All Episodes

July 27, 2021 16 mins

RUSH: AP: ‘The City Council brushed aside warnings from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to approve an ordinance that makes Chicago the biggest city in the nation to require big-box retailers to pay a ‘living wage.’ The ordinance, which passed 35-14 Wednesday after three hours of impassioned debate, requires mega-retailers to pay wages of at least $10 an hour plus $3 in fringe benefits,’ $3 in fringe benefits? ‘by mid-2010. It would only apply to companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90,000 square feet. ‘It’s trying to get the largest companies in America to pay decent wages,’ Ald[erman] Toni Preckwinkle said.’

No, it’s not.

‘The minimum wage in Illinois is $6.50 an hour and the federal minimum is $5.15. Mayor Richard M. Daley and others warned the living wage proposal would drive jobs and desperately needed development from some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and lead giants like Wal-Mart to abandon the city.’ It’s exactly right. Wal-Mart will ring the city. Wal-Mart will surround the city, but they will not go there. (Laughing.) This has nothing to do with a ‘livable wage.’ This has nothing to do with making big companies pay a livable wage. This is all about unions. This is all about the Democrats being loyal to unions. I think the ACORN group was behind this, a huge liberal group.


For the rest of today's transcript, click here: https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2006/07/27/raising_minimum_wage_causes_job_loss_wal_mart_will_now_just_surround_chicago/

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
City Council in Chicago has brushed aside warnings from Walmart
stores to approve an ordinance that makes Chicago the biggest
city in the nation to require big box retailers to
pay a living wage. The ordinance past fourteen yesterday after
three hours of impassion debate. It requires mega retailers to

(00:20):
pay wages of at least ten dollars an hour plus
UH three dollars in fringe benefits three dollars in fringe
benefits by by mid two thousand and ten, it would
only apply to companies with more than one billion dollars
in annual sales and stores of at least ninety thousand

(00:42):
square feet. Alderman Tony Preckwinkle said it's trying to get
the largest companies in America to pay decent wages. No,
it's not, then I'm waging in the Lloyd by the way,
six and a half. The federal minimum is five dollars
in fifteen cents. Mayor Daily and others warned at the
living wage proposal would drive jobs and desperately needed development

(01:03):
from some of the city's poorest neighborhoods and lead people
like Walmart to abandon the city. It's exactly. Walmart will
ring the city, Walmart will surround the city, but they
will not go there. This is has nothing to do
with a livable wage. This has nothing to do with
making big companies pay livable wage. This is all about
uh unions. This is all about the Democrats being loyal

(01:29):
to unions. I think the Acorn group was behind this,
a huge liberal group. It just let me the minimum wage.
And it looks like the Republicans are going to propose
one of their own increases. So this is all moot.
But you know, I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep talking
about it because it's ridiculous. The minimum wage is an

(01:53):
arbitrarily set wage, has nothing to do with market conditions.
It actually reduces jobs. It it results in the loss
of jobs. People don't believe that, but it is statistically true. Now,
let's let me ask you people in Chicago at the
at the city council ten bucks an hour in ten

(02:14):
why not tomorrow? This is desperately needed, isn't it. Why
are you gonna wait almost three years or four why
wait four years? What's the point here? By the time
we get to ten dollars an hour is going to
be not that much different than the six fifteen or
six fifty, That is, they required minimum wage in Chicago. Now,

(02:39):
why wait, and by the why stomp at ten? If
if ten dollars is a good livable wage, wouldn't fifteen
dollars an hour be even better? And if that's true,
then why stop at fifteen? Why why didn't you make
the livable wage twenty dollars? If big corporations who was
this has said this Tony preck Winkle. So they're trying

(03:03):
to get the largest companies in America to pay decent wage. Well,
I don't think ten bucks an hours a decent wage,
mss preck Winkle, I wouldn't work for it. Who do
you think will big companies need to pay their fair share?
Fifteen is better? But why stop there? Why didn't you
do twenty dollars? And now, and what is this three
dollars of French benefits? Three dollars won't even buy a

