Wyden elbows Bynum in the McRibs
One day after Trump worked the fryer, Oregon's senior senator accused McDonald's CEO of gouging customers, but franchisees like Democrat Janelle Bynum, who seeks to join Wyden in Congress, set prices
The day after Donald Trump served supporters at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s restaurant, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to the CEO of McDonald’s, accusing the fast food behemoth of “increasing its menu prices for certain items by substantially more” than the rate of inflation.
Wyden’s fellow Democrat, Janelle Bynum, in a tight race in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, is the owner of four McDonald’s franchise restaurants in the Portland area.
According to McDonald’s and numerous media outlets reporting on fast food price increases in recent years, McDonald’s franchisees, not the central office, set food prices at their independently owned restaurants. Wyden’s letter, which holds forth “Corporate profits must not come at the expense of people’s ability to put food on the table,” did not mention Bynum.
Wyden’s letter was joined by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bob Casey (D-PA). Casey is in a tough re-election fight of his own in Pennsylvania, where Republican Dave McCormick is surging in the polls.
Trump worked Sunday at a McDonald’s in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, one of the Philadelphia suburbs that may well decide Trump’s and Casey’s electoral fate in the Keystone State. Wyden’s letter is dated Monday, and his office issued a press release about it today.
Since Trump’s stint at the fryer and drive-through window, Democrats and some media outlets have scrutinized the brand, pointing out health violations, negative online reviews and, in Wyden’s letter, the pricing of its franchisees.
The website McCheapest.com, created last year, according to The Huffington Post, to track differing prices of Big Macs between different McDonald’s franchises, shows as of early 2023 the franchise owned by Bynum on SE 82nd Street in Portland charged up to 20 cents more for a Big Mac ($4.79) than two restaurants on nearby SE Powell ($4.69 and $4.59). Early 2023 prices are the most recent available on the website.
Bynum is challenging Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer in a contest that could help decide which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives for the next two years.
Wyden, who has served in first the House and then the Senate for a total of 43 years, chairs the powerful Finance Committee and often helps, although perhaps not in this case, the campaigns of other Oregon Democrats.
So the third senator from New York, love child of Tiny Tim and Jar-Jar Binks is now an expert on running Fast Food franchises. Here I thought he was only an expert on running his mouth; who knew
Keep on keeping on, sir. As an aside, Judicial Watch, an NGO watchdog, has sent a notice to the Oregon Secretary of State notifying them of "evident violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, based on their failure to remove inactive voters from their registration rolls." The letter serves as a "pre-suit" notice. There may yet be hope.