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Trumka: Obama’s Focus Must Be on Health of Middle Class, American Economy
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement on President Obama’s State of the Union message tonight.
Tonight President Obama called on the nation to look forward and spoke to our nation’s prospects and vulnerabilities: we are faced with opportunities for progress, but paralyzed by weak job growth and an economy that is increasingly out of balance for middle class families.
We strongly support the President’s vision on infrastructure to create good jobs and succeed in a global economy, and working people are ready to work with him and hold him to his promises. We look forward to comprehensive and substantial proposals to rebuild our nation’s schools, bridges, and highways and invest in high speed rail, a smart electrical grid, universal broadband and the green jobs of the future. We will join the President as partners to help build bipartisan support for a sustained and strategic investment in America’s future. Labor and business, Democrats and Republicans should all be working together to ensure that we make the investments we need now to secure our future.
President Obama certainly understands our need to be competitive in manufacturing, new technology and skills. But he must also understand that last-century trade deals that reward and encourage corporations that outsource American jobs will do little to generate net new jobs in the United States or raise living standards here or abroad. Working people will continue to urge the President and his administration to stick to his campaign promises of reforming trade deals, so they do more than boost profits for multi-national corporations.
We firmly believe that we should not be cutting government spending when the economy is so weak. This economy is failing to create jobs at an adequate pace to dig us out of the hole we’re in, and a spending freeze at this time will slow down job creation and growth – further worsening the deficit. This is simply the wrong medicine at the wrong time. And it is essential that the President acts on the commitment he outlined tonight to strengthen and preserve our essential retirement security programs – Social Security and Medicare. All working people will continue to fight any proposals that aim to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.
We must move boldly now to put 15 million Americans back to work and rebuild bargaining power and good jobs for our middle class. We believe the President is heading in the right direction– but as he outlined tonight, the yardstick must be the health of the middle class and the American economy.
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17 Comments
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Well you can start by lowering the corporate tax. We now have the highest corporate tax in the world. Japan just lowered their corporate tax. They were number one just last month. But no the left wants to punish the corporations again. Good luck we increasing jobs.
Regressive roolishness. The climate for business is great here and they should have to pay for the exspence of building this structure. lay off the republican tea and use youir own brain.
Do you not realize that any tax that is paid, is eventually paid by the end consumer? That is using our brains isn’t it? How can people logically think that I am gonna buy something at any business and not pay their taxes as well. Where do you think they get their money? It is from any and all products and services a business sells. All these products and services have their tax liability figured into the price of their products and services. To simplify the tax system and understand how taxes really work will help all Americans move forward. Our tax system should encourage money be invested here in America and our current structure doesn’t do that. Those that try to stop reform of our tax system because they want the evil rich corporations to pay higher taxes fail to understand basic fundamentals and do so at their own detriment.
More government spending does not work. We need private industry to do the job. Government cannot pick winners and losers. They usually pick the losers We need lower taxes and less government interference.
Do you listen to anything but the regressive lies of the right wing ? After you let the republicans spend all the money for war and tax cuts for the rich ,you still think they are smart people? You say you support the people and party that believes that the US constitution is just a god damn piece of paper. Where do you live ?
I have listened to the lies of the left for many years. Open your eyes and look at all the government programs going broke. Man you cannot win with socialism. We have it now and we are going down.
Trade agreements should include labor and haman rights… Trade agreements that only benefit multinational corporations and not the workers are bad for the economy… Investing on Americas’ infustructure will benefit workers and corporations alike…
Elected officials from any political party should base their decisions and votes on what’s good for the American working people and their employers… And not pick one side over the other
Trade agreements are the foolish ideas of the regressive ,republican party to break the middle class. Obama endorsing this type of crap is non-productive and is side talk for selling the working people out on every level he can.Just like he did on the telephone amisty, bank bail out , taxews for the rich and ETC,ETC.Lets face it we made a bad mistake when we let him get nominated,then we had no choice.
Is Trumka going to call Obama on this statement from his SOTU speech:
“And last month, we finalized a trade agreement with South Korea that will support at least 70,000 American jobs. This agreement has unprecedented support from business and labor, Democrats and Republicans — and I ask this Congress to pass it as soon as possible. (Applause.)”
