Thread: Trump expected to name fast food CEO Andy Puzder as pick for Labor secretary

Trump expected to name fast food CEO Andy Puzder as pick for Labor secretary

Jacob Pramuk
32 Mins Ago Breaking News

Donald Trump is expected to name fast food CEO Andy Puzder his Labor secretary, a source familiar with the transition told CNBC.

Puzder heads CKE Restaurants, the California-based parent of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. He joins a string of wealthy Trump Cabinet picks with a business background, including Treasury pick Steven Mnuchin and Commerce pick Wilbur Ross.

Puzder has argued broadly against too much regulation and cheered Trump's presidential win as a victory for business. He has also contended that broad minimum wage hikes cut job opportunities, especially for young people.

He has argued that President Barack Obama's landmark Affordable Care Act, which President-elect Trump has pledged to repeal, slows businesses down.

"The ACA has to go and it has to go quickly. Number one, it increases the costs of employing people ... and number two it takes discretionary income away from consumers," Puzder told CNBC the day after Trump's election, arguing that consumer have been less likely to eat at restaurants because of Obamacare premium increases.

Dow Jones first reported Trump's expected pick on Thursday.

This story is developing. Please check back for further updates.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/08/trump...ry-source.html

What You Need To Know About Rumored Trump Labor Secretary Andy Puzder

Trump Reportedly Leaning Toward Prolific Right-Wing Op-Ed Writer And Fast Food CEO To Head Department Of Labor


[COLOR=#999999 !important]Blog ››› November 17, 2016 2:55 PM EST ››› ALEX MORASH

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Media outlets have reported that President-elect Donald Trump is considering Andy Puzder, a right-wing commentator and fast food CEO, for secretary of labor. Puzder is known for writing op-eds denouncing worker rights and the minimum wage, and his company is infamous for its “supermodel-centric marketing strategy” designed to offend viewers and stoke sales.

According to a November 15 article in Politico, Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which operates burger chains Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, was on the short list to replace Tom Perez as the secretary of labor in the incoming Trump administration. The same day, The Atlantic also reported on Trump’s possible choice of Puzder, noting the CEO’s history of fundraising for Trump and his staunch opposition to Obamacare and raising the minimum wage.

In his op-eds and media appearances, Puzder frequently peddles right-wing misinformation advocating policies that hurt American workers. Puzder has praised the job destruction that comes with workplace automation, boasting in a March 16 interview with Business Insider that he wanted to automate more of his restaurants to avoid paying worker salaries and benefits. Puzder claimed that replacing people with machines would be preferable because machines “never take a vacation” or complain when discriminated against. From Business Insider:

"They're always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case," says Puzder of swapping employees for machines.

Puzder opposes new overtime rules proposed by the Department of Labor that would extend guaranteed overtime pay to qualified salaried workers making less than $47,476 a year. Puzder defended his position by claiming that having a salaried position -- and thus no overtime pay -- is an “opportunity” that confers “prestige” and “an increased sense of ownership” to overworked and underpaid managers. Puzder has also frequentlyattacked the push to raise the minimum wage and Obamacare’s health insurance expansion, misleadingly claiming that stronger wages and benefits actually hurt workers.

Puzder even attacked working-class Americans during an appearance on Fox & Friends, claiming that low-income workers might be wary of higher paying jobs if the salary increase results in a loss of government benefits. Puzder wrote in an op-ed in The Hill of a so-called "Welfare Cliff," where employees turn down promotions that could lead to $80,000 salaries because they "don't want to lose the free stuff from the government." Yet, by Puzder's own admission, the company he runs does not pay anywhere near the $80,000 annual salary that his employees were supposedly passing up so as to qualify for anti-poverty assistance.

