Labor: Tax the rich, don't touch safety nets

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By SAM HANANEL

WASHINGTON (AP) - After two years of getting pummeled in Wisconsin, Indiana and other battleground states, leaders of the nation's big labor unions were beaming on election night.

Labor's massive voter turnout effort played a major role in helping President Barack Obama win Ohio, Nevada and Wisconsin, according to exit polls, and its leaders are now looking for a more liberal, pro-union agenda from the White House.

"There are things the president can do, and we'll be expecting that leadership from President Obama," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters after the election.

Topping labor's wish list - for now - is a push to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and discouraging Obama from agreeing to any deal with Republicans over the looming "fiscal cliff" that cuts into Social Security and Medicare.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121110/DA2F1J701.htm

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File- This Aug. 4, 2010 file photo shows President Barack Obama standing with AFL-CIO Presidet Richard Trumka after he spoke about jobs and the economy at the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Washington. “There are things the president can do, and we'll be expecting that leadership from President Obama," Trumka told reporters after the election. Topping the list, for now, is a push to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and discouraging Obama from agreeing to any deal with Republicans over the looming "fiscal cliff" that cuts into Social Security and Medicare benefits. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

[daybranch]

1. The labor unions are bastions of freedom

The right to organize and bargain collectively should be enshrined into the constitution of every country, including our own. No better champions of the people have emerged and our freedoms and welfare have now come to depend heavily on the well being of unions. They are not just representing their own members but fight for all. Lets back them whether we are members of a union or not. They have our back. Whose side are you on? They are on ours.

[freshwest]

15. +1,000

[John2]

2. They

need to stay involved to help the President against the resistant of the GOP. The President can't do it alone against the obstructionist GOP Congress, where their representatives are mostly located in these hostile red states but they can target representatives in Blue States. These are the tactics the GOP have been doing in red states. The Democrats need a wipe out of their own in these Blue States. The unions can mobilize their forces to help with that in 2014. The President shouldn't cave in to the GOP or media pundits either. If he had gotten his programs through in the last four years, the country would have been better off but the problem has been the GOP's obstinance. That is why the Bush tax cuts has still been in place. The President didn't get all his Policies through. That is why the economy and deficit is the way it is. So the failure of the economy and deficit really can't be blamed on the President, but on the GOP. We are seeing right now what they have been doing to the President's Policy, and they blame the failure on him.

McConnell and Boehner has been doing this for the last four years. They are America's problem. When Bush and Reagan were elected to President, the Democrats gave them their Policies and never obstructed them on tax cuts. They gave them whatever they wanted while the base of the Democrats objected. The Democrated representives respected the will of the country though. What we are seeing now is the opposite. The Republicans don't want to respect the will of the people. They think they won the election and want to implement Mitt Romney's Policies. The media pundits are also getting involved in politics. They are just ganging up on the President instead of placing criticism on the obstinate GOP. They place it on the President with the intention of making him cave in. It was these same pundits also that gave the tea party some voice in the media. We all see who the Tea Party really was now. They were really interest groups of the GOP rightwing. Now it is time for the people that elected this President to fight the GOP, including this hostile media.

[stanchaz]

3. NEVER! THE RICH NEED M-O-R-E TAX CUTS!!!

NEVER!
The RICH absolutely need more tax cuts

..and a few more bottles of Absolut might be in order too.

There really seems to be some confusion here, ...perplexity, ...a lack of clarity.

Perhaps I need to explain "TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS" to you.

After all, it's things like this that keep Economics Professors like me in business, no?

I am sorry...I am without my graphs and charts.... but here goes, anyway:

Basically ,there are two parts to this beautiful ,time-tested theory.

The FIRST part is the "TRICK"-le part.

You must realize, you must understand,

that this IS all a trick. An elaborate trick yes, but still a trick-

a trick where the super-rich are the "trick-sters",

and you, my poor friends, you are the "trick-ees".

Do I make myself clear? Good, then we'll go on to the second part.

The SECOND part, dear students of the world,

is the crucial "Trickle-DOWN" phase.

That, my friends, simply means that the super-rich

URINATE all over the rest of us

...and then laugh all the way to their off-shore banks and tax-shelters.

I hope that I have been helpful. Until next time.

- Professor America

P.S. In other words, the Bottom Line is this:

the ONLY acceptable looters are the super-rich.

Anybody else.... is subject to arrest. GOT THAT?

