In the “take any good news you can” category, the $15/hr minimum wage proposal was dropped from Democrat’s $1.9T stimulus, but let’s not think it’s dead. Nor is the damage of its proposal not going to be felt, as employers are on notice they need to pursue more automation as labor cost increases will be accelerating in a Biden administration, at least for those firms covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (which many are not). Mr. Biden is only three weeks in his administration, and he has already destroyed any effort to create the unity he alluded to in his campaign and in his inaugural address. This Berean is never particularly interested in what a politician says–only what they do, and Mr. Biden’s party line vote to use budget reconciliation to drive this package through, with no Republican support, is illustrative of both where we are and where we go from here. But the issue I wanted to highlight was an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. Betsy LeRoy, the owner of Pizza by Elizabeth, argued:

I am a staunch supporter of Joe Biden and voted for him to save this country. Now I ask him to save my restaurant from the good intentions of progressive policy makers. We pride ourselves on serving all Delawareans, including the president. Mr. Biden, who at times has frequented our establishment two to three times a week, has been a great and gracious customer. Yet friends can have disagreements. The president and his team may understand Delaware politics, but I’m not sure they understand the difficulties of Delaware restaurants. How else to explain his proposal to raise the minimum wage for our servers and bartenders from $2.23 an hour to $15—an increase of more than 400%—which would be a death knell for our industry?

Now at one level, it’s really nice to see hard-core Democrats “see the light.” Better late than never. But at another level, I’m actually repulsed by Ms. LeRoy. Under what rock has she been hiding to not realize a new Democratic administration was coming for her business? Did she think Mr. Biden’s platform position in favor of a $15/hr minimum wage, dictated by the progressive left, would be jettisoned upon election? Did she not know the progressive left has been salivating for four years to put more regulations on business? How could she possibly be so uninformed? Or even worse. Maybe Ms. LeRoy is OK with the thousands of union workers that Mr. Biden threw out of work by his executive fiat. If others lose their livelihood, it’s ok, since they are part of an evil industry. Besides, we’ll let them make solar panels. Seriously. But the noble pizza industry, my own hard fought business, well that’s different. Or maybe she was simply consumed, like many on the left, with a pathological hatred of Mr. Trump, such that whatever Mr. Biden said, she thought it had to be better than the alternative.

I’m going to choose to believe the former and not the latter–Ms. LeRoy is simply another one of those people that floats along in the abstract ideal of “unity.” I’m glad she see has awakened to the harm progressives would do to her business, and I hope she’ll take that a step further to see the harm it would inflict on many of those that have nothing else. And I welcome her to take a harder look at the many other harmful policies the Biden administration has proposed. Since she is a long time Delawarean, I think it’s great that she supports a beloved customer like Mr. Biden. But that doesn’t mean she should support his harmful agenda.