Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Interns... Again

Rush Limbaugh: My friends, a new battlefront's opened in the Obama regime's war on America's private sector. Now the Labor department is targeting companies that use unpaid interns.

The point person? Former New York Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith; she practiced targeting businesses in New York before going national. Now, American businesses are being warned: If you make a profit, the odds are you'll be violating federal labor laws by offering unpaid internships.

The Obama regime decrees that six legal criteria must be met for a business to offer unpaid internships, including: the intern cannot "displace" regular paid workers, and -- get this -- the company cannot derive any "immediate advantage" from the intern's activities. Regulators complain that violations are widespread, but they claim it's difficult to mount enforcement efforts because the victims -- the interns -- are too afraid to file complaints; they're afraid it will hurt future job prospects.

The truth is, the regime crackdown could have devastating consequences for youngsters trying to break into the workforce. About 83 percent of graduates do hold internships; up to half of them may be unpaid. So if businesses drop their programs -- rather than risk the wrath of the regime -- it's going to be the interns who will suffer.

Now, we all know that there are intern abuses. We all remember the intern who was used as a human cigar humidor, and left the Oral Office with a blue stained dress. But most private businesses don't operate like a Democrat White House. If they did, they would all be bankrupt... financially and morally.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• Washington Times: Obama Eyes Interns