Karl Rove unloads on AOC, Bernie over shorter workweek push: ‘This is idiocy’

BS BULLETIN:

Karl Rove tore into the push from Bernie Sanders and other progressives for a 32-hour workweek with no reduction in pay.
After hearing AOC argue that one job should provide Americans enough to meet their basic needs and have time to rest, Rove joked that she now wants to determine when Americans “must take a nap.”
Rove warned that forcing businesses to pay 40 hours of wages for 32 hours of work would leave many employers needing additional workers to cover the lost hours.

Karl Rove has apparently discovered the progressive answer to America’s economic problems:

Take a nap.

The former Bush adviser unloaded Wednesday after Fox News host Brian Kilmeade played him clips of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discussing American workers and the amount of time they spend on the job.

Sanders explicitly advocated for reducing the standard workweek to 32 hours.

“The sad reality now is that Americans now work more hours than the people of any other wealthy nation,” Sanders said, arguing that a 32-hour workweek is “not a radical thing.”

Kilmeade then played AOC telling a crowd that Americans should be able to support themselves without constantly working overtime.

“We, the people of the United States of America, demand that one job with no need for overtime should be enough for our most basic needs, which also include rest,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

That was enough for Rove.

“Oh, great. I love it. AOC is now going to determine that you must take a nap,” he cracked.

Rove then turned to the economics of Sanders’ proposal: a 32-hour workweek with workers continuing to receive the same pay they currently earn for 40 hours.

His question was simple: Who pays for the missing eight hours?

Rove offered the example of a small plumbing company with six employees. If those employees suddenly work 32 hours while continuing to receive 40 hours of pay, he argued, the company either loses productive hours or has to hire additional people to cover them.

“You can’t produce the same amount of services in 32 hours that you can do in 40,” Rove said.

Then came his verdict: “I mean, this is idiocy.”

Rove added that he has routinely worked more than 40 hours himself and bristled at government dictating how much Americans should work.

AOC did not advocate specifically for a 32-hour workweek in the clip Kilmeade played. That proposal came from Sanders, who joined Democratic Rep. Mark Takano this week in introducing legislation establishing a 32-hour workweek without reducing workers’ pay or benefits.

Sanders argues that advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and productivity should translate into a better quality of life for ordinary workers rather than simply larger profits for corporations and wealthy investors.

Rove sees a considerably less complicated equation.

Eight fewer hours of work + the same paycheck = somebody has to pick up the tab.

MY QUICK TAKE

Only Washington could come up with an economic plan where everybody works less, everybody gets paid the same, productivity magically stays put — and the small-business owner is apparently expected to find the extra money behind the couch cushions.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

1 Comment

Ron Hopkins on September 10, 2026 at 12:02 pm

How about if that stupid, useless, phony, socialist Sanders works 32 hours a week? All of congress doesn’t work 32 hours a week! How would this decrepit slimeball know what work is?