The Patriot Post® · Sanders Campaign Collides With Economic Reality

News leaked last week that staffers working for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign were frustrated and complaining about receiving “poverty wages.” The irony is rich: Sanders the millionaire socialist has long railed against corporations for paying “starvation wages” as he stumps for a $15 minimum wage, but he was exposed as a hypocritical political hack.

In response to the embarrassing news, Sanders insisted over the weekend that his staffers would now be paid the promised $15 minimum wage, though this announcement came with a significant caveat: staffers’ hours would be cut to pay for it. As Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir explained, “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. As these discussions continue, we are limiting hours so no employee is receiving less than $15 for any hours worked.” Welcome to real-world economics. Yet Shakir and his boss threw those complaining staffers under the bus for the sin of naively believing that Sanders actually meant what he so loudly preaches.

Sanders himself expressed anger at his complaining staffers, stating, “It does bother me that people are going outside the process and going to the media. That is really not acceptable. It is really not what labor negotiations are about, and it’s improper.” Spoken like any good socialist dictator, “Your time is my time.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) quipped, “So does this fall under the category of hypocrisy, irony, or poetic justice? All three? Can’t make this stuff up.”

The Blaze’s Aaron Colen noted the obvious economic problems associated with artificially raising the minimum wage, stating, “This situation is an instructive example of the downside of more than doubling the minimum wage. Companies don’t just suddenly get more money to pay employees. They have to make tough decisions; usually either cutting hours, or worse, cutting staff.”

What will the greater impact of this be upon the rest of the Democrat primary field? Clearly, Sanders would love to force the rest of his opponents into spending their campaign cash to match his expensive virtue signal. Nevertheless, we fully expect Democrats will continue to ignore the Congressional Budget Office’s recent report warning that a $15 minimum wage would cost at least 1.3 million jobs, while at the same time raising the cost of living for millions more. Socialism is only for the true believers.