"Never before have so few with so much promised to take away so much from so many and then laugh their asses off as the so many with so little vote for the so few with so much." A James Pence Quote
"American Politics, a sport for the rich and enslavement for the rest of us." A James Pence Quote
On this Labor Day America needs to demand that Washington politicians pay attention to the needs of our country. No more tax cuts for themselves, the ultra-rich and Corporate America. No more trumped-up "crises" that are created to cut services Americans depend on to horde the money to the top. America has a real crisis that is not being Adressed. A jobs crisis, a wage crisis and a crisis of leadership as the greediest and least patriotic among us in both political parties continue to stack the deck in their favor and against working America.
The right-wing is always whining about the economy, debt and our deficit. However despite all the whining they offer no real solutions. While they may try and mislead America into thinking they do the only thing they offer up is more of the failed policies that brought us here to begin with. Except now they offer often radical versions of that agenda. The real fact is that until more people in our country have more money to spend, and as long as it is all concentrated at the top nothing is going to improve.
You know, wealthy elitist politicians such as John Boehner have been talking a lot about the deficits they were instrumental in running up. Of course, they do not talk about anything coming out of their own pockets for their incompetence, or about making the wealthy pay for the economy they crashed after decades of a free ride, they talk of course about a way of stealing the Social Security benefits from millions of younger workers, the disabled and and orphaned children and putting it in the pockets of the very rich and of course, themselves. Having lived a life of priviledge and luxury, of course it is very easy to tell hard working Americans they should be forced to work longer for lower wages.
We all saw the video of Anthony Weiner blasting the Republicans on the House floor for playing politics with 9-11 first responder healthcare. While that issue was personal to him, the fact of the matter is that every since they lost power for crashing the economy and dividing and nearly destroying this country Republicans have been using political games to try and keep anyone from cleaning up the huge mess Republican control of our government wrought upon this country. Now Weiner, far from backing down is pointing out how nothing not even the well-being of our country is above politics to Republicans.
After the recent mining disasters and the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon lawmakers continued to debate legislation to toughen workplace safety rules and increase penalties on employers that ignore them. Luckily for all the nation's workers, the new rules will not only apply to coal miners but to all of America's workers. For only the second time in forty years, employers will face new regulations on workplace safety. The new legislation would also prohibit the firing of workers who report unsafe conditions.
This has been a problem for a long time now. China manipulating their currency to cost Americans manufacturing jobs and cause a huge trade deficit for our country. It also drives down wages as greedy corporations take advantage of the virtual slave labor pool that exists among the oppressed people in Communist China. Of course, with so many "leaders" in our Congress like the Senator for Communist China Mitch McConnell it is no surprise nothing has been done. Now, July 13 is National call in day to tell Congress to end Chinese currency manipulation.
The Rand Paul campaign was really proud of the $2500 their campaign received from the National Right to Work for Less Committee. Of course there is a very good reason for that. The National Right to Work Committee is an extremist group and as we all have seen Rand Paul is an especially extremist candidate. He opposes the right of Americans to have and maintain a middle-class and falls into the most helpless realm of corporate apology and welfare condoned by his new mentor, Mitch McConnell. The difference is, Rand Paul was undisciplined enough to tell you how Republicans really feel about you.
We all remember the tragic mining incidents in West Virginia and here in Kentucky earlier this year. One theme that rang true in both instances is that in both cases lax regulation and a tendency to put profits over people seemed to play a major role in the lives lost. While nothing good can come out of the senseless deaths of hardworking Americans, hopefully these instances showed our country that not only in mining, but in every industry in this country it is once again time to get serious about making those who employ workers do all that is possible to protect them. After all, with no workers there can be no profit.
Besides the millions of gallons of crude leaking into the Gulf of Mexico the continued deregulation of industry in general and in particular the oil and gas industry has caused much death and misery. The continued quest of profits over people has determined that to pinch pennies some workers are just plain expendable to fatcat Corporate CEOs. Along with lower wages, shrinking benefits and an uncaring attitude by management this has been a big part of the war on the American worker waged relentlessly by Corporate America with their enablers in both political parties. However, thankfully the sorry record these folks have compiled as they basically regulate themselves has not amused everyone in Washington. Today Patty Murray (D-WA) blasted the industry on the sorry record they have compiled.
Now that the Healthcare fight has ended in a disappointment for many of us it is time to move onto other fights and show some real fights. Especially the fights where the facts are on our side. It is time that we fight for the Employee Free Choice Act because the facts are on our side and it is far past time the middle-class saw a rebound. You see, one fact is that First Contract Arbitration does nothing to kill "small businesses".
We all know how loud, boisterous and idiotic the tea-bagger movement was in disrupting the townhalls last year with their rude behavior and little concern for fellow citizens views. With that in mind proponents of Universal Healthcare are also waging a campaign to be heard. Thousands of them rallied today in Washington D.C. to make their voices heard. It remains to be seen if they will get the same airplay as the opponents of Progress in our country.
With the crashed economy came many struggles for the American worker. Honest, hardworking folks who had already seen their wages stagnate in the last few decades now became unemployed or underemployed. Because of this last year Congress, seeking to show that they felt the pain of the American people decided to vote to forego their cost of living increase. This year, some in Congress are even suggesting a decrease in Congressional pay as the economy continues to struggle. While this may indeed be a popular idea among the American people a better idea would be to link raises and bonuses of elected officials and Corporate CEOs with the wage increases of the average American worker.
When Max Baucus released his "compromise" bill it seemed to finally reach some bi-partisanship. For the first time in a long time Progressives and Conservatives seemed to agree on something. They both hated the bill, albeit for different reasons. For Conservatives, they hate anything that is called Healthcare reform, and Progressives hated the fact that the bill reeked of something we have seen far too much of in the last several decades, Corporate Welfare.
Everyone knows that tomorrow is Labor Day. Many have already partied all weekend and are looking foward to an extra day tomorrow to recover. Across the country tomorrow there will be countless parades and festivities to mark the sacrifices of workers in building this nation on a day that came to life when Grover Cleveland signed a bill in in response to numerous workers being killed by the military and the US Marshalls during the Pullman strike and has been the marker for the ending of summer every since.
