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Obama Unveils Huge Infrastructure/Jobs Program at Milwaukee’s LaborFest
Karen Hickey, Wisconsin AFL-CIO political field communications assistant, contributed to this story.
In a Labor Day address to more than 10,000 union members and their families in Milwaukee, President Obama announced a massive new job-creating road, rail, runway and air traffic control rebuilding project.
Speaking to the Milwaukee Area Labor Council’s annual LaborFest celebration, Obama said it was “the great American middle class that made our economy the envy of the world. It’s got to be that way again.”
It was folks like you, after all, who forged that middle class. It was working men and women who made the 20th century the American century. It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today—the 40-hour workweek, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans, those cornerstones of middle class security that all bear the union label.
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Joining Obama at the lakefront festivities were AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Labor Council Secretary Sheila Cochran and Wisconsin AFL-CIO President David Newby.
Trumka told the crowd, “Working women and men in Milwaukee—and all across our country—made America ‘No. 1’ in the world. Now it’s time for America to make working people ‘No. 1!’”
It’s time for JOBS. For economic patriotism. I want to see the words “Made in America” again—because it’s time to start exporting the things we make, instead of jobs!
Obama said the massive rebuilding project will build on the investments already made under the Recovery Act, and
create jobs for American workers to strengthen our economy now, and increase our nation’s growth and productivity in the future.
According to the White House the plan would:
- Rebuild 150,000 miles of roads—renewing our commitment to the backbone of our transportation system;
- Construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail—enough to go coast-to-coast;
- Rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of runway—while putting in place a NextGen air traffic control system that will reduce travel time and delays.
- Create national infrastructure bank.
Click here for a fact sheet on the infrastructure plan.
Don Burmester, a member of Machinists Local 66 (IAM), said the emphasis on jobs is just the message he wanted to hear, and the message that needs to be sent in November.
We need to get regular people back to work. I’ve seen the other party put political games ahead of anything decent to make the president look bad. We need to get the focus back on the economy and away from foolish political plays.
With just 57 days to go before the Nov. 2 election and with control of Congress at stake, Trumka said that Obama and Democratic leaders
share our vision of an America built on good jobs—and together, we’re going to get America back to work. It won’t be the bankers. It won’t be the Tea Partiers. It won’t be the Party of NO.
It’ll be you. It’ll be us. Together
For more on the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2010 mobilization, click here.
Obama said that Republican leaders, the same ones whose decade of failed and flawed policies shattered the economy, have yet to offer any new ideas and strategies.
When the leader of their campaign committee was asked on national television what Republicans would do if they took over Congress, he actually said they’d follow “the exact same agenda” as they did before I took office. The exact same agenda.
So basically, they’re betting that between now and November, you’ll come down with a case of amnesia. They think you’ll forget what their agenda did to this country. They think you’ll just believe that they’ve changed. These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class and drive our economy into a ditch. And now they’re asking you for the keys back.
Click here for President Obama’s full remarks.
The day kicked off with a parade of more than 6,000 union members. The Milwaukee LaborFest, which dates back to 1965, was just one of hundreds of Labor Day events that working people held across the nation to call for good jobs, a stronger middle class and high voter turn-out for November’s midterm elections. We’ll bring you a wrap up of Labor Day action tomorrow.
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14 Comments
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HUGE!!!
0.3%
huge?
Organized labor is in shambles, and “Labor Day” has become nothing more than a last opportunity to barbeque or go to the beach. Due to their nationalist and class-collaborationist perspective, the union bureaucrats responded to the decline in American economic hegemony by adopting a corporatist program supposedly to make union members “competitive.” As a result they have spent the last 30 years presiding over the slashing of wages and destruction of jobs on a scale never before seen, all the while subordinating their memberships to the pro-capitalist Democratic Party.
Your vocabulary suggests that you are a very intelligent person. After putting all these elegant words together and putting meaning to it all it would suggest just the opposite. Funny that you did not seem to put together the fact that 30 years ago was when Reagan was president and the first major attack on unions was started. 10 years later the conservative movement started full swing with Rush limbaugh starting his show and hundreds of conservative radio show starting up. These people are the pro-business people. They are the ones working with the corporations to break unions and put an end to all social nets to help people in hard times. Its their agenda to put an end to the middle class so that the working class become nothing more than a pool of servants to the rich. Bush and his cronies could have stopped the illegal immigration problem but chose not to so that everyone else was forced to accept lower wages to compete. I am sure you know all this but are just another one of those people who only cares about himself. As long as you are doing well to hell with everone else. Your words do not help anything. If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. Stop the hate and get on board!
The list below of the sub-topics of this socialist program give an indication of the scope of political perspective essential today to the survival of working people today. Failed strategies of the AFL-CIO to continue to work within the pro-business Democratic party, to be a “business partner” to the very corporate capitalism that is destroying us all, must end now!
