Recently, my union brothers, and sisters, and I have already had to accept an increase in the number of hours worked in order to receive any coverage even after repeatedly giving up wage increases in compromise for solid health care. The implications the excise tax has for our next contract negotiation really is frightening.

Again, bobb, I challenge you to make a difference instead of throwing lame bombs from the sideline.

Do you show up to rallies when your union calls? Do you volunteer on behalf of your union in the community? Do you proudly wear your union colors? Do you answer the call to man the phones or help out on neighborhood walks for candidates who support workers issues? Are you indeed part of the solution? Because if you are not, then you are part of the problem with today’s labor movement. Challenge yourself. Challenge your fellow members. Make a difference, or shut the hell up!

This is why I do not support partisan politics. Lets use our brains and elect the best man or women for the job. Not the one that claims they will fight for us. Yeah, that worked well, NOT!

Small businesses with fewer than 50 workers will not be penalized if they opt not to provide insurance.

“Fewer than 50 workers” pretty much covers all those who want insurance and don’t presently have it — individual McDonalds, Burger Kings, etc. workers; restaurant, small grocery & retail store workers; individual hotel chain workers; bank workers, several medical offices and so many more — making this so-called healthcare reform virtually useless in its intent and nothing more than a tax to feed the insurance industry.

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Health-care details have lawmakers crying foul
By Robert Pear
The New York Times
Posted: 01/04/2010 01:00:00 AM MST

WASHINGTON — Early versions of the Senate’s far-reaching health care bill said small businesses with fewer than 50 workers would not be penalized if they opted not to provide insurance. That was before labor unions in the construction industry went to work and persuaded Senate leaders to insert five paragraphs.

Their provision, added to the 2,074-page bill at the last minute, singles out the construction industry for special treatment in a way that benefits union members and contractors who use union labor.

In this one industry, the exemption from the penalty would be much more limited, available only to employers with fewer than five employees. Construction companies with five or more workers would generally have to provide health insurance or pay a penalty — an excise tax of $750 per employee.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, asked: “Why this assault on the homebuilders? I don’t get it.”

Labor unions that have negotiated health benefits for construction workers lobbied for the provision. Without it, they said, small nonunion employers would have an unfair competitive advantage over companies that they say do “the right thing” by providing health benefits to plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers and other workers in the building trades.

The provision was one of many added to the bill as senators rushed to finish the legislation by Christmas Eve. It illustrates the difficulty of establishing uniform national requirements in a country where employers have, over decades, devised myriad arrangements for providing health insurance.

The construction-industry provision is receiving a second look as work begins in earnest this week to resolve differences in bills passed by the Senate and the House to remake the health care system. Other provisions sure to be scrutinized include a tax break for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan in Nebraska; Medicare coverage for residents of Libby, Mont., sickened by a mineral mine; extra Medicaid money for Massachusetts, Nebraska and Vermont; and a special dispensation for a handful of doctor- owned hospitals.

White House officials have generally acquiesced in what they see as a normal part of the legislative process, required to secure votes for a bill with no Republican support.

Republicans complained of “sweetheart deals,” payoffs and kickbacks. But the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., brushed aside the criticism.

“There’s a hundred senators here, and I don’t know if there is a senator that doesn’t have something in this bill that was important to them,” Reid said. “If they don’t have something in it important to them, then it doesn’t speak well of them. That’s what this legislation is all about. It’s the art of compromise.”

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Denver Post

Marko

That would amount to a cut in pay for me—I already pay about a third of my income in taxes. I’m a single, not a homeowner, and I live paycheck to paycheck as it is. When I had chest pains, and was directed to the emergency room, I paid the $100 co-pay—before I was discharged. (My HMO wheels the patient right to the cashier if they’re not admitted.) Where,then, would this tax be levied? On the co-pay? On the employer contribution? On plan usage? I’m a breast cancer survivor left with chronic health conditions; I’m grateful to be alive—but at what cost?

My Canadian friends don’t understand why it’s so expensive to become ill in the USA. I understand that as long as someone is making money—witness the amount of money insurance carriers and pharmaceutical companies spend on advertising alone—those are the special interests that our legislators pay attention to. We can get out the vote, but they(drug companies and insurers) can finance campaigns and are substantially able to outspend unions. Working families need real help now!

We would be staring at one of the most anti-Labor presidents in decades, for starters the Dept. of Labor would be further withered and the NLRB would become more useless than it already has become. Currently, there is hope for those departments.

You can’t clean up the worst mess in our country in 75 years (thanks to Reagan, Clinton[NAFTA] and a couple Bushes) in one year! President Obama was handed a big crap sandwich. And any and all attempts to accomplish anything to help America’s workforce is met with nearly unanimous partisan opposition.

So while I’m sure Rich, Liz, and Arlene would have no trouble taking responsibility, I will take responsibility for completely supporting the election of President Obama here and now and challenge the rest of union members in this country to do the same thing!

Its time to get off the sidelines and get in the game. When President Obama was campaigning he stated “unions aren’t the problem. Unions are the solution!” Lets make him right! It starts at home!