During Saturday morning's edition of the Cashin' In program on the Fox News Channel, host Eric Bolling called for people in the military to be paid far more than the $15 per hour minimum wage “burger flippers” are looking for -- even though it means he'll be attacked by “the liberal posse” of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher.
While neither of the Comedy Central hosts have yet to respond, a blogger at the Crooks and Liars website charged that Bolling -- who also serves as a co-host of the channel's weekday program The Five – “has to resort to making stuff up out of whole cloth to get his digs in these days.”
Bolling began the program's final segment -- which was entitled Wake Up, America!” -- by stating that while “we're all about the money,” but whenever “I call out food stamp abuse or minimum wage rage, Colbert, Stewart and the rest of the liberal posse jump down my throat, claiming I don't care about the takers.”
“So I did a little math,” he said before noting:
We've been covering the union-backed push for fast-food workers to get a $15 minimum wage. That comes to $31,200 per year, but what do these entry-level employees do for their salaries and, more importantly, how much do we pay our military for entry-level? The numbers are staggering.
We pay “E1s,” entry-level military personnel, $1,417 per month. That comes to $8.86 per hour, almost half of what the burger-flippers are demanding. Men and women who are being shot at and targeted for roadside bombs are getting paid half of what the French Frier wants.
“Check it out,” he continued. “Fast-food job description: Work the cashier, make sure the special sauce is on the burger, 15 bucks an hour.”
For his 'military job description,” Bolling showed a video from the Military.com website of soldiers engaged in a shootout with enemy forces. “Eight bucks an hour,” he noted.
The host then returned to the “fast-food job description” by stating: “Sweep the restaurant, refill the napkin holders, 15 dollars an hour.”
Bolling provided more of the “military job description,” which consisted of another video from Military.com showing troops shooting at enemy combatants. “Eight bucks an hour," he repeated.
The Fox News host then asserted:
Get the picture? It's time to wake up, America. The minimum-wage debate shouldn't be over the Big Mac server, it should be over the big gun protectors of our freedom.
We should be upping military pay by multiples rather than debating whether Johnny should get 15 bucks an hour to screw up my order at the drive-through.
“Why don't we figure out a minimum wage for fast-food workers, then multiply it by 100 because that's what the military actually earns?” he asked.
“I have to be careful, though,” Bolling noted. “Every time I suggest we spend more money on troops, Colbert, Stewart and [HBO host Bill] Maher go on the attack.”
“How dare we spend taxes on those guys when the poor fast-food workers have to charbroil?” he inquired. “We have our priorities backwards thanks to the liberal goon squad, the Moe, Larry and Curly of the left.”
While none of the liberal comedians have responded to Bolling's comments, Heather – a blogger from the CrooksAndLiars.com website -- came rushing to their defense.
“Fox's Eric Bolling still hasn't figured out that every time he picks a fight with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, he loses,” she stated.
“It looks like Bolling has to resort to just making stuff up out of whole cloth to get his digs in these days,” she added without providing any proof about her claim.
Of course, this isn't the first time Bolling has clashed with the hosts of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.
Back in March, Jon Stewart hammered the Fox host for having an “apparent fixation” with recipients of food stamps.
The comedian said it was “reasonable” for Fox to expose government waste, but that was not why he was making fun of the network: “What we were ridiculing was the way you exaggerate the scope of public assistance abuse through random, often unprovable anecdotes.”
Two months later, Colbert pointed to a mistake Bolling made while claiming the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi came before the 2011 killing of terror mastermind Obama bin Laden.
Instead, the comedian criticized co-host Dana Perino, who corrected him regarding the dates: “Bolling was pulling a passionate, heart-felt conspiracy theory straight out of his ass. You don’t interrupt a man mid-yank."
“So Dana, c’mon, give your colleagues a break,” he noted. “They’ve been talking about Benghazi for 20 months. You can’t expect them to remember the exact date it happened.”
The feud between Bolling and the “Three Stooges” from the left will undoubtedly continue. At least Bolling doesn't fall back on vulgarity while making his points.