Read the full program here:
http://wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/prog-s06.shtml
The Breakdown of Capitalism and the fight for Socialism in the United States
Program of the Socialist Equality Party
6 September 2010
The following document (link above) was adopted by the First National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US), held August 11-15, 2010 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
” The Economic Crisis and its Social Impact
* The Historic Decline of American Capitalism
* The Failure of the Obama Administration
* The Bankruptcy of Liberalism and the Democratic Party
* American Workers and Socialism
* The Revolutionary Potential of the Working Class
* Socialism is the Only Way Forward
* The Basic Social Rights of the Working Class
* The right to a job
* The right to a livable income
* The right to leisure
* The right to decent and affordable housing
* The right to utilities and transportation
* The right to high-quality health care
* The right to a secure retirement
* The right to education
* The right to a healthy and safe environment
* The right to culture
* The Social Rights of Workers vs. Corporate Power and the Capitalist State
* For the expropriation of the banks and financial institutions
* For the nationalization of major corporations
* For workers control
* For social equality
* Political and Democratic Demands
* Defend democratic rights
* Oppose militarism and war
* Defend the rights of immigrant workers
* The Political Independence of the Working Class
* For new organizations of working class struggle
* For a workers government
* The International Unity of the Working Class
* Build the Socialist Equality Party! Build the Fourth International!
What are the real facts behind this “Huge Infrastructure/Jobs Program”? Once again the AFL-CIO promotes “con man” Obama spin as a substitute for developing a comprehensive program of political struggle based on the increasingly desperate needs of all working people.
This article from the World Socialist Web Site. The full article is here:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/pers-s07.shtml
Several paragraphs below:
Obama on Labor Day: No measures to address jobs crisis
7 September 2010
In a speech delivered to mark Labor Day in the US, President Obama made clear that there will be no significant government measures to address the most severe jobs crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Speaking in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Monday, Obama trumpeted a plan for investment in infrastructure and transportation as a significant jobs program. Despite efforts by the media to play up the announcement, it quickly emerged that the administration is simply asking Congress to reauthorize a bill that is routinely passed every five years. His proposal for spending is little changed from previous years.
According to a White House fact sheet, the administration is proposing that Congress “front load” the Department of Transportation spending bill by about $50 billion, saying that this would create jobs as early as 2011. The administration did not propose a total figure for the bill, which will likely not be debated until after the mid-term elections in November. In 2005, the Bush administration signed a transportation bill that cost $286.4 billion over five years, or just under $50 billion a year. The money goes to states and localities to fund road and infrastructure projects and regular upkeep.
The figure proposed by Obama is not only grossly inadequate in comparison to the decayed state of American infrastructure, it will not begin to address the jobs crisis. It even pales in comparison to the administration’s own inadequate $787 billion dollar “stimulus” bill last year, which consisted largely of tax cuts and handouts to private companies.
Administration officials have repeatedly stressed that there is no new major stimulus bill in the works, let alone a program of direct government hiring. Obama is expected to announce a number of additional “jobs” measures later this week, including the extension of tax cuts for corporations and small businesses.
The administration has also pledged that all these measures will be “fully paid for,” continuing on the theme of budget cutting and fiscal austerity. While hinting at ending various tax loopholes for energy companies, payment will also likely include cuts in social programs—like those carried out with the last extension of unemployment benefits, which was accompanied by a reduction in funding for Food Stamps.
Obama’s rejection of any serious jobs program is part of a conscious class war policy. Two years after the financial crisis and the multi-trillion dollar bailout of the banks, the administration is spearheading a campaign by corporations to sharply increase the exploitation of the working class, using the “new normal” of mass unemployment to force workers to accept lower wages, longer hours, and more brutal working conditions.
…
Sergio Marchionne, the head of the Italian auto company Fiat, summed up the thinking of the corporate elite in remarks recounted in a soon-to-be-released memoir by Steven Rattner, the Wall Street investor turned head of Obama’s Auto Task Force. According to Rattner, Marchionne told then-United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger that workers needed to accept a “culture of poverty” rather than a “culture of entitlement.” Fiat was negotiating a partnership with Chrysler at the time, under the direction of the Obama administration, which was demanding that workers accept massive concessions and job cuts.
The determination to force workers to submit to a “culture of poverty” is shared by both political parties—and, for that matter, the UAW, which is presently doing everything it can to enforce such a “culture” on workers in Indianapolis.
…
Politics in America is characterized by an immense vacuum. There is an enormous disparity between the social and economic strength of the working class—which today represents a far higher proportion of the population than ever before—and its political influence.
