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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of March 9, 2008
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Updated on a regular basis
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| Strike up the violins: Bush and McCain in an earlier get-together. |
It got pretty cozy in the White House Rose Garden today when Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain sidled up to George W. Bush to pick up his endorsement.
McCain’s pilgrimage is a reminder that when it comes to backing Bush and his failed policies, McCain is no “maverick.”
Bush was so effusive in today’s press event he barely let McCain speak—making it clear that he expects McCain to be a successor in his own image. Bush can’t run for a third term and wouldn’t win if he did—with approval ratings at or below 30 percent for months—but with McCain as the Republican nominee, he’s got the next best thing.
Here’s how close the two are: McCain has voted in support of Bush’s positions 89 percent of the time—a lifetime voting record that in 2007, rose to a striking 95 percent, according to Congressional Quarterly.
This week, McCain expressed his support for Bush-style Social Security privatization. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, McCain reminded us he went on the trail with Bush to campaign for privatization.
When Bush vetoed a bill that would have renewed and improved the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), McCain told CNN it was the “right call.”
Both Bush and McCain are blind to the truth about the economy. They both seem to think the economy is doing well and that it’s inherently strong. (Of course, that requires them to ignore the job market, wages and the housing market.)
After the Rose Garden event today, McCain might recycle an old, but apt, slogan for his campaign: “Four More Years!”
Elaine
Chao has really made her mark.
From obstructing investigations to unnecessary acts of self-promotion, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao has disgraced her office.
But what's her worst deed? There are so many choices – we're undecided. Can you help us choose?
Take our poll right now to pick your top three misdeeds!
To thank you for taking our poll, we'll enter you in a drawing to win a prize pack including a $50 gift certificate to the union online bookstore Powell's, a copy of Studs Terkel's amazing book "Working," and some other goodies.
Check out the list and vote now.
So which do you think is worse?
Pushing to cut 8 million workers' overtime pay.
- Actively campaigning against bipartisan legislation that restores the rights of workers to freely and fairly form unions.
- Failing to issue fines for more than 4,000 mine safety violations.
- Covering up mine safety failures and obstructing Congressional investigations into mining disasters.
- Using tax dollars to create Chao-themed gold coins, lanyards, and fleece blankets for giveaways.
- Refusing to enforce rules requiring employers to pay for safety gear – contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
- Forcing longshoremen back to work without a contract, when their walkout could have cost her family's shipping company millions of dollars.
Outraged? Wait until you see the full list. Once we've narrowed our list down to the three "worst of the worst," we'll release it to the media and bloggers and expose just how much damage Elaine has done.
Voting ends Friday, March 14, so click here to see the list and vote now.
Then, be sure to forward this message to friends and family!
I can't wait to find out your picks!
American Axle Offers Real-Life Look at How NAFTA Hurts Workers by James Parks
With the political debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) heating up, candidates for president need only look at American Axle & Manufacturing for a real-life example of why our trade policies must change now.
Some 3,600 workers at American Axle in Michigan and New York, members of UAW, walked out Feb. 26, after the current contract expired and talks broke off with major issues unresolved.
American Axle is seeking to force steep wage cuts on its U.S. employees while expanding its Mexican operations. Even though the company earned $37 million in profits last year with sales of $3.25 billion, American Axle is demanding wage reductions of up to $14 an hour, as well as elimination of future retiree health care and defined-benefit pensions for active workers.
Many of the strikers say trade policies that have made it easier for companies to invest in places like Mexico and China are at the root of their problems. While American Axle has cut its U.S. workforce in half since 2004, the company continues to expand overseas with facilities in 12 countries, including Mexico, Poland and China. Since 2000, the company has invested millions of dollars into its 1.5-million square-foot plant in Silao, Mexico, which has been expanded six times. That plant is slated to be the hub for American Axle’s growing business supplying parts for passenger cars and crossover utility vehicles.
Bill Feldbush, a 13-year veteran at American Axle, told the Detroit Free Press:
We can’t make the same amount of money they [workers in Mexico and China] make and actually live here.
Last week, we noted the extensive job loss in Ohio’s auto industry due to NAFTA. The impact has been even worse in Michigan. The Center for Automotive Research reports that jobs at automakers and suppliers in Michigan dropped a stunning 45 percent between 1999 and 2007, from 316,300 jobs to 173,600 last year. Auto-related jobs dropped 29 percent in the same period in Ohio.
