January 17, 2017

Watch as the Kentucky Speaker of the House Jeff Hoover stumbles around and fails to answer even the most basic questions about why one of the first actions the legislature took was to pass draconian right-to-work laws in Kentucky.

Even when he's confronted by host Matt Jones about the fact that wages drop in right-to-work states after that legislation is passed, he has no explanation.

"Let's be real. The reason the Koch brothers and the Chamber of Commerce want right-to-work laws is because they know it will make jobs available in that state that will cost less than jobs that potentially have unions, right?," Jones asked.

Hoover replied, "But, but...if you create jobs, you are expanding your tax base."

Because expanding the tax base matters to people who can't pay their bills why?

Jones pressed, "If you're someone who doesn't have a job, you might see right-to-work as a benefit. But if you're someone who has a good-paying job, how is it a benefit for those people?"

"Again, you're comparing apples to oranges. What I have studied and what others have presented to me is those people making x doing this type of work those wages don't go down," Hoover claimed.

He conceded, "But when new companies come in, yeah, maybe the starting wage or the average wage is less."

The final segment of this interview is hilarious. After getting Hoover to say he's not anti-union, Jones asked him why he wants to also bar unions from making political expenditures. Pointing out that union dues are now voluntary, Jones noted that not paying dues would be how employees make their choice on the political front too.

"I think you've had it both ways here," Jones said.

After conceding the point, Hoover explained that they believe barring unions from making political expenditures will create jobs, which has absolutely zero to do with shutting down union members' right to speech.

Jones came back at him, asking, "To me, that's a union-buster. Because once you've said I voluntarily don't have to give money, how can you then look at people and say for those of you who are voluntarily giving money, you can't give them to political groups?"

His answer is...interesting, as is his claim that in right-to-work states union membership is going up.

The bottom line here is that the Kochs and other fossil fuel interests want to keep pay low in states they control, like Kentucky. So they passed some of the most onerous, worker-suppressing legislation ever seen, thanks to ALEC and their billionaire participants in order to squash workers' rights while elevating profits.

Protip for the Kochs: When you buy politicians, supply them with some decent talking points about the crap legislation you want them to pass. This guy was pathetic.

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