(03:25):
gas and gallon of gas in Chicago, and you call
it a fringe benefit. It's absurd, it's insulting. Make the
fringe benefits. In fact, Ms prick Winkle, I have a
better idea forget this hourly wage business in the first place.
If we're talking about really making these companies come clean
and be honest with the people who are making them successful,
then let's just say that there is a required minimum

(03:47):
salary of seventy five thousand dollars a year for everybody
works at Walmart. Everybody gets healthcare, dental, no co pay,
no deductible, and twenty dollars fringe benefits every year. Well,
we can't do that. Why not? White? If you can
go from six fifty to ten, why can't you go

(04:10):
from ten to fifteen? And if you can go to fifty,
why can't you go to twenty? I mean, go talk
to your union buddies are doing whatever jobs they're doing,
and ask them if they would go back to ten
dollars an hour on the basis it's a livable wage.
Do you think louis down there in a stonemason, the

(04:30):
bricklayers or whatever it's gonna tell you that he looks
have ten dollars an hour and on the basis is
livable wage. Don't you think that Walmart Automa at least
have to pay the lowest union contract equivalent in Chicago?
Where do you come up with these arbitrary numbers ten
bucks chump change, fifteen chump change. Why the average illegal

(04:52):
immigrant wouldn't work for that. You're gonna have to do
better than that, Chicago, if you're gonna really talk about
a living wage. But I don't know how you stop
at ten. I don't know how you stop at twenty.
And I don't know why you don't just go and
make it official. Make it a hundred grand, miss preck Winkle,
make it one hundred grand. Talk about a livable wage.
Somebody might really be able to buy a car and

(05:13):
not have to take Chicago public transit at a hundred grand.
I have to teach them English, but well, no, you
don't even have to do that. And make Walmart pay
for that if they want to learn English. Go all
the way with this Chicago City Council. You are just
tiptoeing around here. You're dancing around the real truth. You

(05:34):
don't care about these workers. You just want a double
digit minimum wage because you know what this does. Can
I tell you what the big secret of the minimum
wages folks? Now, the so called livable wage. In addition
to whatever political ploy it is to try to teach
the downtrodden the forgotten the hungry and the thirsty that
the Democrats care about them. What it really is is

(05:57):
a way to goose union wages up because good old
union negotiators in Chicago, A're not gonna say WHOA people
that don't know how to count beyond ten and they've
only been in a country for a couple of years
are gonna make ten bucks an hour at a box store,
at a checkout line or somewhere stocking things on shelves. Well,

(06:21):
good for them. We want to raise our union contract
next time it comes up. The higher the minimum wage goes,
the higher the baseline for union contracts are. This is
such a scam. And of course, since the city of
Chicago and it's union deals that it makes with the
city with other people is actually paid by Chicago taxpayers,

(06:43):
people like Tony Preckwinkle don't really have to think of
the money coming out of her purse or pocketbook or
that pocket whichever she prefers. Al in in Chicago. Welcome,
So nice to have you on the program. Nice to
talk to you than at Moscow on Michigan. Uh. This
is nothing more than a political act. It's also an

(07:05):
act that will to impact greatly on the poorest of
the people in Chicago. If you know Chicago, there's a
ring of poverty around that very successful core downtown. Those
folks rely on public transportation, they won't be able to
benefit from the targets and the Walmarts and the discounts
that are available. You know, Ben Stein, the economist has
many times said that Walmart is the greatest poverty anti

(07:28):
poverty program going. But this is also a political act.
You know, they'll they'll cancel this out if they begin
to see stores growing and being built right across the
line in suburban communities. And that is what will happen,
because it happened with gas stations, gas stations rim the city. Well,
it's already started. Walmart's already said, are going to build