The workers say they are ready to talk anytime with management about a fair contract and are waiting for the company to signal it wants to negotiate. As UAW President Ron Gettelfinger points out:
Our union is a responsible organization, and we’ve worked through complex problems at Chrysler, Ford, GM, Delphi, Dana and other companies. But negotiations can’t be a one-way street.
Erv Heidbrink, president of UAW Local 2093, which represents some 800 UAW members at American Axle’s facility in Three Rivers, Mich., says:
Nobody likes a strike but the company continues to make unreasonable and unnecessary demands which attack our wages, pensions and health care, and they haven’t provided us the information we need to evaluate their proposals.
American Axle was created in 1994 when General Motors spun off five U.S. plants making axles and drive line components, employing some 6,500 UAW members.
NAFTA and trade policies are key issues in tomorrow’s Democratic presidential primary. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are criticizing the trade deal, which has cost good jobs in Mexico, Canada and the United States. Republican Sen. John McCain, on the other hand, supports free trade agreements modeled after this disastrous NAFTA.
Click here to see where all the presidential candidates stand on trade and manufacturing.
Comments:
DAILY GRILL
None this week
Quotes of the Day
The owner of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah where six coal miners and three rescue workers died last year showed a “callous disregard for the law and for safety standards, and hardworking miners lost their lives,” says Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. REST OF STORY
Recent Senate Votes
Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007 - Vote
Passed (83-10, 7 Not Voting)
The Senate passed this bill to revise and extend the Indian health care
program.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted
YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted YES
Recent House Votes
Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008 -
Vote Passed (236-182, 11 Not Voting)
The House voted to repeal certain tax deductions for oil and gas
companies in order to pay for the extension of renewable energy and
energy conservation tax credits for individuals.
Rep. Ron Lewis voted
NO
Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES
HUMOR
"It was a great night for
John McCain. In
fact, all is going just perfectly for John McCain until today when
President Bush
endorsed him for president. All that hard work right down the drain. The
truth is, McCain asked President Bush to endorse him. I'm starting to think
that maybe the guy likes torture." --Jimmy Kimmel
"The New York Times just reported that John McCain may be constitutionally
barred from becoming president because he was born outside the United States
in the Panama Canal Zone. When he heard this, McCain said, 'That's
ridiculous. When I was born, there was no Panama Canal.'" --Conan O'Brien
"Everyone is so concerned now where all of the candidates are born. McCain
was born on a military base in Panama. Hillary was born outside Chicago, and
if you believe the media,
Barack Obama
was born in a manger." --Jay Leno
"There have been charges of foul play from both sides. Obama has accused
Clinton of smearing him by implying that he's a Muslim or
Muslim-sympathizer, and Clinton has accused Obama and his people of trying
to dump a bucket of water on her and make her melt." --Jimmy Kimmel
Jon Stewart to Hillary Clinton: "This election is about judgment. Tomorrow
is perhaps one of the most important days of your life, and yet you have
chosen to spend the night before talking to me. Senator, as a host I'm
delighted. As a citizen, frightened." Hillary Clinton, in response: "It is
pretty pathetic" (Watch
video clip)
"I think the world of John McCain. He looks like the kind of guy
who still talks real loud on a long-distance phone call? 'What time is it
where you are? What? Can you hear me?' ... He looks like the guy you are
waiting for to stop gabbing with the teller. ... He looks like a guy who
sits at his dinner tray and watches the 'Beltway Boys.' ... He looks like
the relative who you get blank e-mails from. ... He looks like the guy whose
wife forced him to go on a cruise. ... He looks like the guy you have to
nudge when his name is called. ... He looks like a freelance crosswalk
guard." --David Letterman (Read more of Letterman's
jabs at McCain)
"Mike Huckabee
is still in the race, at this point. Yesterday, presidential candidate Mike
Huckabee said he won't stay in the race beyond reason. Then Huckabee
announced he's dropping out six weeks ago" --Conan O'Brien
"I guess Obama won Vermont. Clinton won Rhode Island, which is a tiny little
state. It's only the size of a head of a pin. We don't know who won Ohio or
Texas yet. Obama was ahead in Texas. Hillary's not going to quit though,
even if she loses. She told her supporters tonight, 'If we pull out now, the
guy I tried to make look like a terrorist wins, and we don't want that.'"
