Numbers Game
I was away from the studio yesterday, travelling to Pella to continue work with folks there on a book project. And I did not even look at my phone from around 8 in the morning until after 5 in the afternoon.
By the numbers…I drove a total of 259 miles…and had 213 emails on my KXEL account waiting for me. Of those, literally half–106–were from the Biden/Harris Administration. They send each one twice–I’ve got to get that taken care of–but my email got 53 distinct emails from the White House in a 9-hour business day alone. And at least another dozen came in the evening.
They’re updates from pool reporters on travel, transcripts from speeches, etc., all designed to feed media material to make the Administration look good.
But frankly, an even higher number yesterday was not mileage or emails…it was the number of “help wanted” signs I saw as I traveled through cities and towns along U.S. Highway 63. From fast food restaurants, to manufacturers like John Deere…convenience stores…ag dealerships…grocery stores–all had signs in windows, across the side of buildings, planted on stakes outside, seeking workers.
When these so-called minimum wage jobs are starting at $12-15 per hour, nearly double the minimum wage, along with a week’s pay for a signing bonus…and yet there are still not enough workers to keep the doors open as much as owners would like…there’s something going on. Maybe the White House would like to send an email on how the policies they support to give free money to score political points is harming the economy.
