Trump names fast food exec as Labor pick

NPR’s Scott Horsley joins us to talk about this latest Cabinet pick.

“If he’s such an evil villain”, Puzder said he would tell would-be donors, “how do you explain the kids?”

In 2011, Puzder contributed to Mitt Romney’s plan for jobs and economic growth, and served as an economic adviser for Romney’s campaign for president. Lewandowski is also accused of making “sexually suggestive and at times vulgar comments to ― and about ― female journalists who have covered Trump’s presidential bid”, according to a March report in Politico.

Puzder visited with Trump several times since the election, including a meeting Wednesday afternoon at Trump Tower. “I think there’s probably nothing more American”. It would be an unbelievable experience. That may or may not make him a good team player. Puzder made more than $4-and-a-half million back in 2012. “Yet Puzder opposes any increase to the minimum wage, believes that workers are kept in poverty because of government assistance programs, and thinks expanding access to overtime pay would diminish the prestige of entry-level management jobs”. Puzder testified in January 2015 for a Republican-pushed bill that would set a minimum 40-hour workweek for any worker to be deemed “full time” and thus covered by the ACA. In summary, Puzder’s public record seems to portend a dramatic reversal in the DOL’s current priorities to enhance employees’ wages, safety and benefits via regulation. The rules, which are now being held up in court, could end up seeing fast food restaurant managers entitled to higher pay. Puzder told the Orange County Register in 2014 that CKE had spent $20 million on overtime lawsuits in California over the previous eight years, and that the company had reclassified managers as hourly workers as a result.

Now, to be fair, a lot of those violations were in franchise restaurants, not company-owned stores. In general, we would expect Puzder to be friendly to businesses and somewhat hostile to a lot of regulatory efforts.

Shakeups are expected under Trump at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws. The ACA now has a 30-hour weekly minimum, so that firms – such as fast food restaurants – who don’t employ their workers for a full week nonetheless must ensure they’re covered. But he will bring a lot of experience and a shake-the-snow globe view of workplace practices whatever the future holds for him in the political sphere. And he really seemed to relish his reputation as the bad boy of fast food.

“I like lovely women eating burgers in bikinis”.

“He’s a very competent person”, Kirsanow said. And he’s absolutely right.

If confirmed by the Senate, Puzder will take over for Tom Perez, who was nominated by President Obama in 2013. Moreover, he’s flagrantly misogynistic, and in his decades in public life, has said too many terrible things about women to keep track of (“It doesn’t really matter what [reporters] write as long as you’ve got a young and handsome piece of ass” is but one of many examples).

HORSLEY: My pleasure, Ari.