The American Samoan government is protesting that the lower
minimum wage has to be preserved otherwise the jobs will move
somewhere else.
Oh, really? And this is different from what employers in
Mississippi, or southern Ohio, or West Virginia are facing  how?
Exempting Del Monte from the minimum wage is just as much an
earmark as anything pushed through by Randy "Duke" Cunningham
(R-Cellblock E).
Pelosi's office immediately claimed she had not known about the
American Samoan exemption and was opposed to it.
That leads us to two points:
1. This is what happens when you shove major legislation through
the House without proper committee hearings and minority party
participation. How do we know this? Because the DEMOCRATS
COMPLAINED ABOUT IT FOR 12 YEARS!
2. Unless Nancy Pelosi has hired the Oompa Loompas from Willy
Wonka's chocolate factory to write legislation, it strains
credulity that the bill drafters were unaware of the effect this
was going to have on a major corporation headquartered in the
Speakers' district.
Tuna packers on American Samoa are, on their own, not crucial to
the health of the US economy. However, this episode shows that the
Democrats are a long way from cleaning up abuses of privilege in
the House.
The very issue on which they ran and won. |