A

Gaspard de Dreuzy, one of Pager's three co-founders, says the services' typical customers are working mothers ages 30 to 45.

"It's really an urban population that is busy and values its time," he adds.

So much so that they are willing to pay a premium. Like other services, Pager is not currently covered by insurance. Customers pay a $50 fee for their first visit and $200 for subsequent visits from one of the company's 40 health practitioners, including doctors, nurses and physician assistants.

That fee is about 10 times more than the typical $15 to $25 doctor co-pay for patients with insurance. But there are situations where a Pager visit might be cheaper than conventional care. For instance, $200 is significantly cheaper than the median cost of an emergency room visit: $505, according to federal figures. The ER is often the only medical option for people without insurance.

"We're trying to move forward to a model where the Pager service will be as affordable as any other care option for people who are insured or not," de Dreuzy says.

POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS

But Some doctors are skeptical.

Dr. Robert Wergin of Milford, Nebraska says on-call services could be useful for one-time medical needs. But treating chronic conditions like diabetes, arthritis or Alzheimer's requires careful, consistent attention over many years. A doctor responding to a phone app may not be familiar with a patient's family history, medications, allergies and other critical details.

"If these apps develop and they further fragment care it's not going to help the health care delivery system. We'll get more of what we already have: higher costs and lower quality," says Wergin, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Other experts worry about doctors making appropriate prescribing decisions when patients are paying $100 or more for their services.

"The visit becomes much more transactional," says Dr. Jonah Feldman, a specialist in health care delivery at Winthrop University Hospital. "And it will be much harder for that doctor to come out of that visit without giving some kind of treatment, and that exposes patients to the risks of overtreatment."

ROAD TO COVERAGE

But these concerns may be premature. The on-demand doctor business is still in its infancy, and there are signs it is converging with traditional medicine, not breaking away from it.

The sector's oldest company, Medicast, founded in 2013, recently abandoned its direct-to-consumer model in favor of collaborating with large hospital networks. The company recently helped Providence Health & Services -- a medical system in the Pacific Northwest -- launch its own house call app for the Seattle area.

Medicast CEO and co-Founder, Sam Zebarjadi says the company is working with a dozen other hospital systems on similar offerings. Previously the company operated its own doctor networks in Miami, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. But Zebarjadi says he found that consumers have "a really big issue around trust, which is one of the reasons we decided to start partnering with hospitals and health systems."

These collaborations may also further another key goal: getting insurance coverage. Like Pager, Medicast is currently a cash service. The company offers to file the bill for a house call with a patient's insurance provider, to see if they are willing to cover it. But in coming months Zebarjadi expects some insurance providers to begin covering Medicast visits.

"Why should patients face challenges -- especially when they're sick -- having to deal with all the inconveniences that come with getting health care traditionally, versus getting that care in the comfort of their own homes?" Zebarjadi says.

This story has been corrected to show the last name of the doctor quoted in paragraph 16 is Wergin, not Milford.

ISIS infiltrates Egyptian special forces, joins with Hamas to occupy N. Sinai, liquidate Sisi

Islamic State affiliates in Sinai and Libya have banded together with the Palestinian Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip for the shared goals of capturing northern Sinai from the Egyptian army and staging an assassination coup against President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources report.

They are in the throes of four steps for promoting their objectives:

1. Monday, June 29, a rogue group of Egyptian Special Forces accessed the heavily-guarded upscale Cairo district of Heliopolis to plant a bomb car, which they remotely detonated as the convoy of their target, Egypt’s general prosecutor Hisham Barakat, went by. He was killed on the spot. The assassins were members of the Egyptian elite force which had defected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Three weeks later, on July 16, notwithstanding reinforced security in Heliopolis, ISIS killers reached inside the neighborhood once again and planted a roadside bomb. It was detonated as an Interior Ministry special forces security patrol moved past.

Because of the tight official blackout on the event, there are no reliable accounts on casualties. The authorities in Cairo reported that one Egyptian soldier was injured, but this is no doubt only part of the picture.

The following day, July 17, a violent clash erupted In the Talibiya neighborhood of Giza near the pyramids between Egyptian Special Forces and Muslim Brotherhood’s underground cells. Five MB adherents were reported killed, but again no word on military losses.

2. On July 1, ISIS forces launched their most ambitious offensive to date against Egyptian military and police facilities in northern Sinai. Still ongoing three weeks later, the losses the Egyptian military have sustained to date are estimated at 120 dead and hundreds injured. Though fighting fiercely, Egyptian troops have not been able to repel the continuous Islamist assault or contain its advance through the northeastern section of the peninsula.
Tuesday, July 21, Hamas terrorists arrived at ISIS positions in northern Sinai for a joint assault on the base of the Multinational Observer Force at El Gorah, not far from the embattled town of Sheik Zuwaid. It was the first major attack on the US-led force that was installed in Sinai to monitor the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace accord – and is still going on..

Here, too, the MFO command and Cairo have combined to impose a blackout on the situation in the camp and the extent of casualties..