--Jimmy Kimmel
"So how did the final four fare in last night's crucial Texas and Ohio
primaries? Perhaps the opening words from their speeches tell the tale.
Sure, each scene looked festive, but is it? Let's start with Hillary Clinton
[on screen: HRC saying, 'This nation is coming back, and so is this
campaign']. I swear to God, I'm starting to think she's one of those
Terminators. She can't be stopped. You throw them in the vat, you think it's
over, and all of a sudden, the little droplets start to recoagulate, and she
rises up -- I won Ohio!" --Jon Stewart
"But there is some good news. The Democrats are destroying themselves.
Nation, Hillary Clinton is back! Senator Clinton pulled out major victories
in Ohio and Texas, leaving Barack Obama so demoralized he began sputtering
incoherently [on screen: Obama speaking in Spanish]. Analysts say the
turning point came when Senator Clinton planted serious doubts in the minds
of voters about whether Barack Obama could answer a phone." --Stephen
Colbert
"It's a horse race again, a vicious, brutal horse race with razor sharp
claws instead of hooves. Between now and the convention, those two are going
to duke it out primary by primary and horde every delegate they can find.
Guam, prepare to be relevant. It will all come down to a brokered convention
with the superdelegates, unable to decide between Clinton and Obama, will
ultimately pick the darkhorse candidate, that CNN touch screen computer.
Once it becomes self-aware, human candidates won't be able to able to
compete with its encyclopedic knowledge of America's counties, especially
once it picks a Diebold machine as its running mate." --Stephen Colbert
IRAQ --
ROVE: IRAQ REDEPLOYMENT WOULD CAUSE OIL PRICES TO SKYROCKET TO $200 A
BARREL:
On Fox News Sunday yesterday, former White House adviser Karl Rove claimed
that
redeployment from Iraq would cause
oil prices
to shoot to $200 a barrel. "If we were to give up Iraq with the third
largest oil reserves in the world to the control of an Al Qaida or to the
control of Iran," said Rove, "don't you think $200 a barrel oil would have a
cost to the American economy?" Rove offered no evidence to support his
projection that leaving Iraq would cause oil prices to rise dramatically.
But it is clear that occupying Iraq has hardly helped oil prices stay low.
Last week, oil prices
reached a record high of over $102 a
barrel. On March 19, 2003 -- the
day the Iraq war commenced -- oil was
trading at
$36 a barrel. Nobel laureate Joseph
Stiglitz recently noted in Vanity Fair that "the soaring price of oil is
clearly related to the Iraq war."
Rove's claim is also out of step with the American people, a majority of
whom believes that the Iraq war is
tied to the current economic downturn.
A recent AP poll found that
68 percent of Americans say that
redeploying from Iraq would help the economy.
IRAQ -- CONTRACTOR
KBR SKIRTS TAXES THROUGH OFFSHORE HAVENS: The Boston Globe reports
today that Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) -- until last year a subsidiary of
Halliburton Corp. and the nation's top Iraq war contractor -- "has
avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars
in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through
shell companies" based in the Caymen Islands. More than 21,000 employees --
10,500 Americans -- are listed as employees of two companies there, one of
which was established two months after Vice President Cheney's appointment
as Halliburton's chief executive in 1995. In addition to the loss in tax
revenue for Medicare and Social Security, "the practice enables KBR to avoid
paying unemployment taxes in Texas," where the company's headquarters are
located, which means that "workers hired through the Cayman Island companies
cannot receive unemployment assistance should they lose their jobs." The
Globe notes that "[o]ver the course of the five-year war" in Iraq, KBR's
"tax bill would have been more than $500 million."