(07:50):
a store in one of these economically depressed places, and
the people live there love it. That's actually, that's an
excellent point, an excellent point. If these stores get built
outside the and you said it not I the ring
of poverty uh in in Chicago, then the primary beneficiaries
of a Walmart store won't be able to get there
to take or they'll go broke getting there and won't

(08:12):
be able to spend any money. Once they do get
there absolutely. Can I tell you Kmart's home depot lows
they're building right now in Evergreen Park. And these are
communities that are one block. You know, they share a
border with the city of Chicago. And they do it
because also sales tax in Chicago, if you cross the street,
you go into Indiana, you go from eight eight and

(08:32):
a half percent down to six in Chicago is hurting itself.
But Chicago has always done this. It's not unique. What
I call a captive constituency, that's the captive but that's
that's not I mean that that's true in the sales tax.
I mean uh, in in New Jersey they bumped up
the sales tax on some luxury cars and boats once

(08:54):
and people just went to Pennsylvania. Uh then and they
ended up having to resend the tax. Because liberals raising
taxes raises revenue. They do not understand the dynamic aspects
of raising or cutting and lowering taxes. But I'm gonna
I'm gonna tell you something here. This is uh. I
want to ask you about the mayor because you're obviously
in Chicago, you're closer to it now. And the other day,

(09:15):
this wackle bunch of City Council people actually passed a
trans fat ordnance or they're working on it, and and
and and and Mayor Daily said, what the hell are
we doing? We got serious problems with kids in this country.
They've got a drug problem, got a crime for. What
the hell are we regulating people's menus for? And he
opposes this living wage thing? Now, what's with that? The

(09:37):
City Council of Chicago has nothing better to do? No,
I mean, what's no, no, no, what's with Daily opposing that?
Daily's a Democrat to Daily sounding like a Republican, almost
a conservative Republican on this. Yeah, but Daily's you know,
Daily is not running for anything at the moment. U He's, well,
he will be soon, but he's yeah, he's doing a straddle.

(09:57):
He you know, he's doing what Clinton always does. He
wants to be on the right side of the issue.
It's it's not a matter of principle, it's a matter
of positioning. And that's how Daily always opened in a second,
the living wage, minimum wage. That's a fundamental, defining issue
of the Democratic Party. And he's ripping people like Tony
PreK Winkle. By the way, how long has Tony PreK
Winckle been a member of the City Council in Chicago.

(10:20):
I think forever. Is she married? You know, I don't know,
I can't, can't just wondering if it's a maiden name.
I'm sorry, I'm just wondering. If it's her maiden name,
I could google it. You don't have to worry about it.
I'll handle it. Uh anyway, Thanks, Thanks, Al, I appreciate,
appreciate the input. This, this is this is just fascinating stuff.

(10:42):
But it is big cities, big democrats. Cities are locked
back in an old era drive by media, locked in
an old era. There are major transformational changes happening in
front of all of them, the Middle East, in this country,
and they're so locked in that old lens and a
prism through which they look at news that they're missing
all of it. You know, here, here's something else. For

(11:03):
the Chicago City Council and for everybody else here. That
toying around. It is lunacy, and it is sheer lunacy
of raising the minimum wage. And I can demonstrate it
to anybody who thinks they want to call and argue
with me about it, because I know how you're gonna are.
You're gonna the race who can live on five dollars
it can live? Well, Uh, a lot of people are

(11:27):
not living on it. As the point, it's an entry
level wage. It's many of them are the equivalent of babysitters.
There are entry level jobs in America, the newest one
being the illegal immigrant job. And then there are other
jobs that you just your first job in the marketplace.
There is a myth out there that heads of households
supporting the uh family Sadan and a two point eight

(11:50):
kids in a white picket fence in suburbia on five
dollars an hour or five fifty and six fifty, whatever
the hell it is, is a myth. Head of households
are not earning. I mean, there may be some, but
it's you're you're gonna react to this totally emotionally. They're
not nothing. You hear it. I know, well, how many

