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Nice Restaurant Chain You’ve Got Here
Powerline ^ | 22 Oct, 2024 | John Hinderaker

Posted on 10/24/2024 6:06:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Too bad if something were to happen to it.

You can tell how badly Trump’s McDonald’s coup worried Democrats by the fact that they immediately threatened the fast food chain. Senators Ron Wyden, Bob Case, and Elizabeth Warren sent this letter to McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski.

I won’t go through it line by line, but here are some observations. The left-wing senators write:

We write with concern regarding increases in fast food prices over the last several years and seeking information regarding McDonald’s pricing decisions.

Prices of every commodity and service have risen sharply over the last few years. It is called Bidenflation, and it was caused by the absurdly-named “Inflation Reduction Act” and other government deficit spending. Government’s greed for endless spending has devastated Americans’ budgets. McDonald’s management had nothing to do with it.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, fast food prices have consistently outpaced inflation, squeezing consumers who for decades were able to rely on restaurants like McDonald’s for a meal at a fair price. However, Americans are now leaving fast food establishments and are increasingly choosing to spend their food dollars on at-home consumption.

I will hazard a wild guess that McDonald’s management is aware of this trend and is doing everything possible to keep prices down.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger tried to blame the company’s menu price increases on inflationary pressures and input costs, but the data tells another story. A recent analysis found that McDonald’s markup (i.e. the difference between the prices consumers pay and the cost of production) was 85% in 2023. McDonald’s operating profit margins were 52% in the same year, the highest of the ten largest publicly traded fast food companies.

These claims are footnoted to this paper by a couple of left-wing activists, the title of which is “Fast-Food Industry Profiteering: Why California Businesses Can Absorb a Higher Minimum Wage.” Author Alí R. Bustamante is described as the “deputy director of the Worker Power and Economic Security program at the Roosevelt Institute.” I can’t find any mainstream source that comes anywhere close to the numbers that these activists assert. In any event, the fast food market is extraordinarily competitive, and any net profit, let alone an above-average one, is a sign of efficient operation....SNIP money.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: bobcase; elizabethwarren; fascism; ronwyden
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1 posted on 10/24/2024 6:06:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber
Government’s greed for endless spending has devastated Americans’ budgets. McDonald’s management had nothing to do with it.
2 posted on 10/24/2024 6:06:35 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

Fascism, by the uber-Fascists Ron Wyden, Bob Case, and Elizabeth Warren.


3 posted on 10/24/2024 6:09:28 AM PDT by kiryandil (Kraft durch Freude! - The Kamunist and The Walzrus )
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To: MtnClimber

The CEO should answer, piss off, it’s nice of your business.


4 posted on 10/24/2024 6:10:18 AM PDT by HonorInPa
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To: MtnClimber

“Inflation Reduction Act”

They spelled production wrong


5 posted on 10/24/2024 6:11:45 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: MtnClimber

Kempczinski should have answered back, “You mind your business and I’ll mind mine”. So Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform. Now, get to dancing and do your own job, Meatheads.


6 posted on 10/24/2024 6:15:50 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Funny how the media handed the ball off to treasonous RINOs to carry Harris across the goal line)
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To: MtnClimber

I’m old enough to remember when Bill Clinton got into his ridiculous looking running duds and JOGGED a few blocks to McDonalds. The fawning press was so amazed. It showed that Bill was just one of “the people.”


7 posted on 10/24/2024 6:16:15 AM PDT by oldplayer
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To: MtnClimber
This is the problem with the government today. They have completely turned the Constitution on its head. They no longer believe they work for the people, that the people are inherently sovereign. No, they believe that the people and corporations work for them, take direction and orders from them, are obliged to answer to them.

McDonald's should tell them all to go piss up a rope.

8 posted on 10/24/2024 6:20:10 AM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: MtnClimber
Democrats' blood feud mentality on display.

It will take more than winning an election.

9 posted on 10/24/2024 6:25:44 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: oldplayer

Saturday Night Live did a skit on that with Phil Hartman as Clinton. In the skit Clinton was explaining how the economy works while taking and eating all the customers french fries.


10 posted on 10/24/2024 6:27:32 AM PDT by 4yearlurker ('Roll his bones over the stones he just a pauper nobody knows.")
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To: MtnClimber

BTTT


11 posted on 10/24/2024 6:27:35 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: MtnClimber
“ fast food prices have consistently outpaced inflation”

This is actually proof positive that we are being lied to about the level of inflation.

12 posted on 10/24/2024 6:28:35 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: 4yearlurker

“Jim, let me tell you somethin’: there’s gonna be a whole bunch of things we don’t tell Mrs. Clinton.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYt0khR_ej0


13 posted on 10/24/2024 6:32:27 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Sicon

they believe that the people and corporations work for them, take direction and orders from them, are obliged to answer to them

The pure definition of fascism they accuse Trump of.


14 posted on 10/24/2024 6:35:55 AM PDT by Mouton (A 150MT hit may not solve our problems now but is a good start. )
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To: MtnClimber

bkmk


15 posted on 10/24/2024 6:38:50 AM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: MtnClimber

McD’s business should be skyrocketing by now with this political persecution now going on.

If I could eat normally, I’d go there for something to eat.


16 posted on 10/24/2024 6:42:17 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”)
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To: Mouton
"The pure definition of fascism they accuse Trump of."

Projection is one of the defining characteristics of the left, along with hypocrisy and dishonesty, of course.

17 posted on 10/24/2024 6:48:43 AM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: MtnClimber

How odd the Dems would go after one of their own, the two largest(think bigly) shareholders of McD are Vanguard and Blackrock, hardly known as conservative icons.


18 posted on 10/24/2024 7:13:55 AM PDT by Mastador1
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To: MtnClimber
”Since the COVID-19 pandemic, fast food prices have consistently outpaced inflation, squeezing consumers who for decades were able to rely on restaurants like McDonald’s for a meal at a fair price.”

The implication behind this statement, in the context of the rest of their screed, is that private companies are somehow slaves that are OBLIGATED to produce their product, and to do it at a price that these dem tyrants deem “acceptable.” It’s the same twisted, supremely entitled thinking that causes them to constantly claim that health care is a “right.” Yet the only way that “right” can exist is if doctors, nurses, etc. essentially become slaves who have no choice but to do the work necessary to deliver this “right.”

The left’s concept of “rights” usually involves someone else being forced to engage in labor to give them a product they want, in the way they demand, while actual rights are given by God and require no action by anyone else. All that actual rights require is for the government to stay out of the way and not infringe upon them. These dem tyrants are literally claiming that they (of course, speaking for “the people”) have a “right” to the labor of others, which IS the definition of slavery. So dems have come full circle and are once again the wannabe slave owners, if in a more nuanced way.

This is exactly the type of demagoguery that Hugo Chavez spewed before he nationalized Venezuelan companies, dooming the Venezuelan people to starvation and abject poverty. Leftists think like children. If they want something (say, fast food at a price they can afford) they always believe the way to get what they want is to use government power to force that outcome. Food too expensive?, well obviously the answer is to pass a law forcing the companies that produce it to lower their prices, duh. Some people are hurting their feelings by criticizing them?, well just pass another law (or go full dictator and use unconstitutional executive action) to ban their speech. Easy peasy.

19 posted on 10/24/2024 7:45:45 AM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: circlecity

The Consumer Price Index neglects food and energy costs, which are the most impactful areas of inflation for consumers. I do not know what the reason for this is.


20 posted on 10/24/2024 7:48:02 AM PDT by jmcenanly (You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” ― Winston)
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