AFL-CIO president blasts the "world view" that "has brought Democrats nothing but disaster"

[highplainsdem]

Wonderful populist rant...


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/union-chief-blasts-health-benefits-tax/

“Too often Washington falls into the grip of ambivalence about the fundamental purpose of government,” Mr. Trumka said. “Is it to protect wealthy elites and gently encourage them to be more charitable? Or is it to look after the vast majority of the American people?”

Mr. Trumka and other union leaders said they would tell Mr. Obama at their White House meeting Monday afternoon that it would be economically and politically unwise to enact a tax on high-priced, employer-provided health benefits as part of the health care overhaul. Union leaders argue that this would hurt the Democrats politically because it would be seen as a tax on middle class workers when Mr. Obama promised not to increase taxes on the middle class.

-snip-

Instead of taxing the rich, the Senate bill taxes the middle class by taxing workers’ health plans — not just union members’ health care,” he said. “Most of the 31 million insured employees who would be hit by the excise tax are not union members.”

He added, “The tax on benefits in the Senate bill pits working Americans who need health care for their families against working Americans struggling to keep health care for their families.”

He said too many politicians in Washington – both Democrats and Republicans – “now take for granted government’s role as protector of Wall Street and the privileged. They see middle-class Americans as overpaid and underworked. They see Social Security as a problem rather than the only piece of our retirement system that actually works. They feel sorry for homeless people, but fail to see the connections between downsizing, outsourcing, inequality and homelessness.”

“This world view has brought Democrats nothing but disaster,” he said.

“We crave political leadership ready to fight for the kind of America we want to leave to our children and against the forces of greed that brought us to this moment,” Mr. Trumka said. “But instead we hear a resurgence of complacency and political paralysis. Too many people in Washington seem to think that now that we have bailed out the banks, everything will be okay.”

[katandmoon]

1. K&R

[highplainsdem]

8. Thanks!

[Odin2005]

2. K&R for Labor!

[groovedaddy]

3. Agreed. n.t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. 1000 words:

[Kansas Wyatt]

17. Something odd about the photo you posted....

Notice RAH! RAH! RAHM'S! hand.

Look at it very closely, and you will see it, if you have ever worked for a living.

NOT A DAMN CALLUS ON HIS HAND & NO SCARS AT ALL!

That wormy little shit ball does not even know what work is, because he has NEVER worked a day of his life.
RAH! RAH! RAHM! has girlie hands.

[PassingFair]

37. He is famously missing a FINGER on his other hand from a meat slicer...

It is his middle finger....Obama made a joke that
in sign language, the accident effectively rendered him mute.


I despise Rahm as much as any Progressive can, but
he DID work hard in his youth, and he continues to
work hard (against US, unfortunately).

[RaleighNCDUer]

45. So the guy deemed smart enough to run the White House

isn't smart enough to keep his fingers out of a meat slicer.

That's ... comforting.

[PassingFair]

50. The Arby's massacre...

"At some point during his high school years, while working at an Arby's restaurant, Emanuel severely cut his right middle finger on a meat slicer. He sought medical attention only after suffering severe infection from swimming in Lake Michigan and as a result of the wound, the finger had to be partially amputated."

[eridani]

5. Send a copy of this to your representatives n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. America desperately needs labor leaders to start throwing what little weight they have left around

Huzzah Mr. Trumka!

[mzmolly]

7. Killer point!

“Is it to protect wealthy elites and gently encourage them to be more charitable? Or is it to look after the vast majority of the American people?” :toast:

[flyarm]

9. It will take Unions to save us from ourselves! Thank you all Union members..in solidarity!n/t

[anonymous171]

10. K&R. nt

[shadesofgray]

11. K&R. Unbelievable that the unions have to point this out to Obama.

[SergeStorms]

46. Unfortunately, since the Reagan administration.......

this has been "business as usual" for our government, Democrats and Republicans alike. The slow, steady decline of our once great country can be traced back to Uncle Ronnie and his draconian labor policies. :grr: Some would argue that it was Nixon who started the march toward third world status for Americans, but most will hang their hats on Reagan. And there hasn't been a Democratic President since then that has tried one iota to regain that ground. :mad:

Which reminds me, I've yet to fulfill the promise I made to myself that must I piss on Reagan's grave. Oh, I will, I WILL! ;)

[laughingliberal]

62. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Reagan as the chief architect (or really, salesman) of the policies that got

us here. Nixon was a little to the left of the Democrats in today's White House.

[rudy23]

12. Trumka '12

.

[rucky]

65. +1

My first thought after reading this.

[Bluebear]

13. Solidarity!

[mmonk]

14. He gave a great speech.

I heard a lot about what he said on Ed Schultz today.

[TheKentuckian]

15. K and effin R

[scarletwoman]

16. I'm really loving this guy! It was a lucky day when he took the reins of the AFL-CIO.

Every quote of his that I've come across has been absolutely right on! He really seems to be a truth-teller and a fearless fighter.

