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Trumka: Creating Jobs Is Best Way to Fix Deficit |
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The best way to reduce the growing federal deficit is to create 10 million jobs now—the number of jobs needed to close our jobs deficit—not to cut vital programs such as Social Security and Medicare, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
President Obama yesterday signed an executive order creating an 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to propose ways to reduce the growing national debt. Click here to read the executive order.
Trumka cited data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that most of the deficit over the next 10 years will come from the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the rich, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, spiraling health care costs and the recession.
The main driver of the recent increases in deficit projections is worsening economic conditions—in short, the present deficit crisis is largely a symptom of the jobs crisis.
Solving the jobs crisis and the deficit will require large amounts of public investment in the short term, which should be paid for in future years by taxing Wall Street, Trumka said. Read the full statement here.
Also, it is critical that the newly appointed commission not focus on cutting entitlements, Trumka said. The problem with perennial proposals for entitlement commissions and deficit commissions is that they are too often premised on the mistaken assumption that short-term stimulus and entitlement spending are the root causes of burgeoning budget deficits. But that is not the case, he said.
Social Security is fundamentally sound and does not contribute meaningfully to our long-term deficit. With the decline of defined-benefit pensions, the sudden loss of retirement savings for millions and the dramatic increase in economic uncertainty, strengthening Social Security’s core guarantee of retiring with dignity is now more important than ever.
Problems with Medicare financing are a symptom of the larger problem of rising health care costs and can be solved by comprehensive health care reform, not benefit cuts, he added.
Commissions have been, and can be, serious and useful mechanisms to grapple with difficult problems. But the true test of this commission’s success will be whether it helps fix our budget deficits by attacking the jobs deficit, or whether it makes our budget problems worse by sacrificing jobs and urgently needed long-term public investment.
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There are several obvious actions the AFL-CIO and Mr. Trumka should vigorously pursue to promote the interests of organized labor and all working people. Despite the crises facing all working people, Mr. Trumka continues to blindly support the very policies that are destroying organized labor and working people.
1. Announce immediately to repudiate Obama’s “HEALTH CARE REFORM” legislation is totally inadequate, regardless of any “public opiton”. This legislation, being prepared by industrylobbyists and corrupt politicians, is so expensive it expands corporate greed, and does not cover everyone.
2. Announce that the AFL-CIO leadership and Mr. Trumka, following the mandate of the covention resolution, is supporting “Meicare for All” legislation to exclude the gangster corporations (who are today raising their premiums another 30 percent in anticipation of future restrictions). “MEDICARE FOR ALL” leglislation would dramatically cut the healthcare cost to the nation by more than 50 percent. This is why most European, Canadian, Japanese national health plans CUT OUT FOR-PROFIT CORPORATE INVOLVEMENT IN HEALTH CARE.
3. DUMP THE DEMOCRATS! Since the Republican and Democratic Parties BOTH are controlled by corporate and capitalist interests, since neither represent the economic needs of working people. Thus a call to create a new socialist political party that represents the economic interests and needs of all working people is essential. Continued support of Obama and the Democratic Party is to continually support the destruction of working people.
4. Call for an end to all Wars in the Middle East NOW! To pay for these unending wars, public taxes are being diverted from public schools, public health care, infrastructure maintenance, etc. THE PEOPLE CANNOT AFFORD THESE WARS THAT ONLY PROFIT WALL STREET, OIL COMPANIES, AND THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.
5. MILLIONS OF JOBS CREATION FOR WORKING PEOPLE WILL NOT HAPPEN IF IT MEANS THAT FIRST HUGE PROFITS MUST BE SECURED FOR A FEW BUSINESS OWNERS AND INVESTORS. Vast needs of the people will create millions of jobs by using the funds being stolen by war, wall street, tax breaks, etc.
6. Existing corrupt politicians must be removed by office and replaced with newly elected representatives of the people from the new party.
Mr. Trumka and the AFL-CIO continue the failed strategies of the past 30 years, and keeps suggesting and pleading for changes to happen, for reform to happen, for jobs to be created.
NONE OF THIS WILL HAPPEN UNTIL THE AFL-CIO EMBARKS ON A CAMPAIGN TO LEAD THIS COUNTRY AWAY FROM WARS AND CORPORATE LOOTING OF THE ECONOMY.