(12:13):
of you think what you're earning right now is enough?
I bet you're all saying, no, I need more. Even
I say that, even I said, now, what are we
doing about it? Are we running around? He needs a
government program to raise my wage. There's a minimum wage.
You know something else that's not talked about with the
minimum wage, that tax burden. Why isn't the tax burden

(12:38):
which cuts the net minimum wage ever discussed? If the
minimum wage is so crucial, shouldn't it be free of
any taxation? Like Mrs ms prick Winkle in Chicago the
ten dollar living wage, Make it tax free. I know
that they're not gonna be fun income tax out of that,
but they are gonna pay state. They're gonna pay through

(12:58):
the nose on state income to X. They're gonna have
Social Security, Medicare taxes withheld, and a whole bunch of
other things unemployment insurance, workers compensation. Now, I mean, how
is that fair? You? You people in government talk about
how unfair it is that there's minimum wage is so low,
and then whatever the minimum wage is gets eaten up

(13:20):
by your taxes. So if you really believe all this,
those of you at the Chicago City Council or any
other you pro minimum wage geeks, if you actually believe this,
then make the next time you propose it all the
way through no taxes. Every minimum wage recipient is exempted
from taxes. It's too important. People need to live, Mr Limbaugh.

(13:44):
They need to be able to eat and feed their family.
I understand that, and I wouldn't want to do it
on five dollars an hour. I wouldn't want to do
it on ten, although I've done it on the equivalent
we all have as the point, well other than you
trust funders and you Walster people. His first job out
out of Harvard, your hedge fund as a couple hundred

(14:05):
grand a year. But most people have earned the equivalent
of I did when I was thirteen. I got it
out of the way when I was sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen.
That's when I earned. The equipment was a bucket a
quarter an hour, and I didn't even care. It was
so little. It didn't care. I just I just love
the experience. I gave the money to my dad because
I he had fronted me the money to go to

(14:26):
broadcast school. It's not a broadcast schools, electronic school went
down to Dallas when I was sixteen. Had to have
a radio license. That's the irrelevant now, but I had
had one then in order to work at this radio
station in my hometown, and he required me to be
a cost six hundred bucks to fly me down there,
living some old woman's house for the six weeks. Well
that then they had a whole row of houses down

(14:47):
there next to the school, and they the owners of
the houses, rented out rooms for very cheap. It was
a school, it was a factory. All kinds of guys
going through their women too. And I was sixteen when
I did it. And when I got back and started
work and gave my dad the money paying back, and
unbeknownst to me, he set up a bank account. Uh,
and that just all that money. After after three years,

(15:09):
it was like three thousand dollars. So I made a
thousand dollars a year and I was working full time.
Now I was a teenager. But that's what the minimum
wage is. It's exactly what it is. It is misrepresented
as something that a majority of Democrats, a majority of
Democrats want you to believe, a majority of Americans are
just one paycheck away from homelessness, destitution, And it's all

(15:32):
Bush's fault, the Republicans fault because they won't raise the
minimum wage and so forth. I'm just saying, if you're
gonna go out there and raise the minimum wage as
city council member, a member Congress, whoever, whatever governmental body
you're part of, be fair, go all the way exempt
all taxes. I mean, okay, ten dollar livable wage, three

(15:58):
dollar fringe benefit. That's true, really cute. That's three dollar
fringe benefit. That's just so thoughtful and compassionate. I wouldn't
have thought of that myself. That shows how much smarter
the liberals are than I am. But after the taxes,
the state taxes, the medicare, if there is federal income tax,

(16:19):
ten dollars an hour, probably gonna pay any uh, most
taxes paid. But the rich uh in this country. Um,
but Medicare, Medicaid, social Security, one armed amputees, Grantwich Village
of fund. Whatever is taken out of the ten bucks
is going to add up to about five or six
an hour? Now is that really compassionate? I don't think so.

Rush Limbaugh - Timeless Wisdom News

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.