U.S. Incomes Down, Jobless Rate Up, America Wants to Work
So, Congress this week passed a budget bill that did nothing to address the nation’s jobs crisis.
Meanwhile, back in real-world America:
- The unemployment rates rose in more than 90 percent of U.S. cities in June, “mirroring a national slowdown in hiring.” Jobless rates worsened in 345 large metro areas, dropped in 20 cities and were unchanged in seven. That’s worse than May, when rates rose in only 210 cities, the Labor Department announced yesterday.
- U.S. incomes plummeted again in 2009, with total income down 15.2 percent in real terms since 2007, new tax data showed on Wednesday and reported by Reuters. “The data showed an alarming drop in the number of taxpayers reporting any earnings from a job—down by nearly 4.2 million from 2007—meaning every 33rd household that had work in 2007 had no work in 2009.
- Nearly every economic indicator is down, notes the New York Times today. Economix writer Catherine Rampall analyzed the data in overall economic growth (gross domestic product), jobs, personal income, length of the workweek, personal spending and industrial production. All down.
- ProPublica compiled a “Sputtering Economy by the Numbers” list that includes a myriad of factoids such as: Total jobs lost since January 2008: 8.7 million. Total jobs recovered since January 2008: 1.8 million. Read the full list here (if you have the stomach for it).
- And then there’s the chart below, showing the United States has hit another record: 45.8 million people are getting food stamps. As Meteor Blads writes on Daily Kos: ”It would be a lot more, but only about 67 percent of the eligible people actually apply.”
No Jobs in Budget Deal
Where are the jobs? Not in the budget agreement reached over the weekend and passed 269-161 last night by the House. The budget deal, which the Senate passed moments ago, is bad for our country and especially bad for working people. It undermines the nation’s ability to solve the real crisis—America’s jobs crisis.
The deal hurts working families by:
- Not making the smart public investments we desperately need to restore America’s place in the world.
- Cutting programs that are helping working families keep a toehold on the ladder to the middle class while refusing to hold hedge fund managers and other millionaires and billionaires responsible for paying their fair share.
- Virtually ensuring that Congress will spend another four months focused on budget-cutting instead of jobs and investment in the future. This means the fight to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid has just begun.
‘Time for Working Class to Have A Voice’ in Budget Debate
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
Fed up with inaction and partisan-political game playing in Washington, Kentuckians gathered in Louisville to call upon Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to stop the partisan politics and pass a budget that works for all working families, not just millionaire CEOs. They called out their senator for putting the 2012 elections ahead of the needs of his own constituents who would be impacted by deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
A delegation that included Rev. Charles Elliott, local voters and United Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts attempted to visit McConnell’s office, but when all but two were turned away by security, Roberts joined the crowd marching around the federal building while Rev. Elliott and a local senior citizen met with staff.
In nearly 100 degree heat, the crowd prayed and sang, marched and rallied for a humane federal budget with sane priorities while the pair met with Sen. McConnell’s staff. Roberts said “It is time for the working class to have a voice in this debate.” He called upon McConnell as well as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to stop holding the economy hostage. Even as the rally was coming to a close, another round began arriving on their lunch hour, with signs calling for no cuts to the critical programs that Kentucky families need. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Gang of Six’ Proposal Puts Deficit Reduction on Backs of Working People
The so-called “Gang of Six” deficit reduction proposal is not the “shared sacrifice” its backers claim the plan contains, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Both parties keep telling us that deficit reduction requires “tough choices” and “shared sacrifice” and “taking on sacred cows.” But then we keep seeing bipartisan support for plans like the so-called “Gang of Six” that cut Social Security benefits, kill jobs, give tax incentives for corporations to export good jobs overseas, tax health benefits and lower tax rates for billionaires and corporations. There’s no shared sacrifice here.
Trumka says “the only sacred cows being gored” are working people, the middle class, seniors and the poor. While tax cuts for the wealthy are well spelled out, says Trumka:
there is nothing here for working people. We need to keep asking our leaders: “Who got us into this mess?” It wasn’t working people. The people who got us into this mess are getting off scot-free, and this Gang of Six proposal shows they have accomplices in both parties.
Click here for the full statement.
Senate Rejects Medicare-Scrapping Budget
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In a 40-57 vote, the U.S. Senate rejected the budget passed by House Republicans. The budget would have replaced Medicare’s guaranteed health care funding for seniors with underfunded vouchers for private insurance, forcing a typical 65-year-old to spend $6,359 more a year in out-of-pocket costs by 2022. It also would have made drastic cuts to services for children and working families to pay for tax cuts that mostly would benefit corporations and the wealthy.
