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Hey, Corporate America, You Broke It, Now Help Fix It
Yesterday, President Obama released the details of his fiscal year 2011 budget. To help pay for the job-creation programs to put Americans back to work, Obama proposes ending the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
We extend middle-class tax cuts in this budget, we will not continue costly tax cuts for oil companies, investment fund managers, and those making over $250,000 a year. We just can’t afford it.
The budget also includes a new initiative to crack down on businesses that misclassify their employees as independent contractors in order to evade their responsibilities as employers—also known as evading taxes, among other dodges employers get away with as part of their independent contractor scam.
It’s only fair, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Wall Street and the super rich—who have benefited for years from the Bush economic policies—should pay their far share of the bill to rebuild the economy that they destroyed.
Click here to read his entire statement on the budget.
Darn shame those firms and folks perched high up on the economic ladder might have to pitch in a bit to help the rest of us struggling to keep a grip on the middle-class rungs.
Here’s some budget reaction from other union leaders.
Fire Fighters (IAFF) President Harold Schaitberger says the funds proposed for several grant programs that help communities and states to provide adequate fire and emergency rescue and response staffing, “stands in sharp contrast to the previous administration, which proposed zero funding,” and even tried to kill one of the central programs. Click here for more.
The budget goes a long way to take care of the nation’s retires with increased staffing at the Social Security Administration and a boost in funding at the Veterans Affairs says AFGE President John Gage. On veterans, Gage says:
With an increase in funding of 20 percent since 2009, and with advanced appropriations, the 2011 budget honors veterans by fortifying the world-class medical care they deserve.
While commending the increase in funding as ”essential and necessary for strengthening of our nation’s regulatory agencies,” including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Gage says the proposed 2011 1.4 percent federal pay raise “will do nothing to close the remaining pay gap between federal and non-federal salaries.” Click here to read his entire statement.
The union-environmental coalition, the Blue Green Alliance, says the budget “lays the foundation” for transitioning to a “clean economy that will put Americans back to work.” The group’s Executive Director David Foster says:
This budget includes investments in green jobs training, weatherization and retrofit programs to expand energy efficiency, greater deployment of broadband, smart-grid technologies, high-speed rail and transit, as well as expansion of the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, all of which are crucial to establishing the United States as a global leader in clean energy technologies. The U.S. cannot afford to sit on the sidelines as other countries take the lead in the race for clean energy jobs.
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6 Comments
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Here is a socialist “reality check” for working people on Obama’s budget.
(Link to full article:)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/pers-f03.shtml
Obama’s budget reveals the bankruptcy of American capitalism
3 February 2010
There is one overriding message in the budget proposal released by the Obama administration Monday: American capitalism is in decline and faces national bankruptcy.
The budget forecasts the doubling of the US national debt over the next few years, even on the assumption of a rapid recovery from the financial crisis and slump. It projects that high, long-term unemployment will become a permanent fixture of American life.
….
There is a big dis-connect with this kind of thinking. According to the social contract FDR made with the Capitalists in the 1930′s was that he would protect and enhance a Capialistic Economy in return for jobs, health insurance, and the right to organize. This has not changed. Here sit the fat cats, with public monies by the billions so that they can invest and create jobs, and all they do is sit on the money. This puts the un-employed in a pressure cooker of stress and uncertainty that makes health care costs go through the roof. It also causes the worker to take the first and worst offer for their labor. If we organized the now un-employed
we could be ready for it. We have the skill, experience, reason
and money to do this.
ORGANIZE THE UN-EMPLOYED!!
Wall Street and the super rich created all of the union jobs during the industrial revolution.
Union membership reached its’ peak in 1975 but the end of growth had already started.
In October of 1973 Iranian oil embargo started oil shortages and higher prices. A second oil crisis hit when the Iranian government was overthrown in 1979. Also in 1979 president Carter ended construction of nuclear power plants after the Three Mile Island accident .
In the next five years, 1980 to 1984 unions lost 23.28% of their members. Neither energy nor the unions would ever recover.
The corporations, including big banks, should be broken up into smaller organizations, the way Teddy Roosevelt did it. They are “too big to fail” so we must make them smaller.
The tax code needs to be updated to stop subsidizing Corporate America. Once a business matures (based on revenue, pick a number), no more loop holes in the tax code, just a flat tax. Only small business needs subsidies.
Are there any un-employed workers out there that think they might benefit if the AFL-CIO were to organize you?
Respectfully
Tom Harkins