No Reservations
By Mitch Berg
Tom Emmer is having a town hall meeting with restaurant and bar workers today. It’s at Ol’ Mexico in Roseville, and the doors open at 2:30. If you’re a restauranteur or publican, it’d be a great idea to be there early with bells on. I’m trying to find if anyone is live-streaming the event.
Here’s what’s cool about the event; despite the fact that the whole “Tip Credit” kerfuffle is a manufactured controversy as the media tries to help the DFL run out the clock until Mark Dayton wins the primary, and that the whole fracas is a red herring (focusing on a virtual non-issue at a low level to ignore the larger point – that the Mininum Wage is a job killer, especially in hospitality, one of Minnesota’s most important industries), Tom Emmer isn’t shuffling away from the issue; he’s not trying to sweep it under the rug.
He’s attacking it head on, like a defenseman checking the snot out of a winger.
And if I know Tom Emmer, 100 people may walk into Ol’ Mexico unconvinced – and 75 will walk out converted, or at least saying “hmm – the guy’s got a point and, by the way, all that stuff Alliance for a “Better” Minnesota has been saying is crap“.
Because that’s Tom Emmer’s big strength; while he speaks in terms of principles – big-picture ideas that are easy for the DFL’s professional deceivers to pervert – he’s also the best politician in the state explaining to people, regular schmucks in the street, why those principles matter to them. Why they keep jobs in their towns and money in their wallets.
I’m looking for Emmer to stomp the tip credit issue into history today (not that the DFL, media and leftyblogs won’t try to keep flogging it); more important, I’m looking for him to start showing people the truth behind the kerfuffle; cutting taxes, regulations and other bureaucratic overburden creates jobs, makes entrepreneurship viable, and brings more wealth to individual Minnesotans.
The sort of thing Chris Christie is doing in Jersey today. The kind of thing Norm Coleman did in Paul and Brett Schundler did in Jersey City in the 1990s. The kind of thing Ronald Reagan did for the whole nation thirty years ago. The kind of thing that leaders do to make their cities, states and nations great.
Look for the DFL and media to bend over backwards to try to keep the word from getting out.
July 14th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
“Tip Credit” would be a good start to help the restaurant and bar businesses. Getting rid of the smoking ban would probably be at least as helpful in keeping these entities viable. The oppressive smoking ban caused a ton to close their doors.
July 14th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
If the debate re: minimum wage for servers can be brought to a more rational level, I think Emmer can win it, or at least, beat it to a tie. I’ve only taken a single undergrad economics course, but the effects of a minimum wage that is too high for the industry seem clear: less employment.
I hoped that King Banaian would weigh in on Emmer vs. tips, but SCSU scholars has been silent on the issue (maybe I missed it?).
July 14th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
King mentioned something on the subject over here:
http://www.kingforhouse.blogspot.com/
in June.
July 14th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I’m impressed he changed his position. That takes guts.
July 14th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
King really didn’t go into the economics of the situation, Troy.
As I understand it, restaurants and bars are in a competitive industry. That means that, in the long run, MR=MC, meaning that marginal return equals marginal cost. If this is true, this means that employers cannot keep the money they would save by paying servers less. It would have to be passed on to customers in the form of lower prices — or better value in some other sense; more convenient hours, greater variety on the menu, etc.
On the MC side, it would mean that the restaurant/bar owner would be forced to pay the new. lower wage to servers.
July 14th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
To Quote a Emmer supporter talking to a group of other Emmer supporters just outside the room “What is he doing, this is a catastrophe”
July 14th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Got tape?
🙂
At worst, it’s not a catastrophe; it’s a misstep in July.
In October, this would have been a problem.
This will be forgotten by August 10.
July 14th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
I loved the brain-dead moron from The Uptake dumping all the pennies on Emmer. While he was babbling about how “this is not Arizona” and “I’m protesting his immigration policy”, Emmer was saying “Let’s gather up those pennies. We need all the campaign contributions we can get”.
Why are liberals such morons? No, that was a rhetorical question.
July 14th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
While he was babbling about how “this is not Arizona” and “I’m protesting his immigration policy”,
I’m actually against what Arizona just passed, but Jeff Passolt just reported that “one man was so upset [with the tip/wage proposal] that he dropped a bag of pennies on Emmer”
Jeff Passolt is a liar and a dufus.
July 15th, 2010 at 1:32 am
buddhapatriot, the Strib photos sure look like the pennies were dropped so close that they intentionally landed all over Emmer. That is ‘dropping pennies on him’.
Flash, if you were there, can you confirm if the reports that segments of the crowd were actively hostile were accurate? That the mike was cut leaving Emmer yelling his closing remarks? That he left through the kitchen? And that the event ended early when it was clearly not going well?
I just shook my head at the comment quoted from Emmer, about the woman who said she was horrified at his remarks – that he would mark her down as undecided. He may have been trying to be funny or disarming, but……ew.
I think the crowd pegged it, per the Strib report anyway, that when Emmer isn’t addressing what he means by a tip credit, and how it works in conjunction with minimum wage, specifically, that there is going to be rising distrust. Heck, the crowd of servers might even be right that there is a devil in his details.
It would argue that the previous conventional wisdom of NOT providing details might no longer work for candidates – not just Emmer, but all of them.
Just my 2 cents worth, but I don’t think people are as willing to accept vague answers, or generalities, as much any more.
You might be right Mitch that this would be worse for him, if it were closer to the election. But it might also mean that Emmer has a longer period of time in which to slide on downwards too. Your statement at least suggests you think this was a failure, not a success, as well. Just like Flash.
And gee Mitch – do you record everything said around you? No? Then absent you or someone else with tape to refute it, Flash’s report is credible. It is consistent with other reports from people who were there.
July 15th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Just my 2 cents worth, but I don’t think people are as willing to accept vague answers, or generalities, as much any more.
Damn. Mark Dayton is in big trouble then.
July 15th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Someone should drop a bag full of Thorazine tabs on Brave Sir Mark.
Oh, and and a bag of Big Mac’s on, well you know who.
LOL!
July 15th, 2010 at 11:26 am
buddhapatriot, the Strib photos sure look like the pennies were dropped so close that they intentionally landed all over Emmer. That is ‘dropping pennies on him’.
I was talking about the motive. It was a tangential protest that Jeff Passolt attempted to link to “restaurant server anger”. I understand many in the crowd were angry, but the bag of coins stunt had nothing to do with it.
And yes, we expect more than “a little birdie told me” when you slander us.
July 17th, 2010 at 2:35 am
Oh, and and a bag of Big Mac’s on, well you know who.
No fat jokes in these comments, right Mitch?