SEARCH
Got a Question for the Presidential Candidates? Submit it Today |
|
 |
|
Want to help shape the debate in the 2008 presidential election? Want the candidates to hear from a real live union member working man or women, not some network talking head or mainstream media “pundit”? Here’s your chance.
Head on over to the AFL-CIO’s Working Families Vote 2008 website and submit your question for the Democratic candidates scheduled to take part in the AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum in Chicago on Aug. 7.
Do you want specific answers about candidates’ health plans or blueprints for rebuilding American manufacturing? Maybe global warming or the war in Iraq are your top concerns. Or do you want to know what the presidential hopefuls plan to do about job-exporting unfair trade policies or how they will guarantee workers freedom to join unions.
AFL-CIO union members can submit the questions and all visitors to the Working Families Vote 2008 site may vote for their favorite question—but just once a day. Questions will be accepted in two rounds, now through July 20 and between July 21 and July 29. The winning questions will be selected from the top five vote-getters from each round and submitted to the moderator for the nationally televised forum.
Many of the candidates have appeared individually at several AFL-CIO town hall meetings this spring and early summer (click here, here, here, here, here and here.) In addition, they have made individual and group appearances at other union conventions and forums.
The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed any candidate for president, held these town hall forums as part of an intensive six-month program to engage union members and their families nationwide in the AFL-CIO’s presidential endorsement decision-making process.
9 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
My question to all of the candidates minus Kucinich, is why will you not support H.R. 676 the bill that would give all of us universal, single payer healthcare?
Do you have a plan to raise the minimum wage to over $9 an hour with an annual cost of living increase? What are the details of your plan?
According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 residents of the U.S. will die this year because they cannot afford the medical care or prescription drugs they need to stay alive. Same thing in 2006, 2005, 2004, etc., etc. In the past decade we’ve lost 180,000 people. That’s 60 times the number killed in the Twin Towers.
The solution is HR 676. Will you co-sponsor the bill and thus the American people, or are you going to continue to support the health care industry and with it its view that patients are little more than market shares? Are you willing to wage a war on the terror of health care denial?
(Note: Kucinich is the only candidate that support HR 676.)
With the acrimony dividing the country today between the political parties, how do you propose to fill the chasm so that members of Congress and the President actually WORK TOGETHER for the betterment of the country?
-How will you correct for the inequities in our trade agreements and policies with other nations to achieve trade balance and a level playing field?
-How will you bring manufacturing and high value manufacturing jobs back to the US?
-How would you discourage US companies from outsourcing manufacturing and services to other countries?
-What will you do to reform our education system to meet the employment needs of our country today and in the future?
-With diminishing resources, increased stress on the environment and recreational open space, to maintain the quality of life we have we must stabilize our population. What will you do to limit immigration and stabilize our population?
-What will you do to help immigrants assimilate to our culture?
-Will you enforce immigration laws?
Have any of you got plans to increase the earned income limit while simultaneously rolling back the tax breaks for the richest Americans and corporations? Also, it is becoming increasingly difficult to become a teacher. More and more is being demanded of us such as further education, continuing education and tests. Yet we still receive substandard wages. So low that we cannot afford to buy a home in most major metropolitan areas. What willl you do to provide teachers w/ a liveable wage and provide loan forgiveness programs for those working in the public school system?
Will you call for the Taft-Hartley Act to be repealed?
Which one of you have the guts to attack to resolution the Plague that health care systems has laid at the feet of the American People? I’m not talking about a co-pay system, but a universal care system that does not just benefit the Wealthy! The candidate that has the gumption to act on this will be required to demonstrate this commitment during the campaign, and not just pay it “lip service” to get my vote.
The AFL-CIO should not endorse ANY candidate for president nor should it give money to any DEMOCRATIC PARTY candidates. Why? The major candidates are already bought out by TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS from corporate donations and thus have already BOUGHT THE CANDIDATES. Labor must not waste union dues money simply throwing more money at Obama or Hilliary. Or even Dennis Kucicinich as he is a party loyalist, caved in on the last election. SO WHAT TO DO? PLEASE READ BRIEF ARTICLE, WITH ONE PARAGRAPH ON TWO VITAL THINGS LABOR MOVEMENT MUST DO TO SURVIVE AND REGAIN LEADERSHIP! Thank you. Jerry Wells
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DUMP THE DEMOCRATS! UNITE INTO A NEW THIRD PARTY NOW!
We the people, opposed to the destruction of the planet and it’s peoples, now atomized and powerless in “grass roots” and “special interest” groups, must unite our efforts and resources into a new party to replace the corrupt Democratic Party! A new party that rejects corporate funding in order to end the corporate plunder of the federal government.
A new party explicitly opposed to the Project for the New American Century. Opposed to unending war for profit and power. Cut the military budget by 50%, shut down the 700 military bases around the world. Re-instate taxes cut by Bush gang.
A new party that commits the entire resources of the country to end global warming, end imperialist wars, implements true non-profit universal health care. promotes mass transportation, develops renewaable energy, and produces the essentials for human survival.
A new party that promotes an economy that works towards fulfilling the economic needs of all the people, not just to profit a tiny minority of super wealthy. No more people living on the streets! No more hospitalized people being dumped into the streets when they have no money or health insurance! (See the film SICKO)
A new party to unite all of the oppressed people of this country. A new party that cuts across all the false social and cultural divisions that keep us forever powerless (racial, ethnic, age, language, etc.). A new party to unite us against the unending destruction of peoples and planet.
A SOCIALIST HUMANIST PARTY to promote the end of gangster capitalism, run-amok capitalism, which is supported by both Democratic and Republican parties.
A new party to support the labor movement and all working people. We urge the labor movement to stop supporting the Democratic Party (already besotted by corporate money), and to focus its precious resources to fund a new national radio and television network. By being on the air 24 hours a day the labor movement can provide the latest news, information, education and current affairs analysis desperately needed by all working people. This effort, combined with the formation of the new party, will be a bold step towards reviving the organized labor movement.
For years we have listened to radio programs like DEMOCRACY NOW! that has discussed with numerous “grass roots” groups desperately struggling to make a positive change in society. Anti-war protest groups, civil rights groups, union struggles, affordable housing groups, teachers unions, health care access, seniors about Social Security, have involved millions of people. Now is the time to unite the energy and resources of the people into a new party.
The new party provides a means of uniting the “special interest” agendas of each group into the platform of the new party. The new party candidates, selected from the various individuals and groups, would become the candidates representing their cause and the new party. The new party will contest for office at every level of government in order to take power. The new party will provide the new leadership and new programs this country desperately needs.
There is still time before November 2008 elections to start this process. Even the announcement and preparation for a founding convention of such a new party will shock both Democrats and Republican incumbents. They will know that their days are numbered!
The needs of all previous “minority” and “special interests” people now become the platform of the new party representing the vast majority of people. Can the existing activists of so-called “minority” and “special interest” groups overcome their existing powerlessness, and link up with each other to start this new party?
This all-inclusive struggle will attract millions of atomized working people, often non-voters and uninvolved people, who have been atomized, exploited, brain-washed by corporate media and ultimately destroyed by gangster capitalism.