Social Security Fearmongering
 |
|
When the report by the Social Security Board of Trustees came out last week, it found Social Security is strong for the long term. But that’s not what you’d hear from some corporate media outlets. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) points out that CNN coverage has been especially egregious, with Wolf Blitzer asserting that Social Security has reached “the financial tipping point.”
Other CNN talking heads painted a similar dire picture. We know they have cushy retirement pensions—why do they want to kill retirement funding for the more than 64 percent of America’s retirees who depend upon Social Security as their sole source of income? FAIR is urging people to contact CNN’s Situation Room and tell them what we think about their coverage: situationroom@cnn.com.
Trumka at CNN: Undocumented Workers Need Legal Rights
In a global economy in the 21st century, the United States cannot afford to have millions of hard-working people without legal protections, shut off from economic gain—and that means we must face head-on our own contradictions, hypocrisy and history on immigration, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says in an opinion piece at CNN’s website.
In “Undocumented Workers Need Legal Rights,” Trumka writes:
I hear from working people who should know better that immigrants are taking our jobs, ruining our country. When I hear that kind of talk, I want to say, did an immigrant move your plant overseas? Or take away your pension? Or cut your health care? Did an immigrant crash the financial system? Did immigrant workers write the trade laws that have destroyed so many jobs and industries?
Trumka on ‘Moyers’ Tonight, CNN Sunday
 |
||||
|
||||
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is tonight’s featured guest on “Bill Moyers Journal” on PBS. In an in-depth 30-minute interview, Trumka will outline steps to restore the nation’s economy, create jobs and rebuild the middle class.
He will talk about the AFL-CIO’s role in creating a broad movement of Americans to demand jobs and an economy that works for families on Main Street and why bankers and brokers on Wall Street must be held accountable with strong new financial reform rules.
Trumka will discuss why health care reform must pass and what it must include. He will explain why it’s time to restore the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Visit PBS to find the TV schedule for the time and channel in your area.
Trumka also will appear on CNN’s “State of the Union with John King” Sunday at 12:40 p.m. EST to discuss jobs, the economy, health care and deliver labor’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Lansing Mayor Hammers Unfair Traders
Mayor Virg Bernero of Lansing, Mich., is telling it like it is. In a commentary on CNN, Bernero takes on those pundits who claim the market and free trade will cure our economic ills. Here’s some of what the mayor says:
With all due respect, the free traders need to ask themselves a more fundamental question: How will Americans buy those goods when they don’t even have a paycheck that covers their mortgage, much less the college tuition for their children?
Bernero says President Obama’s stimulus package is badly needed, but it is just a beginning.