…
The growth of the class struggle is inevitable. New mass struggles of the working class will develop outside of the existing framework of political life. To lead these struggles, the building of an independent political party of the working class, in opposition to the corporate-controlled Democratic and Republican Parties, and based on the fight for socialism, is the most pressing necessity.
reply to Jerry Wells. Why would anyone want to go to the world socialist web site and expect to get facts? If you want to know the truth go to the Senate website and the house website and look at the bills that were passed or not passed. Look at who voted for and against these bills. Then google the bills you are interested in see what really happened. If you do this you will get a completely different set of answers. The Republicans filibusterd, stalled and lied to the public about everything that the dems were trying to accomplish. Look up the real facts and then come back.
Your kidding right?
I cant believe anyone would support this
new bunch of crap that Obama is giving out.
Road Jobs? Wht about all jobs and getting the ecomony
straight so people will start hiring again.
Another way we can help the President create more jobs is to rebuild vacant homes within our inner cities, as well as rural communities. We should make sure to employ local labor in this effort. For more information go to http://jamestwebbcreatesjobsforamerica.com/ . Also http://www.thewahm.org
James T Webb
Master Builder
Obama needs to stop nibbeling around the edges and have the vision to propose a massive public works bill around energy independence. If he can’t be lkie FDR then he shold be like Teddy.
Amen to ijerryc
OBAMAS 50 BILLION WILL NOT TAKE ACTION FOR ABOUT A YEAR , BEFORE ANY ONE GETS THE BENIFIT FROM IT !
AMERICANS AND UNION MEMBERS OBAMA IS DONE AS A PRESIDENT IN LAESS THEN 2 YEARS IN AMERICA , THERE WILL BE BIG CHANGES THIS FALL , GOD WILL SAVE US FROM THIS HELL OF A ADMINISTRATION !!!
HE HAS 100′S OF BILLIONS IN STIMULUS MONEY FROM THE FIRST STIMULUS HE HAS NOT SPENT YET !
RAIL ROADS , BUILDING NEW LINES LIKE FLORIDA TO MIAMI , NOW STOP AND THINK ABOUT THIS FOLKS ! HE SAID HE WANTED TO BUILD A RAIL SYSTEM FROM MIAMI TO TAMPA , THE COST , JUST TO START IS A TRILLION AND WHO KNOWS WHAT THE END COST WILL BE ? WITH ALL THE SINK HOLES IN FLORIDA ! MIAMI HAS 300,000 ILLEGALS AND LIKE HELLS KITCHEN THERE AND NO JOBS , FLORIDA RIGHT NOW OUT OF 5 PEOPLE 0NE IS WORKING ! AND HIS PLAN IS TO DUMP 300,000 ILLEGALS HAITIANS IN TAMP , THEN WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THEM ? AND THERE IS 2 MILLION HOMELESS IN HAITI RIGHT NOW !!!!! DOES ANY ONE SEE THIS BIG PITCHER ! AND WHERE IS ALL THIS MONEY IS GOING TO GO AROUND THE COUNTRY ?? WHO GETS ALL THIS MONEY , WHATS THE BREAK DOWN OF ALL OF THIS MONEY ?
ASK YOU SELF THE QUESTION WHAT HAVE YOU GOT OUT OF THE 6.7 TRILLION DOLLARS OBAMA PELOSI AND RIED SPENT SO FAR IN THE LAST 2 YEARS ???? NOTHING !!!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING TO GET OUT OF 50 BILLION NOTHING !!!! WHOS GOING TO GET THAT MONEY ??? THE ONES HE MISSED ON THE LIST IN THE OBAMA CAMP AND MILLIONS OF IILEGALS ,, REMEMBER USED CAR SALES MEN FROM CHICAGO DONT GIVE WARRANTIES ON CARS WHEN THEY DRIVE OUT OF THE CAR LOT !!!!
WHAT A JOKE OBAMA WAS THIS WEEKEND AND IT IS A POLITICAL MOVE ! 56 DAYS BEFORE THE COUNTRY IS GOING TO VOTE , THE 50 BILLION IS GOING TO BE A WASTE AND ANOTHER FAILURE FOR WORKING AMERICANS . I FEEL THIS WAS A STAGE DEAL IN WISCONSIN AND A T V CORN JOBS TO GET HIS ON 50 BILLION ! HE IS USING THE UN ION MEMBERS AND ONLY WANTS TO GET THE MEMBERS VOTE FOR ELECTIONS SCAMS , OUR WE STUPID !!!!!
HE HAS ABOUT 187 BILLION HE HAS , IN HIS DESK DRAWER HE COULD USE ! OUR THEY GOING BACK TO CONGRESS TO GET MORE MONEY ?
HOW MUCH OF THE 50 BILLION IS GOING TO UNIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ? I CAN FEEL SAFE AND SAY, VERY LITTLE WILL GO TO UNIONS !
