The national Republican party has selected Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union address next week–sending a clear signal the party is making attacks on working people a top priority in the 2012 elections. Daniels is a key backer of right to work for less (RTW) legislation which state Republican lawmakers, in a stunning display of arrogance, have repeatedly tried to ram through, while thumbing their noses at working Hoosiers–not to mention democracy. Read more >>>

First, multimillionaire Mitt Romney told a group of jobless workers he’s also “unemployed.” Next, Romney thought there was no problem in stating publicly that he likes to “fire people.” Now, the Republican presidential wannabee proved yet again how out of touch he is with mainstream Americans by showing the extent to which he’s a member of the elite 1 percent. In South Carolina yesterday, Romney admitted he pays “around” a 15 percent tax rate, while earning $374,000 a year in speaker’s fees alone—an income he described as “not very much.” Read more >>>

Viewers in Austin, Texas, and Pittsburgh are getting the first public look at a new AFL-CIO television spot, “Work Connects Us All: America’s Unions.” The evocative ad features members of many unions, from virtually every industry, and is part of a broad campaign that aims to “fly above the tactics and controversies of the day” and connects with people around the values associated with work, according to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler. Read more >>>

Are we becoming the New Mexico?
One of the burning issues in legislative bodies across the country and at water coolers everywhere is the discussion of illegal immigrants, especially those from Mexico. But the immigrants illegal or legal are not the reason I ask the question posited above. No, my theory is that by continually cutting taxes for the rich and the safety net for the American workers we will become like Mexico and then it will be Canada that has the problem with people from the south illegally crossing the border.
Students in the US rank 14th in reading 17th in science and 25th in math among 34 countries examined. But what has been the reaction of our political leaders especially the republicans but also some democrats? Cut education funding and cut job training and gut the labor movement. Everyone (well almost everyone) agrees that to compete in the new global economy our citizens have to be better educated and better prepared to enter the workforce.