In addition to being an outspoken media advocate of poverty wages in the fast food industry and an opponent of policies aimed at helping American workers, Puzder also runs a company that boosts its sales via a “supermodel-centric marketing strategy” catered to exploiting his customers’ base impulses. Puzder toldEntrepreneur magazine that complaints that his ads are sexist “aren't necessarily bad” for the company and that he thinks his company’s “sales go up” amid public outcry over ads that degrade women. The fast food chain has been running these ads for years, and Jezebel compiled “a history of disgusting Carl's Jr. ads” from 2005 to 2013. Puzder’s stance on objectifying women for commercial gain is eerily reminiscent of Donald Trump’s own history of degrading remarks about women.
As the president-elect begins the transfer of power, media need to inform Americans of Trump’s potential cabinet picks, the potential policies these cabinet members may support, and how those policies will affect American workers. Experts have already started to express fear that Trump’s proposals for the economy -- budget-busting tax cuts for the rich and unfunded deficit spending -- may create a short-term “sugar high” followed by an economic crash. The next labor secretary could exacerbate those economic worries if he or she promotes policies that undermine the livelihoods of millions of Americans.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11...-puzder/214523

I'd like to know his position on illegal immigrant labor and foreign worker visas.

He's already stated he supports an increase in the federal minimum wage to $9 which is the number I support. Cities and states with higher costs of living of course can use higher minimum wages if they think their community can afford that as many have. Raising the $7.25 to $9.00 is $1.75 an hour increase and a 24% raise. No American is going to complain about that. That is a huge raise. $1.75 x 2000 hours a year is 40 hours = $3,500 new income a year for full time workers, another $291 a month plus any over-time they might glean.

I will be honest, I really don't understand the minimum wage debate in this day and age.

Can anyone live on minimum wage?

Originally Posted by nntrixie

I will be honest, I really don't understand the minimum wage debate in this day and age.

Can anyone live on minimum wage?

No, and very few folks actually make 'only' minimum wage, that includes illegal aliens.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

I will be honest, I really don't understand the minimum wage debate in this day and age.

Can anyone live on minimum wage?

Depends on where and how you live. If you're a young single person living in a small town, you can, especially if there are employer paid benefits to go with it. It's not easy, but you can do it. If you're a middle aged couple with 4 kids at home living in New York City, then obviously not, not even with 2 minimum wage incomes.

The debate exists because of massive immigration and free trade treason. If we were just our own people, no illegal aliens, no massive numbers of immigrants and running our country with reasonable trade protections, we wouldn't even be talking about the minimum wage. Congress would handle it, adjust it for some portion of CPI, exempt businesses it shouldn't apply to, and we'd be talking about what great movie we'd like to see this weekend.

Our country is in turmoil because of horrible and destructive immigration, trade and tax policies. When these issues are fixed and eliminated, then things will return to normal, Americans working hard, earning good incomes, having fun, enjoying life, doing right by their families, and it will be happy days again. But we can't get to that point again without "harsh" changes, an end to illegal immigration, massive reductions or moratoriums on immigration, trade protections and the FairTax.

I've spent my entire adult life fighting this tragedy in one way or another only to watch it play out to this disastrous end game we're in.

by JULIA HAHN
8 Dec 2016
Washington D.C.

President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to name as his Labor Secretary fast food executive Andy Puzder, who stands diametrically opposed to Trump’s signature issues on trade and immigration — which won him the election.

Puzder is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which includes Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s.

Advocates for American wage-earners say that Puzder as Secretary of Labor is alarming because he will be in charge of enacting policies that directly impact American workers, whom Puzder believes are “unwilling” to do certain jobs. Puzder has suggested that available U.S. jobs should instead be filled by imported foreign labor.

Puzder has even gone so far as to suggest that he prefers foreign laborers to native-born American workers because foreign nationals are more grateful and have a better “attitude.”

“The fact is that there are jobs in this country that U.S. citizens, for whatever reason, are reluctant or unwilling to perform,” he said in a 2013 Politico op-ed in which he advocated for expansionist immigration policies.

As the Washington Post reported, Puzder suggested that flipping burgers is one such job Americans simply won’t do:

“Andrew Puzder, head of the California-based Hardee’s fast-food chain, said his business is a good fit for immigrants because they are willing to start at the bottom and work up…

“Immigrants appreciate what America offers,” Puzder said during a recent visit to Washington to lobby for immigration reform. “They are not taking jobs from Americans, because there are not sufficient Americans applying for jobs. Maybe they feel they have better options.”

