Congress Responsible for 370,000 Job Cuts
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Cuts instituted by Congress for the 2011 fiscal year eliminate some 370,000 jobs, while endangering the public and delaying necessary repairs and infrastructure work that will only be more expensive to complete in the future, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP).
In “Creating Unemployment: How Congressional Budget Decisions Are Putting Americans out of Work and Increasing the Risk of a Second Recession,” CAP Senior Fellow Scott Lilly writes that the loss of these jobs will have ripple effects throughout the economy.
The jobs losses that are a direct result of those actions will have a secondary impact on a wide array of businesses ranging from automobile producers to local restaurants and dry cleaning establishments, causing the disappearance of a significant number of additional jobs.
Already, the cuts to local law enforcement programs—which were cut by $2.5 billion compared to the previous year—are having a negative effect, Lilly reports. As an example, he turns to one California city: Read the rest of this entry »
Workers Urge Sen. Kerry to Strengthen Social Security, Not Cut It
AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this report.
With the deadline looming for members of a congressional “supercommittee” to decide how to cut the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion, local labor, religious and progressive activists took to the soapbox this week to petition Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the only member of the supercommittee from New England, to oppose any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Labor leaders in Worchester joined the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and Rep. Jim McGovern for a forum this week that outlined the serious toll that proposed changes to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would take on ordinary Americans. McGovern emphasized that the programs are essentially solvent, and that Social Security would pay out 100 percent of its obligations through 2036.
Paul Soucy, a representative from the United Steelworkers (USW), explained that raising the eligibility age for Social Security would endanger the lives of workers in hazardous occupations.
The United States—Europe’s New Mexico?
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More and more, you hear the phrase: “The United States is Europe’s Mexico.” And for good reason. Not only are 25 million workers looking for jobs in this country, if they’re lucky enough to find a job, chances are, it won’t pay well and often won’t provide paid sick leave, let alone retirement security.
As Jane Slaughter describes in her well-circulated article, “high-priced consultants” are “predicting that within five years certain Southern U.S. states will be among the cheapest manufacturing locations in the developed world—and competitive with China.” But Slaughter also writes that wages are sinking not only in the notoriously anti-union and thereby low-wage South, but increasingly the North as well.
From Slaughter:
For years advisers like the Boston Consulting Group [BCG] got paid big bucks to tell their clients to produce in China. Now, they say, rising wages there, fueled by worker unrest, and low wages in Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina mean that soon it won’t be worth the hassle of locating overseas.
‘Wheel of Cuts’ Spins in Missouri for Anti-Worker Senate Candidate
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
When Emerson Electric Co. CEO David Farr sent a letter to his employees urging them to donate their hard-earned money for the Missouri Senate campaign of Rep. Todd Akin (R), he dangled a pretty big carrot for those ponying up $5,000 or more: an intimate dinner with their boss and his wife. He probably didn’t expect the attention his offer would generate. But on the night of the big fundraiser in the tony St. Louis suburb of Ladue, a group of activists sent a tongue-in-cheek invitation to Farr, offering to lend a helping hand to the arm-twisting:
With 2010 earnings such as yours, it is understandable why you’re so committed to putting Todd Akin in the U.S. Senate. His positions have reliably favored CEOs over the interests of middle class workers and the poor. CEOs and Wall Street bankers can sleep a little easier knowing that Todd Akin is in their corner, even if it means the vast majority of his constituents get left behind.
Many of your employees are probably busy this week getting their kids ready for back to school and may have run short of time before tonight’s Ladue fundraiser. So to help ensure that as many Emerson workers as possible are able to chip in to Todd Akin’s election war-chest, a group of volunteers will come by at lunch time to help personally collect funds for the Senate race.
Will Rep. Cantor Rake in Massive Windfall if Government Defaults?
When Republicans walked out of budget talks last week, short-circuiting efforts to ensure the federal government does not default on its loans, the Republicans’ chief budget negotiator, Eric Cantor, led the way. Now in a stunning revelation, Salon reports that Cantor may have a vested interest in making sure the government defaults on its loans–he stands to gain substantial sums of money if it does.
