Half of NYC Council to Walmart: Stop making “dangerous” charitable contributions
We’ll call this “Stuck on Stupid: NYC Edition” – via the NY Post (hat tip):
More than half the members of the City Council have fired off a letter to Walmart demanding that it stop making millions in charitable contributions to local groups here.
Twenty-six of the 51 members of the Council charged in the letter that the worldβs biggest retailerβs support of local causes is a cynical ploy to enter the market here.
βWe know how desperate you are to find a foothold in New York City to buy influence and support here,β says the letter, obtained by The Post and addressed to Walmart and the Walton Family Foundation.
βStop spending your dangerous dollars in our city,β the testy letter demands. βThatβs right: this is a cease-and-desist letter.β
Last week, Walmart announced that it distributed $3 million last year to charities here, including $1 million to the New York Womenβs Foundation, which offers job training, and $30,000 to Bailey House, which distributes groceries to low-income residents.
Walmart, which has been thwarted by union-backed opposition for more than a decade, said the handouts βcan make a difference on big issues like hunger relief and career development.β
The retail giant said its business agenda βaligns with supporting the local organizations that are important to our customers and associates.β
But Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito called the donations βtoxic money,β and accused Walmart of waging a βcynical public-relations campaign that disguises Walmartβs backwards anti-job agenda.β
Hot Air’s Erika JohnsenΒ provides a partial transcript of an interview Fox News’ Neil Cavuto did yesterday withΒ NYCΒ Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer in which Van Bramer tries to defend his stance:
BRAMER: Walmart has a history of abusing its workers and profiting on the backs of hardworking men and women. β¦ I think that where the [charitable donations] come from and where the money has been accumulated matters.Β β¦
CAVUTO: If you are a New York City resident and youβre paying through the nose for everything from milk and coffee to bread to drugs, whatβs wrong with a big-box retailer like Walmart coming in and offering you $4 prescription drugs, offering consumers in this city who could surely use a break, a break?
BRAMER: I donβt think you have to choose between having a retailer that offers competitive prices for its good and a retailer that treats its workers well. β¦ When Walmart comes into a city, they take more than they give.
CAVUTO: Do you know how many people apply for the roughly 200 positions that the typical Walmart offers? 8,000.Β 8,000.
BRAMER: It doesnβt mean that those are good jobs.
Dontcha just love it? Β Walmart is engaged inΒ a number of things here that liberals normally would be over the moon about: They provide low cost prescription drugs and other goods and services to residents who need them. They employee hundreds of thousands of people with steady jobs. Β They donate millions to charities that help minorities and working families. Β But because it’s not the “right” kind of jobs – i.e., union jobs with a “living wage”, they aren’t “good enough” for the community and therefore they should stop doing all of it – stop providing low cost goods, decent paying Β jobs, and generous contributions to charity. Β The liberals who signed onto this letter to Walmart would rather citizens go without the low-cost prescriptions they need, be out of work and on unemployment, and have local charities have to turn people away all over their hatred of capitalism as demonstrated by Walmart.
And as far as Walmart trying to “buy” influence among NYC’s politicos, since when did New York Democrats EVER have a problem with a donor supposedly trying to “buy” their way into the good graces of local and state governments?
If this isn’t a classic example of the warped, chillingly controlling nature of the liberal Democrat mindset, I don’t know what is. Β Disturbing.