SEARCH
Trumka: Newt’s Right, for Once
Newt Gingrich has said some pretty outlandish things over the years—the most recent was his proposal to put poor kids to work cleaning inner-city schools. But as a friend of mine was fond of saying—“sometimes even a blind squirrel can find an acorn.” Newt has an acorn.
During the New Hampshire primary when Gingrich was talking to voters about Mitt Romney’s days as a vulture capitalist—shortly after Romney said he “likes being able to fire people”—Gingrich said Romney “looted” companies and left behind “broken families and broken neighborhoods.” Then he added something that could have been uttered by any progressive or Occupier.
You have to ask the question: Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of people and walk off with the money, or is that in fact a little bit of a flawed system?
That got AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s attention who says:
Here are words you won’t hear from me very often: I agree with Newt Gingrich.
In an e-mail to working family activists Trumka says that Romney’s brand of capitalism “is not the kind of capitalism that built America.” He said it’s time to elect leaders who like to hire people, not fire people.
You can send that message to lawmakers across the nation by clicking here to sign an AFL-CIO petition telling politicians that it is time to put America back to work and urging leaders to work together on an agenda that actually creates jobs to stop following the lead of corporate raiders like Mitt Romney.
While Trumka says he agrees with Gingrich about flawed capitalism that works for the 1 percent but not working people, “It’s unfortunate that both Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney are on the wrong side of most issues that matter to working people.”
For example, they are both on record in support of so-called “right to work” legislation, like the bill that’s being considered in Indiana. If “right to work” passes, Indiana’s unions no longer will stand between corporate raiders like Mitt Romney and many of the workers they like to fire to boost short-term profits.
In state legislatures around the AFL-CIO and our allies will be focusing job-creating, hire-people-not-fire-people agenda that includes
- Making sure state tax dollars are used to keep jobs in that state and in America.
- Buying state-made and American-made goods—so we create jobs in our communities and in America.
- Stopping corporate tax loopholes and tax breaks for millionaires—so our states no longer are starved of the revenue they need for critical services.
Be sure to click here and sign “I like leaders who hire people” petition and we will deliver the petitions to local, state and federal politicians in this crucial legislative season and election year.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
10 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Well, the UN-Newtered Gang-of-Green-Riches is certainly right, of course, Mr. Trumka, he is way far right… so far right that his hand is beyond reach to the far right! And Newt Grinch does not have a left hand, that would be too insulting to him to have anything to the left! That left hand is a prosthesis that nobody noticed, because like the Yakuza, Newt Grinch chopped his left hand off to show how far right he is! This is a copyrighted comment by the way (smiling)
Obama is doing worse than all them politicians. He has lost a couple million jobs and is stopping job creation in the oil and gas industry. He has not provided leadership and he takes to many vacations. he is the worse president in the history of our country. He has just laid off 80,000 thousand soldiers and put our country in danger.
There has been criticism of the president’s vacation at this time. But how does the number of vacation days the president has spent compare to his predecessors? CBS Radio’s Mark Knoller has kept track of presidential vacations for years and supplied the data.
Hey hotcomodities you should really check your facts to make sure what you write is true. Other wise you just look dumb.
So far, President Obama has taken 61 vacation days after 31 months in office. At this point in their presidencies, George W. Bush had spent 180 days at his ranch where his staff often joined him for meetings. And Ronald Reagan had taken 112 vacation days at his ranch.
Among recent presidents, Bill Clinton took the least time off — 28 days.
obama has taken the least vac.than the last two presidents combined.bush took the most in two terms than clinton before him& obama in his term as of now. the job loses were already starting when obama took office and we lost 750,000 the first month.the obama adminstration has created over 2 million jobs.we are wasting american lives and our tax money.the workingman is footing the bill&the1% are paying very little&are still crying that they pay to much.we can watch our enemies from satelites in the sky,also we watch and respond by carriers.we also have troops in kuwait.we should take the money that we save and invest in military hardware&homeland sec.
What kind of capitalism is the kind that built America? Is there capitalism where no one is exploited? Is there capitalism where everyone has a fair chance? Does Mr. Trumka mean the kind of capitalism rampant in the Guilded Age (and now)? Is there a kind where workers are not automatically “under the bus”? Capitalism doesn’t exist for the benefit of society (well, High Society maybe). It is not there for healthy competition, but to drive competitors out of business, monopolize and dominate. This is what built the America of the wealthy, not us.
Like I’ve said so many times, under a proper definition of capitalism the term WOULD mean that entity of using one’s wealth as capital to improve one’s investing and ownership of assets to make one be more wealthy.
But what capitalism actually means in reality is power by wealth, regardless of any laws. That is what capitalism has become. We need to change that, and it will not be corrected through taxation, it will only be corrected by non-loophole legislations that will make everything be fair and honest in investing and in commerce. It is the only way. And that will ONLY come about through the reclaiming of our political system by We The People which means NOT revolution like the stupid anarchists constantly rant and rave about, BUT THROUGH DEMOCRACY !!!!!
But Democracy requires a responsible, enlightened and TOTALLY HONEST society who willfully self-activates as a viable electorate !!!
Cooperative capitalism like what Vietnam’s got going on, or cooperativism in general. Social democracy too.
Market economies aren’t necessarily capitalism though, so don’t rag on market solutions – capitalism does with money what feudal lords did with armies – it’s the ideological successor to aristocratic feudalism. Markets are a form of supply and demand centered around token economies, and that leaves a lot of interpretation and society to wrap around it. It’s like a pick – discover and learn, or gouge your opponent’s eyes out. It’s up to us to interpret it as we will.
Capitalism used to mean making money by providing goods and services that one had invested in providing. Now, it seems that the most money is to be made by finding new ways to game the system, in ways that are at best unproductive but are more often destructive of wealth for others.
No, if one looks at the corporations that owned and ran most of the fiefs that comprised the first colonies, it was a spiritual successor to feudalism, and is exactly what built this country. Why is our bitter, blood-soaked past something we have to hold up as a model for today?
Newt Gingrichs’ idea of job creation is to put poor children to work as school janitors. Didn’t the unions fight against child labor exploitation? Now Gingrich tells a cheering crowd in South Carolina that he has this plan to put poor people to work!!!
There is no shame in the entire Republican party. They hate working people and their one goal is to serve the rich even if it means further dividing Americans along racial, religious and regional lines.