According to Salon, Cantor is invested in a mutual fund “whose performance is directly affected by debt ceiling brinkmanship.”
Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, had between $1,000 and $15,000 invested in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT. The fund aggressively “shorts” long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, meaning that it performs well when U.S. debt is undesirable. (A short is when the trader hopes to profit from the decline in the value of an asset.)
According to his latest financial disclosure statement, which Read the rest of this entry »
Walker Ignores Voters, Signs Radical Budget
This is a crosspost from the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO by Karen Hickey in AFL-CIO Field Communications.
On Sunday afternoon behind closed doors, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed the most radical budget in Wisconsin history. Although the taxpaying public was blocked from the signing, hundreds protested outside as they had for months, while Walker silenced the voters and plowed forward with this agenda.
This budget will result in a major loss to the quality of life for the people of Wisconsin by crippling economic support systems for middle income and working class families and slashing education, health care and funds for local communities. This budget raises taxes on the working poor with children while lowering taxes for the elite and wealthy. Read the rest of this entry »
Wisconsinites Set Up ‘Walkerville’ Vigil for Budget Countdown
This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO by Karen Hickey in AFL-CIO Field Communications.
Community members of Wisconsin are raising their voice to protect education, public services and communities in Wisconsin.
Walkerville began with a welcome meeting. Peter Rickman, UW-Madison Law Student and Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA) member, outlined the rules and regulations of the community so that citizens of Walkerville can continue to hold their elected officials accountable safely.
Wisconsinites Set Up ‘Walkerville’ Tent City
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It’s a BYOB—bring your own sleeping bag—for Wisconsinites this weekend, as they head to Madison to launch a multiday protest at ”Walkerville,” a tent city set up to call attention to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-middle class budget. Walker’s proposed budget cuts would slash education, health care and other crucial working family issues.
Union activists say that after locking down the Capitol to the people of Wisconsin, Republican state lawmakers are planning to pass their radical budget in the dead of the night with no citizen participation. As the Madison-based South Central Federation of Labor puts it:
Without witness they are gutting our schools, crippling our communities and eliminating programs for the poor and elderly.
The action begins June 4 at 7 p.m. and will continue indefinitely until the budget is passed. Each day will have a theme and educational program.
Follow the events via Twitter with the hashtags #wiunion and #notmywi and stop back here for updates.
Breaking: Senate Set to Vote on Republican Budget Shortly
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Breaking News: Manny Herrmann, AFL-CIO online mobilization coordinator, sends the following.
According to The National Journal, the Senate is expected to vote today on Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget that not only permanently extends the Bush tax cuts—but gives even more tax cuts to Wall Street and the wealthy—and pays for them by slashing services for seniors, children and low- and middle-income working families.
The House Republican budget bill would destroy Medicare as we know it and replace it with underfunded vouchers—a dangerous move even former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich called “right-wing social engineering.” When Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) announced he’d vote “no,” on the Ryan budget, he pointed out his fear that “as health [care] inflation rises, the cost of private plans will outgrow the government premium support—and the elderly will be forced to pay ever higher deductibles and co-pays.”
It’s important to note that Ryan’s tea party-inspired budget bill isn’t a deficit-reduction plan—it’s Robin Hood in reverse. While it includes $4.3 trillion in deep budget cuts—perhaps the most wrenching in our nation’s history—it almost completely cancels out these harsh cuts with $4.2 trillion in tax giveaways that disproportionately benefit America’s top earners.
Pop Quiz: What Will Rep. Ryan’s Robin Hood in Reverse Budget Do to America?
Manny Herrmann, AFL-CIO online mobilization coordinator, details the extent to which the Republican budget proposal would hurt working families.
Pop Quiz: What would America look like under Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) radical tea party-inspired budget?
A. A typical 65-year-old would spend $6,359 more per year out of pocket for health care by 2022 because Medicare’s promise would be replaced with underfunded vouchers.
B. At least 15 million U.S. residents would lose Medicaid health care.
C. $4.2 trillion in new tax cuts would be handed out mostly to corporations and the rich.
D. All of the above.
