Channel: Bush & Co.
Bush Budget Shafts Coal Mine Safety
If protecting the safety and health of the nation's coal miners is as important to President Bush as he has claimed over his years in office—years in which 232 coal miners were killed on the job—why did he slash $10 million from the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA's) budget for coal mine safety?
Maybe, says Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts, it's because he doesn't really care that much.
Even in Lame Duck Days, Bush Attacks Health Care
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The issue of health care is a key part of the 2008 elections, and nearly 15,000 of you have taken part in the AFL-CIO Health Care for America Survey, including more than 4,200 of you who shared your personal experiences.
The overwhelming response shows how worried people are about the serious flaws in our health care system. Sharon, in Lansing, Mich., is among those whose family has been affected by the crisis.
My mother-in-law was employed in a low-wage job that did not provide health care coverage. She became ill and could not afford to go to doctors on her own. My husband and I urged her to go, stating we would pay for the visit. By the time she got to the doctors, she had pneumonia and required hospitalization. The pneumonia placed so much stress on her system that she ended up dying. If she had had health care coverage and been able to go to the doctor's for treatment earlier, she likely would not have died.
GOP Congressmen Swimming Fast from the Sinking Ship
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Distracted by the race for the White House, we sometimes forget the election for president is only one of many taking place this fall.
In fact, voters this year will see new names on the ballot in dozens of U.S. House and Senate elections—primarily because Republicans are leaping off the sinking ship steered by the Bush administration. Twenty-eight Republican representatives to date, and still counting. That's more than any Republican retirements in one session, ever. According to The New York Times, the next closest number for end-of-session Republican retirements is 27 in 1952. Five Senate Republicans also are joining the exodus.
With much of the public counting the days until Bush is out of office, thanks to mismanagement of the economy, health care and more, many retiring Republicans in Congress suspect—correctly—they may not be able to win another term. Longtime Republicans members like Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), who won in 2006 by a razor-thin 1,055-vote margin, are leaving voluntarily before the voters throw them out.
O’Reilly Hides from Homeless Veterans
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Bill O'Reilly, the bombastic, belligerent bully of Fox News, apparently doesn't have the backbone to meet with a group of folks he claimed really don't exist—homeless veterans.
Last week, we told you about O'Reilly's delusional claims that homeless veterans don't exist, even though Bush administration figures show that on any given night, there are about 200,000 former service men and women who are homeless. Given the facts, O'Reilly eventually grudgingly admitted there might be some homeless vets, but it wasn't really much of a problem.
Yesterday in New York City, a group of homeless vets tried to meet with O'Reilly. They wanted to present a petition signed by 17,000 people demanding an apology and an acknowledgment that homelessness is a serious problem among veterans who served our country.
Bush Renominates Anti-Worker Lawyer to Labor Board
If it's late on a Friday, look out for the Bush administration to take an action it hopes the public won't notice. And so it was Friday, when President Bush renominated Robert Battista, the point man in Bush's war on workers, to another term on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Battista's five-year term expired in December.
The former NLRB chairman constantly voted against workers and their unions and in favor of management rights during his tenure. Last month, Battista told a joint Senate-House hearing he doesn’t believe the primary purpose of the National Labor Relations Act is to promote collective bargaining. (For a good look at the NLRB's actions, check out the American Rights at Work's blog, Eye on the NLRB.)
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says Bush's action is a
blatant attempt to keep a Labor board with an unbalanced, anti-worker bias, and they would be poisonous to America’s working families.
Out of Touch and Almost Out of Office. Bush and the State of the Union
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Not surprisingly last night, President Bush painted a far prettier picture of the state of the union than most American families see and live everyday. From the economy to trade to health care to war, the words of Bush's last State of the Union address collided with reality. Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
President Bush’s rose-colored glasses need a new prescription—he is blind to Americans’ day-to-day economic realities and the truth about our nation’s standing in the world.
How out of touch is Bush? A recent Harris Poll finds that 81 percent of Americans think the current state of the country is fair or poor while just 19 percent think it is excellent or good.
Ground Zero Workers Ask Bush: Where Are You Now?
President Bush is expected tonight to tell us that the state of the nation is strong. Here's one question among many he may not answer: “Is the state of our union strong enough to provide for the health needs of 9/11 workers?”
On Capitol Hill today, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes joined members of Congress and the heroes of Sept. 11 in asking that crucial question.
First responders, cleanup crews and other workers directly involved with responding to the 9/11 attacks have experienced serious health problems, and the Bush administration has failed to respond to their health care needs. Thousands of Ground Zero workers need monitoring and special care to deal with the complex health problems that resulted from their work that day and in the months after the terrorist attacks.
Sweeney said the failure to provide for these workers showed a fundamental disrespect for their sacrifices:
Year after year, President Bush has refused to request the necessary funding to provide medical care for the 9/11 workers. Today, we are here to call upon our government to help those who came forward and helped the nation during one of its darkest hours.
Safety Agency Never Assessed Thousands of Fines—Including Mine Where Worker Died
Since 2000, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has failed to issue more than 4,000 fines for violations of mine safety laws—including a mine where a Kentucky coal miner died in 2005.
According to a report published yesterday in the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, MSHA inspectors had issued citations for safety violations in all the cases, but the fines were never assessed within 18 months of the citations. The 18-month time limit was spelled out in a 1999 MSHA policy memo.
Agency officials acknowledged the failure to assess the fines. Richard Stickler, acting head of the agency, told the paper:
There is no doubt that there is a problem. Any violation that we write and don't asses a penalty for, that's a big problem.
Bush Official Cashes in on Anti-Labor Department
More than six years working for the Bush administration's Department of Labor seems to be great training for a cushy, and likely well-paid, top post in one of the largest and loudest anti-union groups around: the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
It certainly worked out that way for Emily DeRocco, former assistant secretary of labor in charge of the Employment and Training Administration. She's now president of NAM's National Center for the American Workforce and a senior vice president of the group.
DeRocco's experience highlights the Alice-in-Wonderland backward Bush world, where unlike most countries, a department of labor exists not to ensure that workers' rights are enforced, that they are paid fairly or that workplaces are made safe.
House Republicans Kill Children’s Health Bill
President Bush got his wish today to deny health care coverage to millions of uninsured children when the House failed to override (260-152) his veto of a bill to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). A two-thirds majority is needed to override a veto; today's vote fell about 15 votes short.
The vetoed bill would have provided affordable quality health coverage for 10 million mostly low-income children—the 6 million already enrolled plus an additional 4 million who would have been eligible.
