Cass Ballenger: “as my colleagues know, while our Olympic athletes may start their day with a bowl of Wheaties, our Democrat colleagues…”

“as my colleagues know, while our Olympic athletes may start their day with a bowl of Wheaties, our Democrat colleagues started the day by trying to serve up a bowl full of balderdash sprinkled with horse feathers. That is what we are trying to spoon out during their speeches on comp time: Distortions, prevarications, and untruths. This is really a simple bill designed to give hourly employees the opportunity to have more flexibility in their work schedule so that, for example, they can better meet the needs of their working family. The bill allows an employee, when the employer agrees, they have to agree together, to take overtime pay in the form of comp time rather than cash wages. The bill does not, I repeat, does not affect the change in the 40-hour workweek. Some of the unions are sending letters, phone calls, saying that it does affect the work week. Under this bill, a worker would still earn overtime in the very same way he or she does by now, by working 40 hours in a 7-day week. In that, this bill would simply allow workers to choose, by agreement with the employer, to receive time-and-a-half comp time instead of wages. Workers in the public sector, State, local, Federal employees, have had the option of taking comp time for many years, and many union members do, too. The bill extends this option to private sector, un-unionized private sector as well. Surveys have shown that there is strong support among hourly employees for having this option.”