So after giving tax breaks to multibillionaires and lowly millionaires to the point where our state and national governments are almost bankrupt the people at the bottom get pissed on. For years states and cities borrowed money from overly flush employee retirement accounts (businesses did the same thing) or they promised more retirement if the employees would take lower wages. Then the robber barons on Wall Street almost bankrupted the whole country siphoning billions from employee pension plans. So what was the proposed solution to the now underfunded pensions? Was it to go after the thieves that stole or recklessly lost billions of pension dollars? Was it to hold money managers and investment advisors accountable? Was it an effort to curtail outrageous earnings and bonuses on Wall Street? Was it to ask how can one Hedge Fund CEO earn 3.7 billion dollars in one year? No the answer was as always, make the workers take the hit. Remember this was neither the company’s nor the government entities money; this was the employee’s money that was taken from them as deferred compensation. It was money that was supposed to have been invested wisely so the employee would have a secure retirement. And the employees are being blamed for all this mismanagement, theft and greed.
Used to be said that a rising tide lifts all boats; in the US today the rising tide lifts only yachts. The USA became the strongest economy in the world by sharing the wealth between the richest and the poorest. We built a growing middle class with strong unions and with that large middle class became the world’s leading consumers. And folks paid their way mostly in cash. Leading up to the recent economic meltdown we supported our consumption addiction with credit. Of course President George W Bush set a good example for us all by putting two wars on the credit card for future generations to pay. He also advised us that the proper response to horror of 911 was to go shopping. And so we did and in the process built a wonderful economic powerhouse …in China.
What we have done to future generations by building huge deficits is unforgivable but the answer is not to also steal their educational and earning opportunities. Nor is the answer to leave them at the mercy of unregulated multinational corporations. The world has seldom seen a dictator or despot that is as ruthless as an unregulated corpocracy (A society dominated politically and economically by large corporations). And that is where Mexico is today and that is where we are surely headed without some intervention. Cutting taxes for the wealthy and slashing government is all part of a long term plan that involves eliminating regulation of the air, water and especially the so called free market.
Privatization is also a part of that plan. Private companies are more efficient than government workers….. really? Do you want your water company run like the Cable Company, or Lehman Brothers, or maybe like one of the giant media conglomerates? Or how about we let Bernie Madoff run the Social Security Administration? I think it is interesting that a man who stole billions from unsuspecting investors is so aptly named; how much closer to Made Off could he get?
For years some of the wealthy have lobbied for tax breaks in the guise of creating jobs but the jobs they created were in third world countries. Then with the governments almost broke and unable to carry out even some of the more basic functions they began peddling the ineffectiveness of “big government” so those of us that were not paying close attention would get on board the anti government anti tax bandwagon. And get on it we did. Droves of ordinary citizens joined with multi millionaires and multi billionaires to fight the inheritance tax which they cleverly dubbed the death tax. Never mind that of the whole population probably less than 10,000 would ever have to pay the tax. Think about it this way, is your “estate” worth over 1.5 million dollars or 3 million for you and a spouse? If not the inheritance tax would not touch you. Did you ever notice a lot of the people lobbying on behalf of the tax cuts for the wealthy don’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of? ( I don’t believe that double wide in a rented lot is going to qualify for the death tax nor for that matter is that nice 3 bedroom two bath in the suburbs with the two car garage filled with households junk with the two SUVs in the driveway going to cause your estate to pay the death tax.
And then there was the capital gains tax, that might affect a few more but basically it was a tax that people pay to let their money work instead of them working. See the theme here, the rich folks don’t want to pay taxes on money they get without sweating for it but meanwhile the tax burden for the rest of us gets to be more and more. They put their money to work and don’t think they should pay tax on the earnings but many middle class and low income families put their spouse and or kids to work and of course they do pay tax on those earnings.
The best con game that has been pulled is to get ordinary working class folks to lobby for the elimination of the IRS and the income tax in favor of a consumption tax. So if a worker earns minimum wage he or she will pay taxes on every dime of that money but if a hedge fund CEO takes in 3.7 billion dollars they will pay taxes only on what they spend (in the USA) and keep in mind that it doesn’t cost much more for a billionaire to feed a family of four than it cost for the school bus driver to feed the same size family. Have you noticed that sales taxes continue to go up and fees that governments charge have gone up even more plus new fees are being added? These are fees and taxes that disproportionally effect middle and low income worker.
In addition to the educational and training programs the US Congress seems hell bent on cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and restricting access to unemployment insurance. Meanwhile they are trying every trick in the book to weaken the already weak “Affordable Care Act” better known as health care reform or Obama’s gift to the insurance industry.
They are also cutting spending on roads, bridges, highways, mass transit, water supply systems and waste water treatment facilities. If you have driven much at all you have been across potentially unsafe bridges and surely you have hit a pothole or two and gotten rattled by numerous metal plates in the road. And then there is the traffic congestion caused by too many cars and too few transportation alternatives.
So as we enter the second decade of the 21st century the good ole USA is quickly becoming a third world country with an ever larger low income under educated population with more and more unemployment and with the only jobs created being those that pay a whole lot or pay very little. So how much longer until the average Joe realizes that he is carrying the rich guy’s bags in the hope that someday he will become a member of the exclusive country club of the rich but the rich guy is doing everything in his power to make sure the club remains exclusive. .
I am not interested in starting a class war, that was started long ago by the haves and currently the have-nots are losing the war because we are shooting each other while the enemy is smiling sly on the sidelines. I am a capitalist; I too was raised on the Horatio Alger bullshit that if we all work hard we could make it to the top. No society or economic system could ever exist with everyone on the top. Don’t get me wrong, learning and hard work will improve your chances in this world but don’t be tricked into believing that the only thing between you and untold wealth is a few more hours at the salt mine or that union guy next door that makes “too much and works too little”. That overpaid union guy is also a fable concocted to get working people to fight each other instead of fighting the greedy bastard bankers of Wall Street.
So today we have to ask ourselves this question; are we going to unite with our fellow workers and turn this country around or are we going to continue to be FOXed into believing that if we work just a little harder we too can become a member of the billionaire club? If too many people choose the later then we shall become the “New” Mexico.

The Georgia AFL-CIO is the state federation of labor representing over 80,000 members of more than 220 unions throughout Georgia. The mission of the Georgia AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our state and the nation.

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