The Republican Jobs Plan: Jobs? What Jobs?
To paraphrase that classic Wendy’s hamburger ad, when it comes to the Republicans’ so-called jobs plan, “Where’s the Jobs?
Senate Republicans successfully filibustered President Obama’s American Jobs Act and blocked a vote on a break-out provision that would enable some 400,000 teachers, firefighters and other first responders to get or keep a job. Republicans vow to do the same on an upcoming infrastructure jobs bill and other pieces of American Jobs Act when they come up for votes. Meanwhile, House Republicans have even refused to put the bill to a vote.
Why are they fighting so hard against creating jobs? Because they claim they have a better jobs plan. Oh yeah? Since when is a plan that’s heart and soul is tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, the rollback of essential federal regulations—including Wall Street reform—and the repeal of health care reform a jobs bill?
Take a look at some of these comparisons of the American Jobs Act and the Republican jobs bill.
- The American Jobs Act would create 1.9 million jobs, according to Moody’s Analytics. Moody’s says that the Republican jobs plan won’t “address [the cause of the current weakness] in the short term….In fact, they could be harmful in the short term.” Read the rest of this entry »
Who Opposes American Jobs, Kids?
Yesterday, President Obama was in Colorado highlighting his plan to put Americans back to work modernizing the nation’s aging schools and to make sure there are plenty of teachers to fill those schools. The plan involves $30 billion to put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work modernizing at least 35,000 schools across the country, and $35 billion to save the jobs of 280,000 teachers, police, firefighters and other first responders. American Progress puts the Republican opposition to the president’s plan in perspective.
THIS OR THAT:
We can put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work, keep 280,000 more Americans like teachers and cops in their jobs and modernize one-third of our nation’s schools for less than what keeping the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will cost us each year.
WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAYS:
From President Obama’s speech in Denver earlier this afternoon:
Every child deserves a great school—and we can give it to them. We can rebuild our schools for the 21st century, with faster Internet, smarter labs and cutting-edge technology. And that won’t just create a better, safer learning environment for the students—it’ll create good jobs for local construction workers right here in Denver, across Colorado and throughout the country. There are schools all throughout Colorado that need this kind of renovation. Last week, I visited a bridge in Cincinnati connecting Ohio to Kentucky that needs this kind of renovation. There are construction projects like these all across this country just waiting to get started. And there are millions of unemployed construction workers who are looking for jobs.
D.C. First Responders, Nurses Demand Working Ambulances With Air Conditioning
Riding in an ambulance in the nation’s capital may be hazardous to your health–and fire responders and nurses are demanding a change. Unions representing the District of Columbia’s emergency medical technicians, paramedics, fire fighters and registered nurses today urged Mayor Vincent Gray to ensure that the city’s ambulances are in working order and have operational air conditioners.
Last week, seven of the city’s Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department’s 25 basic life support ambulances–or 28 percent–were out of service. Many ambulances did not have functional air-conditioning systems. One ambulance without a working air-conditioner was ordered back in service even though a Department of Health inspector ordered it off the road after the temperature in the patients’ compartment reached 107 degrees. Another ambulance had a makeshift box fan to try to cool the patient compartment when its air-conditioner did not work.
In the letter to Gray, the union leaders said:
It is simply unacceptable for patients in need of emergency care to either not have an ambulance to transport them when needed or to have to be transported in an ambulance without a functioning air-conditioner.
The letter was signed by Brad Burton, Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of National Nurses United (NNU); Margaret Shanks, RN, President of the DC Nurses Association (DCNA); and Edward Smith, President of the D.C. Fire Fighters Association Local 36.
McConnell Leads Republican Opposition to 9/11 Health Care Bill
What’s holding up Senate action on the 9/11 health care bill that passed the House by a vote of 268 to 160 with bipartisan support in September? Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s opposition to the bill is the major stumbling block. McConnell has taken no public position, but in private, according to published reports, he has voiced opposition to the bill.
Reports John Toscano in the Queens Gazette:
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, from Kentucky, makes no effort to hide his anti-NYC feelings in opposing the 9/11 bill, even though many volunteers from outside the state volunteered their efforts to the Ground Zero cleanup and became sick as a result of it.
Washington sources reported McConnell’s opposition is the most serious impediment to passing the measure.
House OKs 9/11 Health Bill, But Senate Action Uncertain
The U.S. House today passed the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (H.R. 847) to provide long-term medical care and monitoring for the first responders, recovery workers and others exposed to the Ground Zero toxic mix of chemicals, jet fuel, asbestos, lead, glass fragments and other debris.