Yay, Trumka! :yourock:

sw

[highplainsdem]

18. +1

[FLAprogressive]

19. I hope the AFL-CIO endorses a primary challenge

[defendandprotect]

42. We need more than "hope" -- the Obama disappointment makes that clear . . .

We've waited 3 years for Pelosi to "end the war" which Dems were elected to do!

We've watched another major vote for Democrats to create universal health care go

down the garbage chute --

We need to find our power and use it -- together --

i.e., what's Plan B?

Has voting for the "lesser of evils" worked?

Or has it moved us further to the right?

[bertman]

20. K & R. nt

[dreamnightwind]

21. K & R

[ConsAreLiars]

22. In a class system the choice always is "Which side are you on?"

Obama, during the campaign and through the inauguration said 'our side' very clearly, and we heard it. Pete Seeger singing 'This land...' including the socialist verses with Springsteen at an inauguration??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSSIH37VS3Y

I still get a lump in my throat when reliving that moment, but now the tears that well up are less driven by relief and hope than by sadness.

I still hope.

But when he acts like best buddy to the Banksters and the warmongers and the whole fucking rest of this evil rapacious empire, well, hope dwindles.

Maybe he can do something in the future that will provide a better answer, but so far the answer has not been 'our side.'

(edit, because with 104 buttons and 2 fingers, stuff happens)

[kenfrequed]

34. Agreed

I am kind of sad that the bankers and insurance lobby and the war industry don't seem to need to worry about compromise as much. Only the absolute worst mercenary company offences are being prosecuted while Xe/Blackwater still gets contracts.

[Chisox08]

23. K & R

[lib2DaBone]

24. It's really good to hear Richard Trumka talk... he's the real deal...

I hope Mr. Obama is listening to this guy.. he could learn a lot...

[Union Yes]

25. Solidarity! K&R nt

[malaise]

26. If M$Greedia did their job this would be

the central discussion this week.
Spot on - what is the role of government? Down with the neo-liberal world view.

[uponit7771]

27. *******THE INSURANC COMPANIES WILL PAY THE TAX NOT THE WORKERS!!!!*****

...and to claim the cost will be passed on is to tout Big Oils line about taking away their 18 billion in tax breaks.

[Bluenorthwest]

35. What Union are you a member of?

And this routine about big oil, man that is a stretch and a half. It does not even make sense. What Union are you a part of? Any? None? Be specific. In lieu of your all caps raving, that is. Union member, or not?

[Xithras]

59. Do you have any clue what an excise tax is?

From Wiki:

An excise is an indirect tax, meaning that the producer or seller who pays the tax to the government is expected to try to recover the tax by raising the price paid by the buyer (that is, to shift or pass on the tax).

The United States has a lot of excise taxes. We place federal excise taxes on gasoline, we place excise taxes on cigarettes, we place excise taxes on your phone service, we place excise taxes on alcohol, we place excise taxes on yachts...they're all over the place. An excise tax is an event tax, or as we commonly call them in the U.S., they're sin taxes. They are taxes levied against things that society deems to be "optional", and which we determine that the buyers should therefore pay more money for. It's a sales tax targeted at a specific item.

More importantly, under IRS rules, excise taxes are treated as indirect taxes and are NOT considered to be part of a companies income. Excise taxes can be passed directly on to the customer without taking ANY financial loss. You can see simple confirmation of that by simply looking at your phone bill. It isn't even considered part of your base rate...it's a tax levied over and above the base product cost. Unless there's a specific exemption in the health care bill (and there isn't, I looked), the excise taxes won't even be applied to the base rate. Your insurance company will give you a rate of $X a month, but you'll be expected to actually pay $X+taxes monthly.

That's how excise taxes work. That's how excise taxes have worked for the past 150 years. If you can find me a single modern example of a SINGLE excise tax levied in modern times that wasn't simply passed directly to the buyers, WITHOUT having specific legislation passed to ban the practice, I'll donate $20 to DU today.

Claiming excise taxes on health care isn't a tax on workers is like claiming that sales taxes aren't taxes on customers. After all, the SELLER pays the sales taxes to the government...not you.

Heck, now that I think about it, why don't we go THAT way? Call your legislators today and demand that they raise the SALES tax to fund these sorts of things? Why should those big corporations like Home Depot, WalMart, and Sears get away with not paying taxes on their obscene profits? Increase the sales taxes today, and take part of THEIR money to pay for health care! If anyone argues against it, we'll just accuse them of supporting the positions of the megacorporations!

/sarc

[Canuckistanian]

28. K&R

[invictus]

29. K&R

[AzDar]

30. K & R

[mdmc]

31. SOLIDARITY

[blueworld]

32. Bravo, Mr. Trumka

As a Boomer, I can't describe to the younger folks how demoralizing, demeaning & financially devastating my working life has been since St. Reagan & the Wall Street Scripture were enshrined in D.C.

When I first started working at Pru in my teens there were employees there that had worked 48 years at that company, earned a modest pension, managed to accumulate savings in the company plan...I dreamed of the same. Ha!

Over the last 15 years of marriage neither my husband nor myself has worked at any job for more than 3 years, because the companies outsourced, downsized, moved overseas or plain collapsed. Almost every job we've had (and we're middle-management) has been through consulting or freelancing in the bargain.

