Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin put President Biden’s Secretary of Labor nominee, Julie Su, on the hot seat this week, grilling her about her lack of qualifications for the position.
It came during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in which the GOP Senator took Su to task for her lack of business experience, saying it showed her “ignorance of what it takes to hire and support the labor force.”
Time after time, she admitted under Sen. Mullin’s questioning that she had never run a business, never employed anyone, never raised capital for a business and never dealt with a worker’s compensation issue.
Partial transcript below:
Mullin: I don’t understand the lack of basic knowledge when this is the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension [Committee]…the lack of people that are running these programs, running the industry of actually understanding what the business is like.
If you don’t have a basic understanding of knowing what it’s like, then how can you relate and truly represent both sides?
For instance, have you ever been an employer of a business?
Su: I have not, Senator.
Mullin: Then you don’t understand what it’s like — how hard it is to sit awake at night trying to figure out how you are going to man a job when you don’t have the people there and you know you’re going to have to do it.
Mullin: Have you ever created and balanced the budget of a business?
Mullin: Have you ever acquired or sold a business?
Su: I have not, Senator.
Mullin: Have you ever had to raise capital in order to launch a business?
Su: I have not, Senator.
Mullin: Have you ever had to provide a quarterly report to shareholders?
Su: Senator, I have not done these things.
Mullin: Have you ever decided which health insurance plan to offer your employees?
Su: I have not chosen a health insurance plan for employees.
Mullin: Have you ever had an employee file for worker’s compensation?
Su: As an employer, no.
Mullin: Do you know what a worker’s comp experience mod is?
Su: I do based on my work in government.
Mullin: But you’ve never had to apply it…to figure out what your profit margins and your bottom line is going to be. Have you ever filed taxes on behalf of a business?
Su: I have not, Senator.
Mullin: Have you ever had to comply with federal regulations as a small business owner?Su: No, sir.
Mullin: Have you ever had your business model threatened by the federal government’s overreach of regulations?
Su: No, Senator.
Mullin: I have, and that is what drove me here today.
Click here to watch a full video of Mullin’s remarks.
Source: press release