The bill passed 268 to 160, with 13 Republicans joining Democrats in support. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Taking care of those who bravely answered the nation’s call on 9/11 transcends partisan politics and tests the integrity of those serving in Congress, and we thank the 251 Democrats and the 17 Republicans who voted in support of the bill. But, the vast majority of Republicans and business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, chose to protect the status quo rather than help our heroes. Working families will not forget that choice this November.
In July, House Republicans blocked the bill. The bill’s fate is uncertain because the Senate must approve it and Republicans have the votes to mount a filibuster and block the bill. Also, both chambers will adjourn this week and not return until after the November elections.
Nine Years Later, 9/11 Heroes Need Help
Mike Hall contributed to this story.
Nine years ago, Vito Friscia was just one of the thousands of first responders who were heroes when he rushed to the scene of the Twin Towers collapsing on Sept. 11, 2001. A Brooklyn homicide detective, he was only a block away when the second of the Twin Towers fell. Engulfed in a perilous cloud, he put his life on the line to try to find survivors. Now, Friscia and thousands of other heroes of that tragic day are facing their own tragedy of serious illness.
More than 13,000 World Trade Center responders are sick and receiving treatment. Nearly 53,000 responders are enrolled in medical monitoring. Some 71,000 are enrolled in the World Trade Center health registry indicating that they were exposed to the toxins.
Friscia was exposed to the dangerous chemicals after he spent about a week at the site and then sifted through the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. Today, he has a deep cough, chronic sinusitis and shortness of breath.
Ironworker Creates Sportsmen’s Oasis for 911 Responders with Disabilities
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John Sferazo, a retired member of Ironworkers Local 361 from Brooklyn, N.Y., was one of the first responders after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. Like many of the firefighters, police officers, reservists and other union members who worked in the devastation of the bombed out World Trade Centers, Sferazo suffered psychological and physical damage, including the loss of more than one-third of his breathing capacity.
But despite his adversity, Sferazo is actively working to build a top-rated wildlife and nature program in Maine, which he is opening for hunting to veterans and first responders with disabilities.
In 2000, Sferazo, a member of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance, purchased a parcel of land in Maine known as Owen’s Marsh. A former asphalt plant, the site had been reclaimed, including the construction of a dam, which created a deep-water marsh. Five weeks after Sferazo purchased the property, the dam breached, releasing a 73-acre wall of water.
Workers Remember 9/11 Victims, First Responders
Read the AFL-CIO Executive Council statement honoring America’s 911 Heroes here.
Working people across the country today are participating in community service and remembrance events to honor those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the first responders who worked tirelessly to rescue the survivors.
These events, which cap a “summer of service” called for by President Obama, come just two days before the AFL-CIO begins its 26th constitutional convention in Pittsburgh, just 80 miles from Shanksville, where United Airlines flight 93 went down eight years ago.
From Anchorage, Alaska, to Peoria, Ill., to Nashville, Tenn., working people are organizing food drives, blood drives and other service events. AFL-CIO central labor councils have conducted more than 300 community-based service projects across the country throughout the summer. Local labor groups from across the country also have conducted activities to help the growing number of unemployed Americans in San Francisco, Dallas and dozens of other communities.
On the Hill, Fire Fighters Push for Bargaining Bill
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Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other congressional leaders told more than 1,000 members of the Fire Fighters (IAFF) yesterday that legislation protecting the freedom of firefighters in all states to join unions and bargain for a better life will be approved and signed into law.
Today, IAFF members are on Capitol Hill shoring up support for that bill and other vital working family legislation as part of the union’s 2009 Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.
In his opening remarks, IAFF President Harold Schaitberger said that it has been 74 years since the National Labor Relations Act—which covers private-sector workers, but not firefighters and other first responders and public employees—became law.
We’re not going to allow our members to wait any longer. We’ve waited long enough. It’s time for passage of our collective bargaining bill. It’s been 74 years that we’ve been waiting on the outside looking in for that federally guaranteed right.
Minnesota Nurses Negotiate Landmark Emergency Staffing
When disaster strikes, nurses and other first responders go far beyond the call of duty in rescuing and treating victims. Minnesota nurses answered that call in 2007, when the I-35 bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River.
Yet as Elizabeth Shogren, Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) an affiliate of United American Nurses (UAN), health and safety specialist, points out:
“What is not seen, however, are the heart-wrenching tensions and potential danger facing these heroes behind the scenes.”
She was referring to dangers like short staffing that make it difficult or impossible for nurses to provide the quality care patients deserve all the time, including during emergency situations. Now, a landmark agreement between MNA and Allina Hospitals & Clinics establishes emergency response working conditions.
