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They may be party animals when chugging $8,204 worth of booze but, after the hangover is over, the staff at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes back to being their ugly anti-worker selves.
Seems that some 100 or so Chamber of Commerce staff recently ran up an $8,204 tab at The Exchange, a sports bar within staggering distance from the Chamber’s architecturally ever-so ponderous Washington, D.C., headquarters. The tab included 155 pitchers of beer, 37 bottles of beer, 208 mixed drinks, 111 shots, 43 margaritas and 11 open bottles of liquor.
And when the bosses got the tab, they weren’t happy. After all, the image of Chamber staffers soaking in thousands of dollars worth of Red Bull and pitchers of vodka that sources say the party-goers ordered, strays a bit from the pin-striped image the Chamber sells its members. And then there’s that problem of justifying such a large, booze-soaked expense to its frugal dues-paying members out in DeKalb, Ill., or Anaheim, Calif.
So, when confronted with the bill, the staff did what the Chamber always does—blame workers. That’s right. The Chamber now is saying The Exchange waitstaff was tipped too much.
Should have thought of it. The problem is not the thousands of dollars the Chamber of Commerce staff wasted on getting wasted, it’s the 18 percent tip for the waiters and waitresses that’s the real crime.
This, after all, is the group that fights every boost in the minimum wage—like the federal increase that finally got passed after minimum wage workers received no pay increase for 10 years. The same bunch of lobbyists that pushed the Senate to approve the Bush nominations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court. The same cabal took a big role in promoting Bush’s scheme to privatize Social Security and in killing legislation to expand children’s health care through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Such influence does not come cheap. The Chamber spent the most money in lobbying expenditures in the past decade, with General Electric Co. ranking second at $161 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
If the Chamber had its way, the waitstaff who put up with a mass of drunken fools dripping with a massive sense of entitlement should serve the rich for less than minimum wage. And be happy about it.
Just like the rest of America’s workers.
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Zed is dead…long live Zed and the gods of history and irony!!
Jesus, ya can’t make this stuff up…thanx Tula, this is priceless…watchin the whole fuckin’ fascist tent fall down is almost fun until we think about the hundreds of thousands of innocent souls murdered before we could get here…sigh, where is my country…I want my country back!!!
Most every eating and drinking establishment these days puts a prominent notice that for groups over a certain size, there will be an automatic adding of the “tip,” usually 18% but sometimes as high as 25%.
And most of those are at a lot lower than 100. More like 5 or 6 is large enough to trigger the automatic tip.
So is the Chamber saying that “Hey, not only are we a bunch of drunks, we have zero reading comprehension as well.”
Did the Chamber foot the bill for the hookers as well? With a bunch of drunk Rethugs you know the hookers couldn’t have been far away.
And in reading the link for Politico at the $8,204, it seems The Exchange is no exception to this, having a prominent notice with their online menu that six people triggers the 18% auto tip.
And I’d wager the Auto tip info is also prominently displayed at the physical location as well.
we already do – at $2.13/hr, no benefits, no legal protection in the event of injury, and we pay taxes on all of it !
kiss my narrow blue butt
ps – I really love what I do. but if mr cbl did not have medical coverage I’d be caged in a cube somewhere – makin a helluva lot less per hour
okay, so it’s all waitress, all the time -
btw – in most states if anyone of these boozehounds got in to an accident on the way home, that greedy waitstaff would be held liable – yeah, so much for personal responsibility
There is an automatic tip? What a novel idea it should be law.
Well as Tula so eloquently put it:
I’m sure all the staff went back to work or slept it off in the office in order to avoid endangering anyone else on the DC streets that evening. /s
Given that we’re talking about DC here, perhaps the problem is calling the 18% a “tip.” Perhaps is we translate this into DC, GOP, Chamber of Commerce language, they won’t be so upset.
In DC terms, think of this as a no-bid cost-plus contract.
The server “purchases” from the bar the 155 pitchers of beer, 37 bottles of beer, 208 mixed drinks, 111 shots, 43 margaritas and 11 open bottles of liquor, and totals it up. She or he then passes along that charge plus 18% to the customers.
Just like Halliburton, KBR, and the rest of the DC Contracting Class.
Nobel-winning theory from Milton Friedman says that when a person knows his income will increase, he’ll spread out those gains over the rest of his life and not spend it all at once. In the case of a $1 minimum wage hike, annual spending should increase by about $400.