This is what organized labor and working people desperately need to
Our and many retired people’s union pension is invested in the stock market and payments reflect the market. In addition, many seniors dependent on regular dividends fom the market.
Please don’t kill the source of income for millions of retirees.
Alex
I didn’t think that the job stimulas program was to be used to save jobs. Is saving a job the same as creating a job? The Local politicans are using the money to save municipal jobs without having to raise the Local taxes to save these jobs. That means that all the taxpayers in the country are chipping in to save local Municipal jobs. We were originaly told that this money was to be used for shovel ready jobs, not to be used to save jobs. Am I wrong?
ts the right time for a Federal Jobs Program. Americans often ignore the fact that poverty in a wealthy country is a human rights’ issue when pointing to the human rights’ failures of other countries. If a third of the children in New York City are growing up in poverty, they’re cheated of their rights just as much as if their parents were denied the vote or kept ignorant by the censorship of a tyrannical regime. Poverty doesn’t just happen. America is productive enough to ensure that no child is hungry or ill housed or poorly educated. Freedom from want is one of the “Four Freedoms” that the victorious
Allies set up as a goal at the end of World War II. That it remains unachieved more than a half-century later is a crime that we shouldn’t pretend not to notice.
Could you go all out for a Federal Jobs program? The scale of the unemployment crisis is mind-boggling.
Former low income earners, blue collar workers, and those in the middle-class suffering from the Great Recession. Its time for Americans to demand a jobs program from the Federal government, similar to those put in place during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It can be done. We need a ground swelling humane response to an inhumane situation.
Francine Tyler
New York, Feb. 20, 2010
Tankers from Yemen carrying liquefied natural gas to begin rolling into Boston Harbor this month despite fears about the highly flammable cargo originating from a suspected al-Qaeda stronghold.
With US natural gas supplies at a record high why are we importing LNG? We can and should create millions of jobs by using our own natural resources.
Alex
We need jobs for Americans! There are 8 million illegals taking our jobs now. Pass the SAVE Act, requiring E-Verify and 8 million jobs open up tomorrow.
Stop excessive H1B visas another couple million Americans resume working and payig taxes.
Our government, corporations and even union leadership would rather have more workers (read: CHEAP workers) than have well paid AMERICAN workers.
I agree. I have read several articles here crying about poor exploited Indian Welders and Machinists imported from India by Allied Signal. I have commented on each one, (but have not yet seen a comment posted). These people are scabs, instead of outsourcing American Jobs to India, Allied Signal is importing scab labor to fill jobs that can be filed by Union American Workers!
You know, “out-sourcing” and “globalization” has been going on since capitalism got underway in the 1500s. European colonization of the Americas was the first big capitalist enterprise and to begin with most labor was provided by indentured workers. Within a hundred years businessmen began importing labor from Africa. After slavery was prohibited during the civil war thousands of indentured Chinese workers were brought in to build railroads and canals in the west, while in the east, millions of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe provided cheap labor.
At one time or another all these groups were called scabs by those who had arrived earlier. But you know what, those “scabs” are our ancestors.
Promoting divisions between workers only serves the interests of those who exploit us all.
Put an end to outsourcing, make Corp. America pay their fair share of taxes, and stop sending money to Isreal. It’s not rocket science folks, just politics.
Put an end to oursourcing, make Corp. America pay their fair share of taxes, and stop sending money to Isreal. It’s not rocket science folks, just politics.
Everyone who’s commented so far has made at least one good point. As you’ve mentioned, there are a lot of things that need to change: laws concerning immigration, lobbying, and taxation; energy policy; and our relationships with existing political parties. However, as you also make clear, a lot of people seem to have power that we don’t have. You mention town councillors, federal legislators, lobbyists, stockholders, and corporate executives. None of them has our interests at heart. In fact, the needs of workers and the unemployed are more often than not considered an obstacle to other people’s prosperity.
We cannot rely on the powerful to look out for our interests; we have to create power for ourselves. The longer we wait, the worse things are going to get.
We need to march on Washington – and stay there until our needs are met.