Acclaimed Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald was critical of Puzder’s logic in a piece titled, “Does America Need More Hamburger-Flippers?” Mac Donald wrote:

Isn’t the argument for importing low-skilled immigrants that they take jobs that Americans won’t do? Farm labor is almost certainly one of those hard-to-fill jobs, but it’s news to me that working a fast-food counter is another — unless perhaps that niche becomes dominated by Mexican or Central American immigrants. A black kid from Watts is going to have a hard time getting hired at a Carl’s Jr. in South Central L.A. where all the employees speak to each other in Spanish.

Polling data suggests that Puzder’s desire to import foreign workers to fill U.S. jobs stands opposed to the desires of the American electorate.

Indeed, a 2014 poll from Kellyanne Conway’s polling company found that by nearly a 10-1 margin, Americans believe that companies should raise wages and improve working conditions for workers already here – rather than importing new foreign labor from abroad to fill American jobs.

Yet, during a 2013 AEI panel, Puzder seemed to express his preference for foreign workers over native-born Americans. Puzder said that his California labor force, which has a high percentage of foreign-born workers, is comprised of “hardworking, dedicated, creative people that really appreciate the fact that they have a job. Whereas in other parts of the country you often get people who are saying, ‘I can’t believe I have to work this job.’ With the immigrant population you always have a “Thank-God-I-have-this-job” kind of attitude, so you end up with a real different feeling. Now that’s a gross generalization… but I think it’s probably accurate.”

Last year, Puzder even joined forces with Michael Bloomberg, Bob Iger, and Rupert Murdoch’s open borders lobbying firm, the Partnership for a New American Economy, to call for “free-market solutions” to our immigration system.

“America should be a destination for hard-working immigrants from all over the world. Our economy will benefit from that,” Puzder wrote, perhaps unaware of the fact that the U.S. already has the world’s most generous immigration system– admitting one million plus foreign nationals on green cards; one million guest workers, dependents, and refugees; and half a million foreign students each and every year.

Puzder has been equally vocal about his support for immigration amnesty.

In 2013, Puzder lamented that the federal government’s current immigration policy is unfair to “undocumented workers who are lured to the country by the prospect of employment, [but] then must live in the shadows.”

Similarly, in a 2015 op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal’s open borders opinion pages, Puzder declared that “every candidate should support a path to legal status” for all illegal immigrants “willing to accept responsibility for their actions”.

In a July 2016 Wall Street Journal op-ed co-authored with Stephen Moore, Puzder insisted that the President-elect’s plan to enforce U.S. immigration law and repatriate the illegal population is “unworkable.”

“[Many undocumented immigrants] live in fear of being deported, losing what they’ve built and being separated from their families,” Puzder separately told reporters during a 2015 conference call with top GOP donors. “Our values indicate we should be the party of immigration reform.”

By “immigration reform” Puzder was referring to a widely-used progressive euphemism that means amnesty and flooding the labor market with foreign workers. Indeed, as Puzder himself explained in 2013, “comprehensive immigration reform” should include “a robust legal immigration program, including incentives for highly educated people to come to the U.S. and a guest worker program; a pathway to adjusted status for those here illegally now; and special relief for the children of undocumented immigrants.”

“The reality is that the government is not going to enforce the law effectively now against those who are here unlawfully,” Puzder wrote in 2013. The United States, Puzder reasoned, simply lacks “the will” to enforce U.S. immigration law:

There are more than 11 million illegal immigrants in our country. Many have families, homes, jobs and children who are American citizens. We simply are not going to take them from their homes, put them in prisons, load them on buses and take them back over the border. Nor will we enact draconian measures that drive them from their homes or their jobs and force them to “self-deport.” As a nation, we lack both the will and the resources to implement such policies.

More recently, Puzder has argued that “deportation should only be pursued when an illegal immigrant has committed a felony or [has] become a ‘public charge’.”

However, President-elect Trump himself explained why only enforcing some aspects of U.S. immigration law would be unfair to American workers. During his immigration speech delivered in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump said:

"Immigration law doesn’t exist just for the purpose of keeping out criminals. It exists to protect all aspects of American life – the worksite, the welfare office, the education system and much else. That is why immigration limits are established in the first place. If we only enforce the laws against crime, then we have an open border to the entire world.”"

In his 2016 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Puzder also described himself as a “free trader” who “oppose[s] punitive tariffs.”