But that grossly understates what actually goes on, write economists Daniel Aaronson, Sumit Agarwal, and Eric French in a new Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago working paper.
The trio examined what happened to the consumption and debt levels of households that experienced either a federal or state minimum wage hike.
First, they found that spending didn’t increase when the legislation was passed, but when it went into effect. This goes against Friedman’s theory, which assumes that a person will change spending as soon as he learns of his future income stream.
Second, spending increased by a whopping $800- to $1,000-per-quarter compared with a $250 increase in pay as a result of a minimum wage hike. This means that debt levels also rose.
Who do you think made up the 100 in the group
Most establishments place an “automatic tip” if it’s a group over a certain size. I’ve seen it as low as five and as high as ten for it to be triggered. But it’s a good idea as the large groups are going to be a lot more demanding and if there’s a large crowd, then it becomes real easy for the members of the group to ahide and ssume they can get out from under paying the tip.
with General Electric Co. ranking second at $161 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
and that doesn’t count the cost of NBC or MSNBC.
Here is the link
http://seekingalpha.com/articl…..-effective
It seems that maybe reality is not what the anti minimum wage Chamber of Commerce wants it to be to justify their own greed.
Ah, a “Cost plus Award Fee” contract? Of course. And that is exactly the phrasing that the Chamber would understand.
I got to hang out at better places:) Still an automatic tip is a good idea even if its one customer. Too many Cheapos trying to score a free ride!
Hi ya, Tula;
I can see the headline now:
Soused Louses Defend Bender,
Chamber, potted, decry Excess
Tippage as Downfall, claiming
too much uppityness of
minion class intoxicated with
expectations of fair wages
for serving business sages …
Give ‘em hell, Tula!
;~D
In Arizona Waite staff are exempt from ANY minimum wage, they calculate it like this …… Base pay + Tips = Minimum Wage…… know this because I had kids working in food service. Unfortunately when you have a bunch of cheap bast*ards who don’t tip worth a dang then they DO MAKE the minimum wage…..
My youngest son was working at a high end restaurant where his base was $2.38… we calculated it and he never made anything equal to the minimum wage. Also AZ has few or little labor laws, regulation or enforcement.
18% is pretty lean for a cost plus award fee. They got away cheap. First off if KBR was in charge they would have charged for a lot of booze that wasn’t delivered and then more like 30% fee.
Have you seen their business channel its like a constant GOP commercial warning about Obama and taxes.
Never mind that if McCain keeps the war going and doesn’t pay the national debt then we got taxes with interest.
Plus the bigger the debt gets sooner or later interest rates will rise because people will doubt that we can pay. Just like peope with bad credit pay more for home loans.
Which means McCain will cost us more money than Obama who wants to pay now while interest rates are still cheap.
Long ago, I did restaurant work, and had almost that exact conversation with a table full of govt contractors. We all were in stitches, as one of them started to rewrite our menu for us in the language of contracts and proposals.
As I recall, they left a 15% tip on the company credit card (the company had a set tip policy), but then folks tossed in some extra from their own pockets to bring the tip up to about 25% because the “cost-plus” conversation had been so much fun.
Actually, it would depend heavily on how the contract was structured. My last Fed contract I worked on was a Cost Plus Award Fee with the Fee set at 10%. Where we made out was that we got fee on ALL costs, including travel expenses and subcontractor costs.
Our first fee period (every six months) we graded at 75%. Every period after that for five plus years, we graded no lwer than 95%.
Yes, this was a consulting company, why would you have to ask?
Don’t forget CNBC!!
And the water would have been contaminated.
CNBC sucks!! Cramer is an ass. Kudlow is a partisan hack. Maria B. practically orgasms on air when the market takes off. It’s usually pretty bad.
Who are those people
Not sure about Cramer other than he’s a screamer who breaks his own arm patting himself on the back.
Larry Kudlow is a cocaine addict who has stated that folks go on unemployment so that they can have a “paid vacation.” Amongst other right wing themes.
And Maria Bartiromo is the original “Money Honey.”
Now I know why I don’t watch CNBC
True Cramer is their best stock picker which says something bad about their hiring.
Kudlow and Maria love to link Obama to higher taxes but considering the education level of their audience and Bush’s economic approval ratings one wonders if the MSM has blown their Cred.
