Reid, Manchin, Quinn Tell Executive Council Union Support, Jobs Message Key to Wins
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the AFL-CIO Executive Council this morning to keep one thing in mind after last Tuesday’s election: “We still have a lot of unfinished business and we are still in the majority. We aren’t going to take a backseat to anybody on anything.”
Reid, Senator-elect and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, all of whom enjoyed overwhelming support in votes and volunteers from union members, this morning called in to a post-election council meeting at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the Nevada election was “a fight for good jobs, a decent wage, the right to join a union and fair trade.”
‘Tenthers’ Would Abolish Wage and Child Labor Laws, Social Security, Medicare and More
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Most cults are based in some sort of skewed spiritual vision or the worship of a charismatic leader, but there is a re-emerging cult that bows down at the feet of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many of them want to bring their cultish beliefs to the halls of Congress and are running for election this fall.
They’re called the “tenthers” and they say federal laws and rules like the minimum wage, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education, even child labor laws and a laundry list of other federal laws and programs are unconstitutional.
Their rationale—irrationale would be a better word—is that if a federal power is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, well the government doesn’t have it, according to their view of the 10th amendment.
It’s a view that has long been discredited, but reappears from time to time, such as during FDR’s New Deal era and after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
Here’s Think Progress in today’s Progress Report:
Union Activists Getting Out the Vote Around the Country
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Here’s a quick look at some upcoming AFL-CIO Labor 2010 actions in Nevada, Connecticut and Florida and reports on recent activity in Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
On Saturday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will join Connecticut union activists in get-out-the-vote (GOTV) neighborhood walks to convey how Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon thinks Congress should consider lowering the minimum wage.
Early next week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will be in Nevada, where extremist and tea party favorite Sharron Angle is opposing U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Among other outrageous positions, Angle wants to phase out and privatize Social Security and Medicare. Trumka will join union workers in Reno and Las Vegas for worksite leafleting and other actions.
Among other stops, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will be in Florida for a “twofer”—GOTV activities in Miami and Palm Beach and she’ll throw a jab at mostly Florida resident John Raese, who’s running as a Republican for the Senate in West Virginia and has sparked controversy over his recruitment of “hicky” blue-collar workers for his campaign ad.
Activists Tell Pa.’s Toomey, ‘Hands Off Social Security’
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At a rally last night, Pennsylvania senior, community and worker activists condemned Republican Senate candidate Rep. Pat Toomey’s call to privatize Social Security.
Pat Worrell of the community group Action United says the action, outside Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center prior to a debate between Toomey and Rep. Joe Sestak (D), was called to tell Pat Toomey, in no uncertain terms, that
Pennsylvanians oppose his reckless suggestion to divert taxpayer dollars from Social Security to Wall Street. The recession has made it clear that the last thing we need is our Social Security exposed to the insecurity of the stock market.
During the debate, Sestak, who has the backing of the Keystone State’s unions, asserted his support for strengthening, not privatizing, the nation’s most successful social program.
RNC’s Steele Refuses to Say if Minimum Wage Is Constitutional—BTW, the Answer Is YES!
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It’s one thing for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to be unable to remember the federal minimum wage—$7.25 an hour (chump change to Steele, but darn important to the worker trying to stay afloat on the minimum wage).
But it is completely another and downright weaselly thing to duck and talk circles around a simple question about if he believes, like so many other Republican candidates do this fall, that the minimum wage is unconstitutional, should be abolished or reduced.
Last night on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Steele bent himself into all kinds of shapes to avoid saying if the Republican Party agreed or disagreed with their Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller’s out-in-far-right-field claim the minimum wage is unconstitutional. Sure seems to be a pretty simple “Yes” or “No” kind of question.
68 Percent of Voters Frown on ‘Phasing Out’ Social Security
Attention, Rand Paul in Kentucky, Joe Miller in Alaska, Sharron Angle in Nevada and all you other Republican congressional candidates flopping around on the far right banks of the mainstream! Phasing out, privatizing or otherwise eliminating Social Security does not sit well with the vast majority of the voting public.
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 68 percent of voters are “uncomfortable” with candidates who espouse such notions. Uncomfortable is putting it nicely. It’s downright painful to listen to U.S. Senate wannabes and other Republican hopefuls “babble into the vapors” about phasing out Social Security (turnabout’s fair play, Alan Simpson!).
Jobs? Not Part of My Job Description, Says Angle
Most of us, especially the jobless among us, agree with Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), who yesterday said, “Jobs is Job One for this Congress.” But then there’s Sharron Angle.
The Tea Party/Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada says that if she unseats Sen. Harry Reid, she’s not going to be wasting her time worrying about putting Americans back to work. After all, she’ll have to get started on eliminating Social Security and Medicare. Here’s what she says about jobs and Congress:
As your senator, I’m not in the business of creating jobs….People ask me, what are you going to do to develop jobs in your state? Well, that’s not my job as a U.S. senator.
‘Can You Imagine Working Until 70?’ Congressional Republicans Think That’s OK
Republican Rep. John Boehner from Ohio says if his party took over Congress in the fall elections, it would raise the Social Security eligibility age to 70. Sharron Angle, Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada, said Social Security should be phased out.
As Social Security turned 75 in recent days, the nation’s most successful safety net is under attack as never before.
Writing at Huffington Post, Barbara Easterling, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, asks: “Can you imagine working until 70?”
Nevada Alliance Members Mobilize Against Angle’s Attack on Social Security, Medicare
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Nevada Republican U.S. Senate nominee Sharron Angle made many extremist statements during her primary campaign, and some of the most egregious involve her goal to eliminate Social Security and Medicare and privatize those two vital senior safety nets.
During a May 2010 debate on the public affairs show “Face to Face with John Ralston” Angle said, “We need to phase Medicare and Social Security out in favor of something privatized.” She repeated these views around the state.
Now that she must appeal to a much broader and far less extreme electorate than the right-wing Republican base in her race against Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), Angle has become much less vocal about her plans to eliminate Social Security and Medicare.
But the Nevada chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans is making sure Nevadans hear how she stands for gutting the nation’s senior safety net. Read the rest of this entry »