3. On July 17, the Islamic state of Sinai sank an Egyptian coast guard vessel with a sophisticated guided Kornet anti-tank missile. The ship was patrolling the Mediterranean shore of Rafah to prevent the smuggling of arms and fighters from Egypt proper and Libya into northern Sinai. This was a landmark incident in that it was the first time ISIS is known to have sunk an adversary’s vessel at sea.

Cairo reported at first that a fire broke out on the ship and there were no casualties.

4. On July 22, an audio message began making the rounds in Cairo and other Egyptian cities claiming to be the voice of Hisham al-Ashmawy, an Egyptian Special Forces officer who defected to ISIS. He said the country had been “overpowered by the new pharaoh” and called on all Egyptians “to come together to confront the enemy.” The message concluded with the words: “Do not fear them, but fear Allah if you are true believers.”

Western and Middle East counter-terror experts have concluded that it was Hisham al-Ashmawy who orchestrated the assassination of the general prosecutor last month. They tag him as the leader of the group of Egyptian officers and men who defected to ISIS. Egypt’s elite military units would appear therefore to be heavily penetrated by the Islamic State.
For Egyptian rulers this is a recurring menace. Thirty-years ago in October 1981, President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by a senior Egyptian intelligence officer who had secretly joined the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad, one of Al Qaeda’s two parent groups, and went AWOL a short time earlier.

Obama's Minimum Wage Utopia Just Hit A Brick Wall

Who could have possibly seen this coming? Almost three years we first detailed how America has become an entitlement nation where "work is punished." It appears President Obama is about to discover this first hand as his populist 'raise the minimum wage' strategy is showing yet another major unintended consequence. On the same day as New York acts to mandate a $15 minimum wage for fast food workers, Seattle's $15 minimum wage law - which is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and off public assistance - has hit a snag. As Fox News reports, evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise – in a bid to keep overall income down so they don’t lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent. So not only is work 'punished' it is now 'disinentivized by mandate' as part-time America toils amid ever-rising costs of living.

As we previously explained,

This isthe painful reality in America: for increasingly more it is now more lucrative - in the form of actual disposable income - to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work.

This is graphically, and very painfully confirmed, in the below chart from Gary Alexander, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (a state best known for its broke capital Harrisburg). As quantitied, and explained by Alexander,"the single mom is better off earnings gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045."

We realize that this is a painful topic in a country in which the issue of welfare benefits, and cutting (or not) the spending side of the fiscal cliff, have become the two most sensitive social topics. Alas, none of that changes the matrix of incentives for most Americans who find themselves in a comparable situation: either being on the left side of minimum US wage, and relying on benefits, or move to the right side at far greater personal investment of work, and energy, and... have the same disposable income at the end of the day.

And so, as Fox News reports, it is no surprise that the sudden gains in income from a government-mandated $15 minimum wage would tip some over the edge of their handouts entitlement... and thus dicincentize work altogether...

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and move them off public assistance. But there may be a hitch in the plan.

Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise – in a bid to keep overall income down so they don’t lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent.

Full Life Care, a home nursing nonprofit, told KIRO-TV in Seattle that several workers want to work less.

“If they cut down their hours to stay on those subsidies because the $15 per hour minimum wage didn’t actually help get them out of poverty, all you’ve done is put a burden on the business and given false hope to a lot of people,” said Jason Rantz, host of the Jason Rantz show on 97.3 KIRO-FM.

The twist is just one apparent side effect of the controversial -- yet trendsetting -- minimum wage law in Seattle, which is being copied in several other cities despite concerns over prices rising and businesses struggling to keep up.

The notion that employees are intentionally working less to preserve their welfare has been a hot topic on talk radio. While the claims are difficult to track, state stats indeed suggest few are moving off welfare programs under the new wage.

Despite a booming economy throughout western Washington, the state’s welfare caseload has dropped very little since the higher wage phase began in Seattle in April. In March 130,851 people were enrolled in the Basic Food program. In April, the caseload dropped to 130,376.

At the same time, prices appear to be going up on just about everything.

Some restaurants have tacked on a 15 percent surcharge to cover the higher wages. And some managers are no longer encouraging customers to tip, leading to a redistribution of income. Workers in the back of the kitchen, such as dishwashers and cooks, are getting paid more, but servers who rely on tips are seeing a pay cut.

Some long-time Seattle restaurants have closed altogether, though none of the owners publicly blamed the minimum wage law.

“It’s what happens when the government imposes a restriction on the labor market that normally wouldn’t be there, and marginal businesses get hit the hardest, and usually those are small, neighborhood businesses,” said Paul Guppy, of the Washington Policy Center.

* * *

As we previously concluded, with more than half of welfare spending going to working families...

The irony here seems to be that because companies would rather spend their money on raises for "supervisors" and on stock buybacks which benefit the very same supervisory employees who are likey to own stocks (and which artificially inflate the bottom line),everyday taxpayers just like the ones who can't get a raise end up footing the bill via public assistance programs. The companies meanwhile, get to utilize nice little tricks like corporate tax inversions in order to avoid paying their share of the assistance handed out to the very same employees they underpay.

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