Lying to educated people who are losing money and have access to other sources of news and lots of free time during the day to watch tv or double check Maria’s facts is dumb.
People motivated by losing money will double check facts and when inflation and the devaluing of the Dollar are taken into account, never mind the looses incurred after buying TV stock picks.
Well my guess is that CNBC viewers who stay home and watch are also answering the phone and answering pollsters questions about the economy, bad propaganda is having an opposite effect!
Bush is less popular on the economy than in general I think I will call this the CNBC effect. Or Bad Propaganda has Opposite the intended effect once the media format or person has lost their Cred.
No on-air cable personality is going to risk a future job at Fox News by speaking the truth now about Bush, the Republics, or Obama.
Sorry OT — From Murray Waas at HuffPo:
“The Justice Department investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys has been extended to encompass allegations that senior White House officials played a role in providing false and misleading information to Congress, according to numerous sources involved in the inquiry.
The widened scope raises the possibility that investigators will pursue criminal charges against some administration officials, and recommend appointment of a special prosecutor.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..17548.html
More future FAUX news employees
I feel sorry for the wait staff – getting only 18% to put up with 100 drunks drinking on someone else’s money. They are the worst kind of customer.
And drunk Republicans, at that.
OT but I found this link at Cheers & Jeers at the Orange Satan. Thought provoking and fun to read.
Ooooo! I need to pester my paper to add this!
OT Guy in FL arrested for threatening to kill Obama. Had multiple weapons; used racial epithets
linky?
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Dugg
Amen to that. And since they were Repubs, I’m sure they were only drinking top shelf stuff (again, on someone else’s tab).
Thank You.
“Bartender – a round for the house! It’ll pay for itself by deducting from the unnecessarily large tip for the waitstaff.”
155 pitchers of beer
1,727 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen SouthernDragon:
We here in the greater Twin Cities metro area have been readin Garrison’s columns fer awhile…he’s one a the best my generation has ta offer and he’s offered a lot ta all of us in this country. We GOT some writers and artists on this part a the formerly frozen tundra…I hope everyone in the country gets ta read his stuff.
KEEP THE FAITH AND DON’T LET THE BASTARDS INTA YER YARD!!
New Gorenfeld about what’s going on in Ohio and the election.
“155 pitchers of beer
on the wall, 155 pitchers of beer
take one down, pass it around,
154 bitcher of peers on the wall.”
Zed is dead…
long live Zed and the gods of history and irony!!
periodAccording to the likked Affidavit, armor piercing ammo is legal in FL. (Item 11, pg. 5)
likked=linked
Hiya, neuro!
does anyone know whether the 18 percent add-on tip all gets passed on to the serving staff?
if so, does the establishment deduct from that 18 percent the $2.00 per hour or whatever that they pay the workers?
sometimes the language on the add-on tip warnings sounds a little loose–they say it is for “service” or whatever–which makes one wonder whether it all gets to the employees.
hi, wangdang
you’re about four threads late on that subject… :~)
if the service was good (not great, but up to normal standards) the Chamber should have tipped the workers 20 percent
they should not be complaining about an 18 percent mandatory tip unless the service was bad
I say this as one who once depended on tips for a living
Did I miss a likking thread?
Dayam!
I always tip 20%. Minimum.
toe sucking (Dick Morris). close enough.
“the large groups are going to be a lot more demanding”
I would agree with that, from experience
not to mention the large, hammered groups
Appears in the local rag on occasion. He gets some great digs in on PHC, though. Been a listener since the beginning on public/community radio. Get it Sat evening repeats Sun afternoon.
Uh, ummmm… uh… yeah, saw that, uhhhh….
(no comment)
*g*
Likkerd likkers likking like lazy lizard liking laggards lacking lager, laboriously lugging luggage lockers looking lamely lachrymous, laconiciy lamenting little lagniappes?
What ever is this world coming to, punaise?
;~D
Was a waitress in a truck stop one summer, hardest work I ever did except for raising teenagers. To blame the workers? Typical.
A heads up to SoCal folks: Vineyard Nat. Bank under heavy pressure by feds. Remove uninsured deposits.
“L” if I know… :~)
I read somewhere that current and former waitpeople are the best, most consistent tippers.
Them what ‘know’, appreciate.
Swopa’s here
*g*
Lagniappe is a lovely word.