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So much for all of that rhetoric about small businesses being the engine of our economy and job growth. After the news this week that Wal-Mart has decided to pull back its efforts to open a store in Brooklyn, New York amidst protests and political pressure, the talking heads on Fox's "business block" decided this was a perfect opportunity for another round of union bashing -- which is pretty much their favorite thing to do on Saturday mornings. However, panel member Dagen McDowell may have let one slip when she decided to attack "mom and pa" stores as well.

When it was pointed out by her fellow guest, Adam Lashinsky on Fox' Cavuto on Business this Saturday, that how many small businesses are going to end up being shut down if Wal-Mart is allowed in ought to be part of the debate, McDowell wound up the segment by saying that "mom and pa need to get over it."

And of course even though all of them had plenty of time to complain about how terrible those evil union thugs were for keeping that wonderful "job creator" Wal-Mart out of Brooklyn and for stomping on the hopes of all of those poor people out there just dying to get one of those minimum wage jobs, the true cost of the way Wal-Mart does business with shoving their costs onto the taxpayers never came up.

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From part of Fox's "business block" on Saturday mornings, Cashin' In, the topic for discussion was whether or not eight states raising their minimum wage on January 1st is going to help or harm the economy. Naturally a couple of the panelists, Tracy Byrnes and Gary Kaltbaum claimed that it was going to do damage and advocated for eliminating the minimum wage altogether and just letting the "free market" take care of itself.

I'd like to see either of those two try to actually live off of minimum wage for a year. Panelist Wayne Rogers was ambivalent and didn't think the modest increase of 28 to 37 cents per hour when we're only talking about eight states was going to have any impact on the economy at all.

The one dose of sanity was the final panel member, David Mercer, who actually brought up the fact that we've got record income disparity and a wealth gap that's equivalent to China, Sri Lanka and Rwanda. That didn't seem to phase Byrnes one bit who was more concerned about "eating into businesses bottom line."

Apparently she doesn't share that same concern for families who are so poor they can't afford to eat at all.