Many have credited Trump’s pro-American worker stance on trade as part of the reason he was able to break through the left’s “blue wall” in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

As MSNBC’s Chris Matthews explained on election night, Trump won, in large part, due by running against the Washington establishment’s position on trade and immigration:

"The fact that we don’t have an immigration system that we enforce: business wants the cheap labor, Democrats want the jobs and the votes. Nobody’s gotten it together. In terms of trade… just drive through Michigan, drive through Wisconsin, and you’ll see places that are hollowed out…Trump said, ‘You know what, I think I can run against this stuff.’ … It was a legitimate campaign on those issue."

It remains to be seen whether Puzder will abandon his former open borders positions on these issues and will take up Trump’s pro-American worker platform on trade and immigration, which won him the election.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presid...rican-workers/

Right, young people with no dependents can be OK,Wpay some expenses while going to college.ithout benefits, no family with children can live. So if you get benefits, you aren't getting minimum wage.

That's what I don't understand about the minimum wage debate.

I see how an extra 1.75 would benefit, but in the scheme of things, if they are still having to depend on taxpayers for their necessities - what difference does it really make.

And, yes, the illegals don't even work for minimum wage anymore - so I'm trying to see the real debate here.

A lot of people says raising the minimum wage keeps young people from getting the entry 'starter' jobs. I think it is the illegal aliens that keeps them from getting the jobs.

Face it, if you hire a teenager, that sometimes brings it's own problems.
But you can hire an illegal for the same wages, pay contract labor. You don't have to collect taxes, or match SS tax. You have less worry about workplace safety, being sued for sexual harrassment, discrimination, pay healthcare insurance.

Originally Posted by Jean

by JULIA HAHN
8 Dec 2016
Washington D.C.

President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to name as his Labor Secretary fast food executive Andy Puzder, who stands diametrically opposed to Trump’s signature issues on trade and immigration — which won him the election.

Puzder is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which includes Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s.

Advocates for American wage-earners say that Puzder as Secretary of Labor is alarming because he will be in charge of enacting policies that directly impact American workers, whom Puzder believes are “unwilling” to do certain jobs. Puzder has suggested that available U.S. jobs should instead be filled by imported foreign labor.

Puzder has even gone so far as to suggest that he prefers foreign laborers to native-born American workers because foreign nationals are more grateful and have a better “attitude.”

“The fact is that there are jobs in this country that U.S. citizens, for whatever reason, are reluctant or unwilling to perform,” he said in a 2013 Politico op-ed in which he advocated for expansionist immigration policies.

As the Washington Post reported, Puzder suggested that flipping burgers is one such job Americans simply won’t do:

“Andrew Puzder, head of the California-based Hardee’s fast-food chain, said his business is a good fit for immigrants because they are willing to start at the bottom and work up…

“Immigrants appreciate what America offers,” Puzder said during a recent visit to Washington to lobby for immigration reform. “They are not taking jobs from Americans, because there are not sufficient Americans applying for jobs. Maybe they feel they have better options.”

Acclaimed Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald was critical of Puzder’s logic in a piece titled, “Does America Need More Hamburger-Flippers?” Mac Donald wrote:

Isn’t the argument for importing low-skilled immigrants that they take jobs that Americans won’t do? Farm labor is almost certainly one of those hard-to-fill jobs, but it’s news to me that working a fast-food counter is another — unless perhaps that niche becomes dominated by Mexican or Central American immigrants. A black kid from Watts is going to have a hard time getting hired at a Carl’s Jr. in South Central L.A. where all the employees speak to each other in Spanish.

Polling data suggests that Puzder’s desire to import foreign workers to fill U.S. jobs stands opposed to the desires of the American electorate.

Indeed, a 2014 poll from Kellyanne Conway’s polling company found that by nearly a 10-1 margin, Americans believe that companies should raise wages and improve working conditions for workers already here – rather than importing new foreign labor from abroad to fill American jobs.

