Lots To Say

by James Parks, May 28, 2006

The Bush administration’s tax policies are condemned. Two suggestions are made to help rebuild the union movement. Our AFL-CIO Now readers have lots to say.

Remember, if you have news or comments, send it to us at: blognews@aflcio.org.

Responding to our Labor’s Future posts, Daniel Florkowski is concerned about the future of the union movement. He believes that to build the movement, we need to educate and engage young people:

To keep the labor movement alive and to get it stronger, I believe the focus needs to be on the younger generation that take it all for granted. They need to be schooled in the history of what has been done, the blood that has been shed so they can enjoy the benefits that they have today and that big business enjoys. People need to know some of the good things that unions do in the local communities and around the country—that unions are not just involved in politics and getting raises. We are suffering, being choked to death slowly by big corporations that have nothing but the bottom line in mind.

Jack Burgess, an associate member of the United Steelworkers, says unions are not using mass media enough to spread our message:

I believe that whatever else we do—and there is much to do—we must affect the mass media. To do that, we must continue to build alternative programming, such as “Air America.” We must restore some kind of fairness doctrine, so that when someone like Rush Limbaugh is given an hour of air time, someone like John Sweeney or Ralph Nader must also be given a like amount of time.

Without these kinds of changes, we cannot compete for the hearts and minds of workers. I believe that if we could organize most of America’s workers, we could solve most of America’s economic problems. And if we could organize Mexico, we could solve our border problem.

From Riverside, Calif., Shayne Munger says the Bush administration’s policy of tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for the poor is strangling working people while causing the wealth gap to grow bigger:

How has Congress covered this largess to the wealthy and corporate America? They accomplished this by deliberately dismantling the Democratic social programs of the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society over the last 40 years. Congress, in order to partially cover the huge tax cuts that they have given to the wealthy, passed a budget resolution last year that cut $10 billion in Medicaid programs, $3 billion from food stamps and $7 billion from student loan programs. The House has passed new resolutions this year calling for even greater reductions in these programs.

This growing inequality between the very rich and the bottom half of American households affects every aspect of American life from health care, education, occupational opportunities, housing, energy, transportation, and retirement savings. Those in the bottom of this economic spiral (40 million living in poverty and 45 million without health care) find it harder and harder to move out of their sorry condition as those on the top fight to protect their position and have the assistance of the politicians who pass law after law favoring their interests.

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