Last I heard, the AFL-CIO and every union but UAW were opposed to it: http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/12/09/afl-cio-and-other-union-statements-on-u-s-korea-free-trade-deal/#
But I forgot, Democrats only talk to unions when they need their money and their troops during elections. Democrats=Lucy holding football; Trumka=Charley Brown running to kick the football.
Very good ear, i heard that too. I was waiting for someone to bring it up.
We progressives know that Obama is in a real struggle to outmaneuver the Republicans and the right wing. The President took the high ground last night and challenged the party of no to work to make America “work”….translation; jobs. We know that competition is not the answer when you are boxed into a system that sees only the bottom line. That’s why we have to back and push the GOP in the right direction. We will have to do it with them kicking and screaming. But it is the only way. The AFO-CIO is on the right track.
The Republicans, as usual, have the cart before the horse. they need to realize that in order to get people back to work they must give the working middle class more income, so that they can purchase, more goods and services, thus creating a demand for more goods and services. One way of accomplishing this would call for a large income tax increase, for those benefits, paid to corporate executives. Then give the corporations a tax credit IF those funds were transferred, instead to raise their employees pay, and to hire new employees. This would help our economy in two ways. first it would raise the amount of taxes to our state and federal government, thus lowering our deficit. Secondly, it would stimulate the economy, by increasing the demand for the goods and services, which, in turn would cause corporations to hire new employees due to the increased demand The current fringe benefits giving corp.execs. and CEO’s millions of dollars, even if fired, for failure to perform. This makes no sense,it is equal to giving a paycheck of 5 years pay when they are terminated for failure to do their jobs.
The work class or anyone else can’t be “given” money, we can’t take money out of the system like you describe with out killing the economic engine. Your plan would be great if their was a set amount of dollars in the world that doesn’t grow. Also if the US didn’t and never would trade with other countries. That isn’t gonna happen. Also do you really think that if we confiscate all of the executive pay in the US it would even cover our deficit this year? If I were a business in thia situation, I would move headquarters overseas quite quickly taking the money with, production wouldn’t be far behind. What about fixing the tax system in order to bring that money made overseas home and invest it here. How about we set up a long term plan that assures businesses that it is safe and stable to do business here and taxes won’t increase greatly reducing their competitivness. Once the businesses see a plan going forward and feel confident they will be able to make long term investments. It is simply way to risky to do right now with all the changes looming in this political climate.
This is a good response to the SOTU.
We need to build the promise of America.
That promise is a good job for all, the opportunity to have a rewarding career, and the chance for a life that is more than simply the workplace. The austerity paradigm underlying the tax and budget cut mania and the federal and the state levels does not promote good jobs, rewarding careers.
Dump the Elephant, Dump the Ass! Build a Party for the Working Class!
And let’s hear no more bushwah about “the middle class” which is just that tiny portion of the Working Class that used to make a few dollars more. That was then. There’s only the Working Class and the Ruling Class. Workers and Bosses. Period.
Brother Trumka, why don’t you rise to the historic occasion, do something truly world-historic: take the AFL-CIO out of the Democratic Party and into a Labor Party – a party for ordinary working people, not billionaires and their lackey millionaires.
A political party with an agenda for working people and those who want to work but can’t find a job. A party for those who through no fault of their own have lost everything or teeter on the brink of losing everything.
A party of economic democracy. A Workers Party.
and Sisters and Brothers, Let’s have no more bushwah about “the lesser of two evils” come election time, meaning, the Democrats are the lesser of two evils and we must support the Democrat no matter what. See where that’s gotten us? Until we can get our organizing together on a nationwide scale, we ought to support progressive political candidates who are declared independents and who don’t accept corporate money and won’t abide corporate influence. And if we can’t find such a candidate, let’s produce one from our rank and file, through grassroots union democratic methods.
I totally agree with a massive infrastructure project and the jobs it creates, but I think the highest priority, as I expressed in my latest post at http://gototheworker.wordpress.com, is for a huge drive to organize the unorganized, which will include removing the roadblocks which the dominant corporate interests have put in the way ot organizing, and appealing to the unorganized to show them that they’ll be a lot better off organized.