Yet, during a 2013 AEI panel, Puzder seemed to express his preference for foreign workers over native-born Americans. Puzder said that his California labor force, which has a high percentage of foreign-born workers, is comprised of “hardworking, dedicated, creative people that really appreciate the fact that they have a job. Whereas in other parts of the country you often get people who are saying, ‘I can’t believe I have to work this job.’ With the immigrant population you always have a “Thank-God-I-have-this-job” kind of attitude, so you end up with a real different feeling. Now that’s a gross generalization… but I think it’s probably accurate.”

Last year, Puzder even joined forces with Michael Bloomberg, Bob Iger, and Rupert Murdoch’s open borders lobbying firm, the Partnership for a New American Economy, to call for “free-market solutions” to our immigration system.

“America should be a destination for hard-working immigrants from all over the world. Our economy will benefit from that,” Puzder wrote, perhaps unaware of the fact that the U.S. already has the world’s most generous immigration system– admitting one million plus foreign nationals on green cards; one million guest workers, dependents, and refugees; and half a million foreign students each and every year.

Puzder has been equally vocal about his support for immigration amnesty.

In 2013, Puzder lamented that the federal government’s current immigration policy is unfair to “undocumented workers who are lured to the country by the prospect of employment, [but] then must live in the shadows.”

Similarly, in a 2015 op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal’s open borders opinion pages, Puzder declared that “every candidate should support a path to legal status” for all illegal immigrants “willing to accept responsibility for their actions”.

In a July 2016 Wall Street Journal op-ed co-authored with Stephen Moore, Puzder insisted that the President-elect’s plan to enforce U.S. immigration law and repatriate the illegal population is “unworkable.”

“[Many undocumented immigrants] live in fear of being deported, losing what they’ve built and being separated from their families,” Puzder separately told reporters during a 2015 conference call with top GOP donors. “Our values indicate we should be the party of immigration reform.”

By “immigration reform” Puzder was referring to a widely-used progressive euphemism that means amnesty and flooding the labor market with foreign workers. Indeed, as Puzder himself explained in 2013, “comprehensive immigration reform” should include “a robust legal immigration program, including incentives for highly educated people to come to the U.S. and a guest worker program; a pathway to adjusted status for those here illegally now; and special relief for the children of undocumented immigrants.”

“The reality is that the government is not going to enforce the law effectively now against those who are here unlawfully,” Puzder wrote in 2013. The United States, Puzder reasoned, simply lacks “the will” to enforce U.S. immigration law:

There are more than 11 million illegal immigrants in our country. Many have families, homes, jobs and children who are American citizens. We simply are not going to take them from their homes, put them in prisons, load them on buses and take them back over the border. Nor will we enact draconian measures that drive them from their homes or their jobs and force them to “self-deport.” As a nation, we lack both the will and the resources to implement such policies.

More recently, Puzder has argued that “deportation should only be pursued when an illegal immigrant has committed a felony or [has] become a ‘public charge’.”

However, President-elect Trump himself explained why only enforcing some aspects of U.S. immigration law would be unfair to American workers. During his immigration speech delivered in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump said:

"Immigration law doesn’t exist just for the purpose of keeping out criminals. It exists to protect all aspects of American life – the worksite, the welfare office, the education system and much else. That is why immigration limits are established in the first place. If we only enforce the laws against crime, then we have an open border to the entire world.”"

In his 2016 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Puzder also described himself as a “free trader” who “oppose[s] punitive tariffs.”

Many have credited Trump’s pro-American worker stance on trade as part of the reason he was able to break through the left’s “blue wall” in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

As MSNBC’s Chris Matthews explained on election night, Trump won, in large part, due by running against the Washington establishment’s position on trade and immigration:

"The fact that we don’t have an immigration system that we enforce: business wants the cheap labor, Democrats want the jobs and the votes. Nobody’s gotten it together. In terms of trade… just drive through Michigan, drive through Wisconsin, and you’ll see places that are hollowed out…Trump said, ‘You know what, I think I can run against this stuff.’ … It was a legitimate campaign on those issue."

It remains to be seen whether Puzder will abandon his former open borders positions on these issues and will take up Trump’s pro-American worker platform on trade and immigration, which won him the election.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presid...rican-workers/

OH NO!!! This guy was a horrible choice! Heck, I would even suggest he is worse than Obama's Secretary of labor. I don't know who suggested this guy to Trump, but I find this very worrisome.

Anyone care to defend this choice?