Once a bum, always a bum?

Lifelong bum turned U.S. senator turned 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been preaching nonstop for years about how every working American deserves to earn at least $15 per hour. Yet according to a report published last week, he hasn’t been paying his own staffers $15/hour.

The report specifically found that junior-level staffers were earning a $36,000 salary for a 40-hour work. The problem was that most staffers were working upwards of 60+ hours per week, meaning their promised $15/hour wages were actually more like $11 to $13/hour wages.

There’s nothing “extreme” about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. What’s extreme is paying workers starvation wages while CEO pay and corporate profits skyrocket.@senatemajldr stop blocking a raise for millions of Americans! pic.twitter.com/3N9pShcXuf — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 18, 2019

In response to the backlash that spawned after this report went viral, Sanders finally took action last Friday by announcing that he’d be cutting his staffers’ hours.

“As these discussions continue, we are limiting hours so no employee is receiving less than $15 for any hours worked,” his campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, said in a statement to Newsweek.

The “discussions” he referenced were ongoing negotiations between the staffers’ union and Sanders’ management team.

“We look forward to continuing those discussions and obviously are disappointed that some individuals decided to damage the integrity of these efforts before they were concluded,” Shakir added.

This was a sentiment also expressed by Sanders.

“It does bother me that people are going outside of the process and going to the media,” he’d reportedly said. “That is really not acceptable. It is really not what labor negotiations are about, and it’s improper.”

It was a very telling statement, and here’s why: According to The Washington Post, which broke the original report Thursday, the internal conflict over wages “dates back to at least May.”

That means it took two whole months for the situation to be resolved. More importantly, it wasn’t resolved until the media got involved. And wouldn’t you know it, Sanders and his campaign manager resent the fact that staff members decided to squeal to the media. Hmm.

Dovetailing back to the “deal” reached by Sanders and his team, it attracted widespread mockery after it was reported Friday afternoon.

Look:

Why won’t millionaire Bernie Sanders who owns 3 homes, instead of cutting hours, pay his staff a living wage? People are starving. https://t.co/2jthpISzr3 — Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 21, 2019

For the first time in his life, socialist Bernie Sanders practices economics and buddy the results are hilarious. — Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 21, 2019

Cutting employees’ working hours in order to afford higher wages? Who could’ve possibly seen this coming? Next week he’ll replace most of his staff with robots and kiosks. — Blueberry (@hey1steaksauce) July 21, 2019

Is this a parody account? Are you making fun of the guy pushing for private businesses to raise min. wages to $15/hr while he’s going to brag he’s paying his own workers $15/hr but he’s doing that by LIMITING the hours they can they work? This makes him look stupid or dishonest — Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) July 21, 2019

Bernie Sanders cutting hours instead of paying his staff what they asked for is like seeing a fire truck on fire https://t.co/UQ3qP7Naqj — Tim Pool (@Timcast) July 21, 2019

Raising wages = cutting hours. Bernie can’t even realize the socialist utopia in his own campaign. https://t.co/6XOmPeLxSl — Steven Crowder (@scrowder) July 21, 2019

I can’t stop thinking of how stupid this is. Limiting hours so you can raise wages has literally no effect on how much your employees make. Only benefit is you being able to say you pay them $15 an hour. Beyond cynical. https://t.co/UdlxUBIhvA — neontaster (@neontaster) July 21, 2019

By his own campaign Sanders is showing that forcing businesses to pay $15 an hour minimum wage will cause businesses to cut back on employee hours. His policies are merely political delusions that have no practical application. That’s why Socialism fails wherever its tried ! https://t.co/FWSg2jmTum pic.twitter.com/Xg2KWNV0kC — Michael Lawn (@mlawn64) July 21, 2019

Was the mockery justified? Yes and no.

On one hand, Sanders’ last-minute decision showcased both his economic ignorance and his hypocrisy. Were his vision of a $15/hour minimum wage one day signed into law, millions of businesses across the nation would be forced to follow suit and cut their own employees’ hours.

But on the other hand, because the senator’s staffers are salaried workers, they’re going to wind up making the same amount of money for less work. That’s a net positive for them.

However, things don’t always work so smoothly in the private sector. Take for instance a laundromat that pays its front-desk cashier to work 40 hours a week at $10 per hour. That’s $400 per week, and because it’s a full 40 hours, the cashier also benefits from paid healthcare, a 401(k), etc.

Now suppose Sanders’ plan goes into action and the laundromat owner must now pay the cashier $15/hour. At that rate, the cashier’s 40-hour work week would suddenly cost the owner $600 total, or $200 more per week. Chances are that the business owner would try to recoup these loses by cutting the cashier’s hours down to 26 to 27 (which would bring the cashier’s earnings to about $400/week). But guess what else would happen. The cashier would then lose his or her benefits.

This is the reality of Sanders’ Utopian vision, but alas, he appears to be too dense to realize it.