MILITARY -- SOLDIER ALLEGES PROMOTION BLOCKED BECAUSE OF HIS ATHEISM: Spc. Jeremy Hall said yesterday "that his promotion was blocked because he had claimed in a lawsuit that the Army was violating his right to be an atheist." Hall filed a lawsuit against Maj. Paul Welborne and Defense Secretary Robert Gates last September, alleging "that Welborne threatened to pursue military charges against Hall and to block his reenlistment because he was trying to hold a meeting of atheists and non-Christians in Iraq." The suit "was dropped last month so the new allegations" of retaliation "could be included." Hall says his platoon sergeant, in explaining why his promotion was blocked, had told him that he "would be 'unable to put aside his personal convictions and pray with his troops' and would have trouble bonding with them if promoted to a leadership position." The new lawsuit, filed jointly with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, claims that Gates "permits a military culture in which officers are encouraged to pressure soldiers to adopt and espouse fundamentalist Christian beliefs."
Think Fast
After months of a consensual international media blackout, Matt Drudge revealed that Prince Harry has been "in Afghanistan for more than two months" -- "to the fury of the Ministry of Defence and condemnation from the head of the British Army." Harry is now being sent back to Britain
Senate Republicans "blocked consideration of a bill designed to prop up the struggling housing industry" yesterday. The bill would have provided billions of dollars to local communities and changed bankruptcy laws to help low-income homeowners -- against which the "mortgage industry has waged a stiff lobbying campaign."
"For the first time in the nation's history, more than one in 100 American adults are behind bars," according to a new report. This statistic includes one in 15 adult black men and one in 36 adult Hispanic men.
The EPA has dismissed toxicologist Deborah Rice from her post on a federal panel examining "the dangers of a flame retardant" in August" after the American Chemistry Council "complained to a top-ranking EPA official." "In a May letter to an assistant administrator at the EPA," a vice president of the American Chemistry Council called Rice "a fervent advocate."
Right-wing radio host Melanie Morgan -- who once called for the editor of The New York Times to be "sent to the gas chamber" -- has been fired from her job at KSFO 560 AM, but will continue her World Net Daily column. "[J]ust because Melanie Morgan is off the air doesn't mean she's off our radar," said Media Matters spokesman Karl Frisch.
Commenting on the climate change deniers conference in New York City, Princeton University geosciences professor Michael Oppenheimer said that climate skeptics "have to get together to talk to each other, because nobody else is talking to them."
Federal Communications Commission commissioner Michael Copps has asked the board's chair to open an inquiry into "the blacking out of a politically charged segment of the CBS News magazine '60 Minutes' by a local television station in Alabama." "Was this an attempt to suppress information on the public airwaves, or was it really just a technical problem?" asked Copps.
"House Democrats said a civil lawsuit could be filed as early as this month that challenges the Bush administration's claims of executive privilege in curtailing aides from testifying on Capitol Hill." Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is pursing civil litigation because Attorney General Michael Mukasey refuses to enforce contempt citations against two White House aides.
"Voters in two southern Vermont towns passed articles Tuesday calling for the indictment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney for violating the Constitution. More symbolic than substantive, the items sought to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they ever visit Brattleboro or nearby Marlboro or to extradite them for prosecution elsewhere — if they’re not impeached first."
Despite recent speculation of a compromise, Congress is still deadlocked over controversial electronic surveillance legislation. Democratic aides met yesterday in an effort to resolve differences between House and Senate bills, but "Republicans boycotted the meetings — as they have previous meetings on the issue."
A top Centers for Disease Control official told a congressional panel yesterday that the agency "should have reacted sooner to concerns about hazardous fumes in government-issued trailers housing thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims." "Formaldehyde in trailers didn't rise to the top of our priority list at that time," the official said.
Adopting a message that could "help Democrats to portray themselves as protecting the military and national security," congressional Democrats will argue that getting troops out of Iraq “is the only way to rebuild a spent military."
At the weekly meeting of conservative leaders at the American for Tax Reform, former White House aide Tim Goeglein, who resigned after acknowledging repeated instances of plagiarism, "received three rounds of applause from the packed room, including one standing ovation, as he asked for their forgiveness."
Lawyers for Jamie Leigh Jones argued in federal court yesterday that her case should be "tried in court, not settled in private arbitration." Jones is suing defense contractor KBR over an alleged gang rape she suffered in 2005, but the company insists her contract binds her to settle all claims through arbitration.
INTERESTING
How can our nation solve America’s
health care crisis?
According to former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle (S.D.), it’ll take more than
a clear assessment of where we are now––it will require real political
leadership. (The AFL-CIO’s health care reform efforts are part of our
campaign to Turn Around America. Find out more
here.)
