It’s no secret that California Governor Gavin Newsom has his sights set on a higher political office than simply being governor of California. Ever since he first emerged on the political scene as mayor of San Francisco it’s been obvious that Gavin has a sense of destiny about his own political future and has been mentally measuring the drapes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue all along.
And given what the current leader of the Democratic Party and his family have gotten up to with… shall we say ‘strong appearances of impropriety’ in pay-to-play scandals, to say the least, it looks like Gavin Newsom might be just the guy to leader the Democratic Party on its current course once Biden shuffles from the scene one way or another.
California’s new $20 minimum wage rule will exempt restaurants that sell bread, handing a lucrative break on wages to the Panera chain and one of Governor Gavin Newsom’s longtime allies https://t.co/fvC7QCfTla
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) February 28, 2024
According to Bloomberg,
Governor Gavin Newsom pushed for that break, according to people familiar with the matter. Among the main beneficiaries is (Greg) Flynn, a longtime Newsom donor whose California holdings include two dozen Panera Bread locations.
The piece notes that Flynn has denied playing a role in negotiations over the bill before citing unnamed sources as confirming that:
Behind closed doors, (Flynn) urged the governor’s top aides to reconsider whether fast-casual chains such as Panera should be classified as fast food, according to people familiar with the discussions.
A prominent Democratic Party figure using his power to help friends and family make or avoid losing money? That doesn’t sound like the Democratic Party we know, does it?!
A lot of people are suggesting how various chains like McDonalds or Burger King (or other stores) could use this to their advantage to avoid paying the higher wages…
Haha, don’t most restaurants offer bread in some capacity?
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) February 28, 2024
Recommended
“Welcome to The Home Depot and Bakery”
— Magills (@magills_) February 28, 2024
Smart move is to start baking and selling bread.
Want a massage but also a loaf of bread?
How about an oil change and a loaf of bread?— Gruler (@gruler) February 28, 2024
But this ain’t Newsom’s first go round doling out boodle to his cronies, he made sure that if you’re not buddies with Gavin Newsom you don’t get an exemption.
For everyone thinking that every restaurant will just start selling bread, there are caveats. The restaurant had to operate an on-premise bakery prior to Sept. 15, 2023 and the bread must be sold as a stand-alone item. pic.twitter.com/0TpQ2PIPCi
— Kelley K (@KelleyKga) February 28, 2024
You almost have to admire the chutzpah of the guy, him and California legislators didn’t even bother to hide what they were doing did they?
Because that makes sense and isn’t blatant cronyism.
🙄🙄🙄— Grateful Calvin (@shoveitjack) February 28, 2024
CA doesn’t have to be a joke, but here it is, being an absolute joke.
— Slender Mandalorian (@SlenderMando) February 28, 2024
I’ve never seen a problem that couldn’t be made worse with the application of government
— Thirteen O’Clock – Todd (@o_thirteen) February 28, 2024
Like Ronald Reagan said, ‘The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help’… Unless you happen to have been friends with the Democrat who runs that government since high school, that is. Then that’s probably pretty great to hear… it’s just bad for everybody else.
I’ve seen some people criticize this as brazen corruption, but it’s actually been the longstanding view of activists that the benefits of raising the minimum wage simply don’t apply to narrowly defined bread producers who started baking before September of last year. https://t.co/OplYTCDBgP
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 28, 2024
People say “oh everywhere will just start selling bread now”
Nope! The corruption is even more blatant than that.
The legislation says you had to have a bakery prior to a certain date and the bread must be stand-alone as an item. Can’t start now. https://t.co/Od5FrG6TPj
— Sunny (@sunnyright) February 28, 2024
Corruption begets more corruption: https://t.co/AhLqjMl1Lg pic.twitter.com/qaRv8LwnDk
— Richard Morrison (@RichardMorrison) February 28, 2024
And we all know what she means by ‘develop political connections’, right? We don’t need to spell this out for you.
__ and circuses https://t.co/FHCmpgBAu9
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) February 28, 2024
California is a very corrupt place. https://t.co/mb1q0DP16x
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 28, 2024
Ah, dishing out exemptions like AB5–but with a bread clause. Policies SO good, they need exemptions. California in a nutshell.
Newsom’s friends don’t have to suffer the consequences of his policies if they ask nicely, but the rest of the Golden State must comply. https://t.co/Wg6kS5vgdV
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) February 28, 2024
Funny how that works, huh? Hard to imagine that a lot of businesspeople who want to keep doing business in California aren’t doing some mental calculations to decide if it would make more economic sense to spread some dough around to keep the California Democrats feeling friendly towards them.
On the one hand you hate to see this kind of corruption taking place anywhere, be it at the federal level or at the state level. But at the same time… California did this to themselves and keeps doing it themselves. They know who Gavin Newsom is, they must know by now what’s been happening to their state for ages now, but they keep electing these people to be their governor and to massive supermajorities in their legislature, so at the end of the day this is on them.
Is there time to correct course? Maybe, but don’t hold your breath waiting for them to do it. Maybe they like living like this.
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