All Democrats opposed the budget proposal, as did Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Paul, a tea party favority, said the budget didn’t go far enough.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said this about Wednesday evening’s vote:
This tea party budget would destroy the fabric of our country rather than put America back to work and focus on what’s important….While it cuts $4.3 trillion in spending that mainly helps middle- and low-income Americans, it gives out $4.2 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. This is no more than a pass-through to enrich the already rich at a time when inequality stands at historic levels….
Those who supported this measure need look no further than the NY-26 special election to see that voters are watching and there are consequences to supporting corporate CEOs at the expense of working people.
Jobs Clock Tick Tocks as Republicans Can’t Find Time for Jobs Bill
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House Republicans talk the jobs talk, but they sure aren’t walking the jobs walk. Here we are, 109 days into the 112th Congress, and House Republicans haven’t produced one piece of jobs legislation. This clock will keep on ticking until we see a real jobs bill. (Click here to get the code so you an embed the clock on your web page or FaceBook page.)
The economy is not going to heal itself. Instead of a jobs bill that could help the more than 24 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed, Republicans have given us their proposed budget—straight out of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) horror movie economics laboratory. It could cost between 1.7 million and 2.2 million jobs in the first two years alone.
It’s as if they have shrugged their shoulders, looked at the 24 million in need of work, and said:
So be it. Let’s cut corporate taxes, give the rich a break on taxes, while privatizing Medicare, decimating Medicaid, repealing health care reform—and when we get the chance, privatize Social Security.
It’s time for Republicans to reject their “So Be It” spending plan, which puts ideology before jobs, and make a bipartisan effort to create a plan that reduces the deficit, creates jobs, and strengthens the middle class.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
Tell Obama, Senate: We Need Fair Budget, Not Robin Hood in Reverse
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It was no surprise when House Republicans stood together last week and used their majority muscle to pass—without a single Democratic vote—their Robin Hood in Reverse budget plan that privatizes Medicare, cuts corporate taxes and taxes for the wealthy, cuts Medicaid funding, repeals health care reform and slashes up to 2 million jobs.
They claim the plan, developed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is an attempt to balance the budget and deal with the deficit. But even a causal glance at the math shows the Republican budget plan cuts $4.3 trillion in spending and hands out $4.2 trillion in tax giveaways, mostly to the wealthy and corporations. Not much left for the deficit is there?
The Senate could try to make a deal that meets House Republicans halfway. Halfway down the road to ruin is still dangerously far down that road.
We need to take action. You can click here to tell your senators and President Obama to reject the House Republican budget fraud—and create a responsible 2012 budget that funds the America we believe in.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tell Lawmakers, ‘Don’t Make Us Work ‘Til We Die’
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There is a scary scenario in store if the Republican budget, drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, is ever implemented. Take a look at this new video from Strengthen Social Security, Don’t Cut It, that takes us to a new dimension where “politicians are cutting our Social Security and Medicare and forcing us work until we die.”
The Serlingesque video is part of a new campaign to fight back against the Republican budget and other proposals to raise the retirement age, turn Medicare over to Big Insurance and slash Medicaid for seniors, children and people with disabilities.
Next week on April 27 and 28 in more than 50 cities in 18 states, activists from the Strengthen Social Security, Don’t Cut It coalition—the AFL-CIO and the Alliance for Retired Americans are part of the coalition—will hold events at congressional district offices to tell their lawmakers hands off Social Security. Visit the Alliance here and the Strengthen Social Security coalition here to find an event near you.
If you can’t make to a rally or there isn’t one in your area, you join a virtual rally here.
Republican Budget Cuts Would Cripple NLRB
Proposed Republican budget cuts to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could force the agency to furlough workers for as many as 64 days between now and Sept. 30, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The CRS report says if the $50 million cut House Republicans are seeking for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 was enacted, “the substantial reduction in work days would be dramatic.”
Other NLRB activities that could be affected include Board decisions, remedies to ULPs [unfair labor practices], collection of back pay, requests for court injunctions to stop ULPs, responses to public inquires, outreach, completion of financial and other reports, and other activities.
In a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) writes:
As you know, the NLRB’s mission is vital to enforce protections for American workers and private businesses under the National Labor Relations Act. According to the CRS, “[r]educed NLRB staffing could affect employers, employees, and unions.”
Republican Budget Cuts Would Shut Social Security Offices
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House Republicans want to slash funding for Social Security Administration (SSA) so deeply that the agency would be forced to shut down for the equivalent of a month with worker furloughs this year.
Today, 125 members of the House Democratic Caucus sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) urging him to restore reasonable SSA funding levels. Says House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sander Levin (D-Mich.):
The Republican proposal to recklessly slash funding to the Social Security Administration jeopardizes its ability to get vital benefits into the hands of seniors and people with disabilities and provide assistance to the public. It is time for Republicans to abandon this irresponsible plan.