Not being able to live on unemployment, the savings get depleted every couple of years, the 401K's get devastated (complete with tax penalty), you get another job, start repairing the finances & it happens all over again.

And the young folks today can't even start OUT with good, solid jobs anymore. God help American workers.

[katkat]

33. Unfortunately

If you read the NYTimes article from after the meeting, Obama plans to keep the tax on plans. He might jack up the limit a bit.

I hope the unions sit out 2010 and 2012 on everyone who votes for this plan.

[freddie mertz]

36. K & R. Let's take the fight to special interest sellouts!

Don't these WDC morans know what this legislation is going to do to them in the next two cycles?

[Better Believe It]

38. K & R

[marmar]

39. Because the Democratic leadership is elitist, and believes that the Wall Street elite.....

..... no matter how badly they f**k up and wreck the country, knows what's best for the rest of us.

[midnight]

55. They are already fixing that. Today they are in the supreme court rolling

back the 1970 and 2000 laws that limit corporate campaign contributions.

[closeupready]

40. They scratch each other's backs, regardless of which party they belong to.

K&R

[defendandprotect]

41. Wonderful comments -- but in order to penetrate Obama/DLC thinking ....

we're going to need more ---

He said too many politicians in Washington – both Democrats and Republicans – “now take for granted government’s role as protector of Wall Street and the privileged. They see middle-class Americans as overpaid and underworked. They see Social Security as a problem rather than the only piece of our retirement system that actually works. They feel sorry for homeless people, but fail to see the connections between downsizing, outsourcing, inequality and homelessness.”

“This world view has brought Democrats nothing but disaster,” he said.

“We crave political leadership ready to fight for the kind of America we want to leave to our children and against the forces of greed that brought us to this moment,” Mr. Trumka said. “But instead we hear a resurgence of complacency and political paralysis. Too many people in Washington seem to think that now that we have bailed out the banks, everything will be okay.”

[democrank]

43. "We crave political leadership......"

Afreakingmen

[avaistheone1]

51. Indeed!

:fistbump:

[avaistheone1]

54. Indeed.

We need strong leadership desperately.

[xxqqqzme]

66. Agree - 12 years of no leadership

gets us here.

[freddie mertz]

44. Reports on NPR today said the president would not drop this terrible tax plan.

Our only hope is that enough House members will have the stones to stand in door and stop it.

May not take too many either.

[groundloop]

47. Well, technically it's not the President that can drop this, it's the senate

And we all know what a mess that is right now.

However, if this passes then President Obama is going to own it. I'd like to see him use the bully pulpit more on healthcare, spend some of that political capitol he stashed away for a rainy day. I hope he realizes that if this goes through he can count on it coming back to haunt him big time in 2012.

[burning rain]

48. TRUMKA FOR PRESIDENT !!!

.

[bvar22]

49. Now THAT is what a "Democrat" should sound like!

K&R

"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[DisgustedInMN]

52. K&R

[upi402]

53. Obama is a corporatist, so are our "Democrats". k/r

“Is it to protect wealthy elites and gently encourage them to be more charitable? Or is it to look after the vast majority of the American people?”

I saw Trumka speak in 1989 at a labor convention. Good guy.

[Romulox]

56. Everything is going according to plan.

[rudy23]

71. When union members go marching in the streets, Team Obama can just compare them to teabaggers

I think this is what they really want.

Then they can have one "sane" corporate party in the "center."

[aquart]

57. DAMN STRAIGHT.

[amborin]

58. K&R thanks for posting this!

[BrklynLiberal]

60. another K&R for labor

[indepat]

61. The Democrats RW worldview is but compounding the disaster the 'pukes extreme RW

worldview has wrought upon us. :P

[varelse]

63. Thank you, organized labor

Thank you for the 40 hour week, OSHA, weekends, protection from discrimination and harassment in the workplace, minimum wage laws, and now... for speaking the truth to power, again.

[lsewpershad]

64. Thanks Mr Trumka for reminding us

why govt exists...to protect those who cannot protect themselves. If our govt continues to protect the wealthy then why do 90% of the american population need govt. It's definitely time to revolt.

[leftstreet]

67. K&R

[Political_Junkie]

68. Yes!

k&r

[totodeinhere]

69. I'm waiting to hear from some of the people at DU who always shill for this monstrosity of a..

hearth care bill. But I doubt if we will.

[dugaresa]

70. +1000 for the Unions!

[inna]

72. "To protect wealthy elites", apparently. KR

[myrna minx]

73. K&R n/t

[ItNerd4life]

74. Wow! Nice Rant! But Illegal immigration is almost as bad as outsourcing.

Either way, Amercian jobs are being lost.

[blue97keet]

75. I saw the speech on c-span

will anybody else have the decency to carry it?

[Dinger]

76. Mr. President, Are You Listening? Congress, How About You?

:shrug:

[Oldtimeralso]

77. K & R and proud to help union solidarity n/t

[Quantess]

78. I missed this thread. It's a good one.

[spoony]

79. Me, too. I wish the rec period was longer! nt