50 BILLION IS LIKE A PEA HOLE IN THE SNOW ! FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY , 50 MILLION AMERICANS OUT WORK , 23 MILLION LAST YEAR WENT ON SOCIAL SECURITY RETIERMENT , WHILE 23 MILLION WENT ON WELFARE LAST YEAR COULD NOT FIND JOBS , HE HELD UP 32 BILLION FOR AMERICANS OUT OF WORK FOR FOR 6 WEEKS FOR THE SECOND EXTENTION , THEN HE BLAMED THE OTHER REPUBLICANS FOR IT , ALL THEY SAID WAS USE THE STIMULUS , DONT MAKE MORE TAXES !!! USE THE LEFT OVER STIMULUS LIKE YOU DID THE FIRST TIME FOR THE EXTENTION , HE DID NOT WANT TO USE , HIS MONEY WHICH FEELS IT IS HIS !!!! NOW FOR THE SECOND EXTENTION FOR AMERICANS ! PEOPLE MUST SEE OBAMA FOR WHAT HE IS AND NOT WHAT HE SAYS HE IS , WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!
ALL THIS MONEY IS GOING TO GO TO A VERY FEW SELECT GROUP OF PEOPLE , THIS IS A PAY OFF TO OBAMAS POLITICAL HACKS AND CONGRESS PEOPLE AND U S SENATORS HECKS THEY OWE FAVORS TO THE PROGRESSIVE DEMOCARTIC PARTY AT WORK !
WE MUST MAKE A STAND AND DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY TO ALL THE MONEY THAT WAS SPENT ON THE FIRST STIMULUS, WE NEED HONEST GOVERNMENT AND WE OUR NOT GETTING IT !!!! SO I WOULD SAY TO ALL OBAMS PALNS ,,, PASS ON THIS 50 BILLION AND WAIT TILL AFTER THE NOVEMBER ELECTION ITS ONLY 56 DAYS AND THEN WE WILL HAVE A NEW CONGRESS AND SPEAKER AND AMERICANS WILL DO BETTER !!!
YOU WILL NOT SEE ANY ACTION FOR A YEARS ON THIS 50 BILLION !!!
GOD BLESS EVERY ONE AND OUR TROPPS FIGHTING FOR OUR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY
Let’s boil it down. This represents about 2 or 3 % of what is really needed, and all of the politicians know it. The Republicans will scream and howl and do everything to prevent it. Perhaps Obama will horse trade on some things and get enough votes for a scaled-down version, then the Dems will announce a great victory, while the Republicans howl like it is the end of the world. Meanwhile, they all know that it is way, way too little. Let’s not kid ourselves – we are being screwed royally, with no end in sight, because we have noone – NO ONE – who can effectively represent us in government – no one we can count on for real, and that will never change until we launch our Labor Party.
Imagine a noisy crowd at a fire screaming at the firemen that they are not putting the fire out fast enough – and blaming the firemen for starting the fire too. Imagine that the screamers are slashing the fire-hoses. Imagine that it turns out that the screamers were actually the arsonists who set the fire. We would back up the white trucks and take them away.
If only we could do that for the screaming Republicans who are impeding Democrats as they try to rescue the economy from the disaster the Republicans created – and blaming Democrats for the problems too.
As long as our president is supported by union members, he will not be motivated to act as an American Commander and Chief, pushing for American legislation for ballast water. (the type that passed by the house 395-7 in 2008) This would raise the cost to foreign shipping bringing in foreign goods, while at the same time, creating jobs and protecting our environment, but he continues with a slow military plan offering incentives to foreign shipping, asking them not to pollute our environment, while trying to limit US carbon emissions in manufacturing, as he tries to negotiate currency manipulation, and hidden carbon emissions with a communist country. Why would American manufacturing invest heavily in our country? Why is our president, trying to ease the economic problems of foreign ships, rather than trying to level the playing field for American manufacturing, by not helping them and protecting our environment and our economic interest? Ballast Water and how it is handled, mainly the timeline will create “CHANGE” that will affect America’s stature in the world for many decades to come. A slow plan helping foreign shipping will allow, for foreign ships to continue polluting longer, as the foreign shipping industry decides to “CHANGE”, allowing America to recover temporarily, through a continued policy of economic globalization until the next economic crisis. Fast decisive legislation for ballast water, as the law of the land, not providing economic incentives for ships, from a foreign tax base bringing foreign goods into our country would send a message to American manufacturing affecting their investing policy, as it would level the playing field for industry to grow, providing long term jobs and economic security to our country. Soon, September 20th this new military study created for “change” coinciding with the next two decades, and two years after Senator Boxer killed the legislation created by the largest elected legislative voice of the American people,– they will meet to discuss their “new” findings and might have new recommendations. Will they continue on a slow course to protect foreign economic interest, or will they speed up mandatory requirements allowing faster protection of our waters and economic growth for our country?