Democrats have managed somehow to slip from a double- to single-digit lead over Republicans in generic congressional ballots – and just in time for the campaign season.
So, what better way to inject life and excitement into the opposition party than to float the idea of federally regulated pay for the CEOs of private companies?
Enter Minnesota congressman and Democratic National Committee deputy Keith Ellison:
Ellison appeared this week on Bloomberg television to discuss his new report showing CEOs generally make more money than the median employee.
Bloomberg’s David Westin asked, “Are you favoring the government actually regulating the relationship between CEO pay and the average worker?”
“I think it is a very good idea, and I think we should start talking about it,” Ellison responded. “This is a broad conversation that needs to, of course, take in policymakers like me,” the congressman said. “But shareholders and investors need to be worried about this too because I do not think this leads to the overall health of the company. I think it takes care of a few people at the tip-top.”
Ellison criticized what he called “exorbitant” salaries for CEOs. He said the differences in pay were “bad and extreme.”
The Democratic congressman also took a page from President Trump’s book and made sure to go after companies specifically for employing offshore labor in favor of American workers.
“Other companies come back and say, ‘Well, what about our workers overseas? They have a lower cost of living,’” Ellison said. “That just means you are offshoring to places where the wages are low, the environmental protections are low, the workers’ rights are low, the human rights are low, so you can make a lot of money.”
It’s fine and well to talk about forbidding American companies investing in operations overseas — as many of them do without eliminating any jobs here at home — but can we go back to the part about federal government wage controls?