[TahitiNut]

5. Well, to be fair, Gandhi drank his own urine.

Our Ruling Class is generously allowing us to have a superior quality of urine. Theirs. I, for one, have been benefited enormously from my Gandhi-esque experience.

[dotymed]

4. Labor Unions are the people, whether they know it or not.

In the south, most believe that Unions are rip-offs and you pay the more money than you earn. That shows the low information citizens here. I am a retired Union carpenter and I am considered "well off" in average circles. I have dental care and a small check with my disability....actually I am around the poverty line.
I often speak to young and older (my age) people about the benefits of Unionizing. They think it is a "rip-off and think that Union wages played a role in our economic trouble...really.
I worked (carpenter) for 13 years non-union (including owning my own business). Only after moving north and joining the Union was I able to earn a living wage and have health insurance (at one time we even had legal insurance) for my family.
It takes collective bargaining and hard work for an average person to earn a decent living. These people do not think about the huge greed that the contractors have that makes them wealthy and the people who do the work, poor.
People in the south do not have a clue. They believe the guys living in the mansions telling them, the people who actually work, if they went Union they would go out of business. Actually, they may not live in mansions while their workers depend on food stamps and have no health care. It sickens me.

[John2]

11. I'm

a southerner. Believe it or not, the South is changing but it is a slow process. The notion against Unions in the South is really perpetuated by older generations and the idea about minorities (Blacks in particular) progressing materially. You can see a crack in that though with younger generations. Unfortunately North Carolina took a step backwards but the election was still close in North Carolina. Both sides got more votes than in 2008 but Obama lost some white votes among women.

I think you would find some Unions in Virginia which has turned blue now twice. So I wouldn't give up on the South. There are areas in North Carolina that President Obama won by large margins. He won around every one of North Carolina's largest urban areas by large margins. The area that I live in around Durham county, is pretty liberal. That is why I don't think Pat McCrory is going to get his way or he'll have a revolt in urban areas. The City of Durham would probably go around Governor Elect McCrory and deal directly with the Federal Government on issues that concern them on issues. Our representative who is a Democrat, won by a landslide in Durham County.

[freshwest]

16. +1

[KansDem]

6. It's only fair...

The rich had their taxes cut so they could "re-invest" in America, creating jobs and a stronger economy. They didn't do that; they didn't live up to the part of the bargain. They took their new-found swag and created jobs in India and China. Or they hid it in secret offshore tax havens.

Now it's time to impose higher taxes on them to help the country.

Maybe next time they'll do what they say they're going to do...

[Cal33]

10. You left out an important part: The rich also used the money which was unfairly, although legally,

obtained, to corrupt and buy government officials, so that they could practice fraudulent
elections, further suppress the middle-class Americans,.. etc... with the money which
should have gone to the middle-class in the first place.

[KansDem]

13. Good point!

There's a book in the making that could shed light on how this country was "governed" for the last 60 years or so.

Probably require multiple volumes...

[Teamster Jeff]

7. K&R

[Daniel537]

8. Yep yep yep!!!

Stand firm, Mr. President. The People are with you.

[Starry Messenger]

9. k&r

Steve, I think the link might have expired, I clicked and it went to a dead end.

[Omaha Steve]

18. NEW LINK

Try this: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121110/DA2F1J701.html

[Starry Messenger]

19. Thank you!

Looks good.

[bvar22]

12. Meanwhile,

7 more Anti-LABOR "Free Trade" deals are being secretly "negotiated".

One can NOT be FOR "Free Trade"
and Pro-LABOR at the same time.
The two positions are Mutually Exclusive.


[font size=4]The Graven Image on the altar...

of the New Church of Giant Invisible Hand[/font]

Sorry, Virginia,
but there is no such thing as "Free Trade", "Free Markets" or an "Invisible Hand".
The RICH made that shit up to bust Unions, Lower Wages, and avoid Environmental Regulation.
Their "Free Trade" SCAM has worked perfectly.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[midnight]

14. K&R and please bring back full employment...

[FreeBC]

17. The title is apparently inaccurate

The title says "don't touch safety nets" but the excerpt of the article says the opposite. The excerpt says 'discouraging Obama from agreeing to any deal with Republicans over the looming "fiscal cliff" that cuts into Social Security and Medicare benefits.'

"Don't touch safety nets" is much different than saying "don't touch the existing deal that will gut our social safety net."

The link does not work so I couldn't read further to see if this was clarified or re-stated elsewhere in the article.