Daschle discussed our nation’s broken health care system and the obstacles to solving the challenges yesterday at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. He based his discussion on his new book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis.
The United States, Daschle says, has by far the most expensive health care system in the world: $2 trillion per year. That’s 16 percent of our economy, a figure that’s headed to 20 percent. Yet our health outcomes often lag behind other countries.
We’re not exactly getting what we’re paying for…we have a system that costs too much, covers too few and delivers too little.
Although Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) claimed on Tuesday night that the United States has “the world’s best medical care,”
Daschle said that what we actually have are “islands of excellence in a sea of mediocrity,” with the highest-quality options for those who can afford it and inadequate or inconsistent service for millions more.
Daschle critiqued the myths and outright lies spread by opponents of health care reform. Among them, that any change to the system would be “socialized medicine,” which Daschle says creates a false choice. Opponents also claim we “can’t afford” reform, even though the flaws in the system are raising costs.
The most pernicious falsehood, Daschle notes, is the notion that health care reform would require “rationing.” What this fails to acknowledge is that our current system has, as Daschle puts it, “the worst kind of rationing”—disparities in quality and access, millions of uninsured who can’t get the care they need and a pattern of denials of claims by those who have coverage.
Daschle, who served in the Senate from 1987 to 2005 and has been part of legislative efforts to improve our nation’s health delivery system, said that if we’re going to fix problems of access, cost and quality, we need to learn from the failure of past attempts.
The recent fight over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) highlights the need for real political leadership—particularly presidential leadership—in moving health care reform, Daschle says. Although a broad coalition of Democratic and Republican members of Congress were unified behind a bill to renew and improve SCHIP, President Bush stopped it in its tracks by using the national stage, his veto power and his leverage over members of his party in Congress. For any fundamental change to happen, Daschle says, we can’t have a president determined to stand in the way.
Daschle says that a Republican president would be unlikely to take up necessary major health care reforms. In particular, he said, the McCain proposal on health care just won’t solve the real problems that exist.
By taking the McCain approach, we’re not doing anything but masking costs. The aggregate costs of our health care system don’t change in that approach. All we’re doing is cost shifting, and cost shifting doesn’t solve anything, it could exacerbate the problem. High deductibles exacerbate the problem, too. They go against the recognition that we need to spend more time on wellness than we do on sickness.
The two Democratic candidates contending for the nomination, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have released comprehensive health plans aimed at providing health care coverage.
As we approach the 2008 elections, Daschle says he’s optimistic the next president and new Congress will recognize the scale of the problems with our health care system and the need for change. However, it will take a strong, serious effort to overcome the myths, spin and distortion of opponents of reform.
GAO Investigators To Check on Offshore Tax Haven
As congressional Democrats prepare to start writing a budget resolution for the next fiscal year, leaders of the Senate Finance Committee are hoping that government investigators can help them zero in on tax cheats.
Finance Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., and Charles E. Grassley , R-Iowa, the panel’s top Republican, on Friday said the Government Accountability Office is sending investigators next week to the Cayman Islands to check out a five-story building listed as the address of thousands of U.S. and international companies.
The visit is part of an ongoing effort to clamp down on the use of offshore tax havens in an effort to collect revenue that currently escapes the reach of the IRS.
“Our hope in sending GAO investigators to the Caymans is to get some answers about whether business there indeed contributes to the U.S. tax gap, which totals more than $300 billion each year,” Baucus said. “The tax gap represents taxes legally owed but uncollected, and we know that some of the gap is the responsibility of entities breaking the law by funneling money to offshore locations at the expense of honest, hardworking Americans who pay their taxes.”
Grassley said, “We need to strike the right balance between allowing Americans to benefit from the global economy and policing the evasion of U.S. taxes. The Ugland House office building in the Cayman Islands has been the source of much debate on the Senate floor over the past few years. It’s good to have U.S. auditors and investigators with a neutral perspective try to find out what’s really going on there.”
Not much good news for Working Americans this week.
VIDEOS
Dan Abrams Punks Rep. Kingston - Where’s YOUR Flag Pin?
Matalin Blames The Media For Americans’ Economic Insecurity
Whitehouse Explains Caging: An ‘Especially Nefarious Voter Suppression Tactic’
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