I am 100% in favor of creating PRIVATE sector jobs for AMERICANS. NO new government bureaucracies and NO MORE H1-B slots. And any jobs bill MUST include E-Verify as a permanent and mandatory stipulation. And it MUST apply to EVERY employer!
It has been documented that over 7% of America’s undocumented workers – oops! I mean criminal Martians – oops! I mean ‘illegal aliens’ – 7% of them have left in this last year ON THEIR OWN ACCORD. Where is the corresponding rise in employment? Companies which depend on superexploited labor such as criminal Martians, when denied access to those employees, will hire others, yes, but at the same level of pay and benefits (slaves), or they will leave the country, or they will go bankrupt. Demonizing immigrants is a dead end losing strategy, which is why it is so vehemently promoted by the most vitriolic enemies of unions and workers rights.
Capitalist crisis does require the changes only socialism can make possible, but a Labor Party does not have to be socialist to be effective, as long as it is capable of helping to unite our class to fight against the bosses’ onslaught and organizing the unorganized – including those among us who were not lucky enough to secure legal permission to enter our country, but were somehow smart enough, tough enough, and determined enough to find a way to get here anyway.
Sorry to hear the number of illegals self deporting is so low. 100% would be much more to my liking. Oh well, perhaps those remaining will eventually follow the example. Hopefully sooner rather than later. LOL! Companies who use illegals can go bankrupt if they so choose. It would seem to me, though, that bankruptcy would not, in the long run, be in their best interests. As for them leaving the country? Good riddance! We don’t need employers who have only their personal best interests at heart. This country needs employers who realize that in order to prosper in America and for America itself to prosper they must pay American wages to Americans. Eventually E-Verify, which many states are now legislating on their own (since the federal government is remiss in so doing) will bring a halt to the illegal practice of employing illegals.
I find it very troublesome that you seem to condone the illegal invasion of this country. We have immigration laws for a reason and FYI they are quite liberal. We admit more legal immigrants each year than every other country in the world combined. And in addition to that, we are far easier on those who choose to circumvent our laws than other countries. Point of fact, three American hikers who had the misfortune to unintentionally and without malice cross the Iranian border. Where are they? According to the Iranians they are merely being ‘detained’. We can only hope and pray that proves true. If those three young Americans are fortunate they will someday return to their country and their families.
I look upon those who are in this country illegally as common, garden variety home invaders. The USA is my home and therefore everyone who is in it illegally is a home invader.
Your proposal is interesting. 1. Let the super rich continue to bleed us dry until the economy grinds to a complete halt. 2. Immigrants without papers and others, who for one reason or another, are stuck in minimum wage jobs without health care will no longer be able to survive in the US. All the undocumented leave, together with many documented family members and naturalized citizens. 3. Overnight, 25 % of all jobs become vacant and available to anyone willing to work for next to nothing, but no one wants those jobs. The last leg of the ecomony then crumbles as we even stop selling junk food to each other. Now,
without immigrants, the bosses would have to come up with new bogeymen to scare and divide the working class — like inner city youth, the hadicapped, gays, people with accents, our incredibly high percentage of incarcerated workers, Moslems, people with too much education, or not enough, or have unions, or don’t. Divide and conquer will continue to work against the American working class, which knows nothing of its own history, with or without immigrants, but our economy and society will not.
It would be nice if we could stop whining and start marching. It would be nice if we could stop begging for a crust of bread from the same politicians that our union ‘leaders’ told us we had to vote for to prevent disaster- stop begging with hat in hand, and start demanding like the powerful force we could be if we got out of bed with the enemy, and inspired our members through organizing our ranks and supporters in independent mass demonstrations like our best leaders got mudered for doing in the 60’s. It would be nice if we would organize our own party, and stop being the Democratic Party’s bitch. It would be nice.
Blaming immigrants is a easy target,however a functioning economy will have plenty of jobs.We have created a third world adapted financial system that takes from workers and over rewards the few.Companies can not just be profitable but must meet wallstret expectations.If that means low wages,low benifits or layoffs ,then so it is.Intead of adressing the issue ,Congress either cut taxes for the rich or add more programs to meet the shortfall in salary.Both are equally destructive a health economy.
the best way to fix the deficit is for obama to resign as president. obama gets more ignorant by the day