Tag Archives: social security

Former AFL-CIO Organizer And Director Of Job With Justice Becomes Exec Director Of USAction

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 22, 2013 - 5:00 pm | , ,
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Labor has been on the forefront of economic inequality since workers first decided to bargain collectively.   That connection between labor and economic equality is showing as USAction announced their new executive director.

USAction, a leading national community organizing network with affiliates in 21 states and nearly 350,000 members nationwide, announced today that Fred Azcarate, a rising star in the labor and progressive movement, will take over as the organization’s new Executive Director. Azcarate, the former Executive Director of Jobs with Justice and President of the US Student Association, is currently the head of the AFL-CIO’s jobs campaign asdirector of America Wants to Work. Last year, Azcarate was named one of “50 Young Progressive Activists Who Are Changing America” cited in the Huffington Post. The hire represents a significant alignment between the community organizing and labor networks.

“Fred brings an unparalleled understanding of and commitment to community organizing and feels to his core the issues that we fight for,” said Khalid Pitts, President of USAction and Director of Strategic Campaigns at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). “Fred will be a tremendous springboard to bring USAction into the future and to build on the important work Jeff Blum started. We’re extremely excited to have him leading our team, and building an even stronger bond between the labor and organizing movements.”

USAction was founded in 1999 with a goal to engage national partners and state affiliates in progressive campaigns that enrich people’s lives. Over the years, USAction has fought to protect Social Security and Medicare from privatization efforts, organized the second-largest nonpartisan voting registration effort in history, fought for affordable, quality healthcare, and campaigned to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes while providing jobless benefits for the unemployed.  Currently, USAction and its 21 state affiliates employ a staff of 240 in 40 offices, has approximately 342,000 members, and a combined listserv capacity of 1.2 million supporters. Azcarate replaces outgoing and founding Executive Director Jeff Blum.

“I am so excited to build on the phenomenal work that USAction affiliates and national partners are doing every day, whether it’s to increase access to health care, right-size the Pentagon so we can invest in America’s real priorities, or create smart immigration reform policies,” said Azcarate.  “We’re at a critical moment, and I’m thrilled to help lead the fight for an economy of opportunity and justice, to rebuild the middle class and ensure that all have access to it. There’s a saying I like- ‘If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together.’ Together we will walk with our partners across the progressive movement to build an economy that works for everyone.”

“As corporate interests step up their attacks on working people and the middle class struggles to get ahead, the fight for jobs and economic prosperity needs all the allies it can get,” said Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO. “I can think of no better ally than USAction with Fred Azcarate at the helm. I’ve been working side by side with Fred for the last six years to give working people a voice on the job, and a future with economic security. His passion will be key to bringing the labor and community organizing networks together to wage campaigns that create good jobs, health care, and a secure retirement.”

Azcarate has been at the AFL-CIO since 2007, when he was hired to run the AFL-CIO’s Voice@Work campaign, including the campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. From 1992 until 2007, Azcarate was the Executive Director for Jobs with Justice, growing the organization from 3 staff to an organization with 60 staff and representing more than 40 coalitions. Prior to that, Azcarate served as President of the US Student Association.

“When labor unions and community organizers come together to fight for the 99 percent, everyone benefits,” said Mary Kay Henry, SEIU’s International President. “By strengthening our partnership, we can create an economy that addresses inequities and works better for all of us.”

“I’ve had the great privilege of working with both Fred and USAction for a number of years,” said Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America. “USAction has played a critical role in bringing together the progressive movement, and Fred is a great leader, who has led a growing movement for democracy and economic justice. Together, they’re going to do great things for all of us.”

Said Center for Community Change Executive Director, Deepak Bhargava, “Last month, USAction and Center for Community Change created an historic partnership between our two organizations, with the idea being that progressivism demands movements and coalitions whose efforts are greater than the sum of their parts. That’s exactly why Fred Azcarate is the perfect person to lead USAction and our movement.”

Azcarate comes from a labor family– his mother, a nurse, belonged to SEIU1199 in New York. He graduated from SUNY-Binghamton with a Bachelor’s degree in economics. Today, Azcarate lives in Takoma Park, MD with his wife and two young sons.

Where Can I Get A Good Job? The Answer Is Always The Same, Join A Union

  By Matt Murray | April 25, 2013 - 12:53 pm | ,
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Good Jobs Report Graph 3

How many times have you heard that there are no ‘good jobs’ out there?  I hear it almost every day. People talk about how they can only find low-paying jobs that will barely keep their family fed.  This national trend is one of the biggest depressors of our national economy.

For the basis of this discussion, let’s start by defining a ‘good job’.  A ‘good job’

  1. pays a “living wage” of at least $19 per hour
  2. includes employer provided health insurance
  3. includes some type of retirement (traditional pension or 401k)

When was the last time you saw a job offer with all of those features? Jobs like this are getting harder and harder to find.  The Center For Economic and Policy Research has released a new report that talks specifically about the loss of good jobs.

Since 1979 the number of good jobs in the United States has fallen 27.4%.  Wonder where they went? Yes you guessed it, overseas.  All those good manufacturing jobs that helped to rebuild America after WWII, gone.   It was policy changes that led to the vulture capitalist stealing our good jobs and selling them to countries with the lowest bid, all in the name of profits.   Now we need to make policy changes that will bring these good jobs back, and we can.

There are a few ‘tricks’ we can use to turn a bad job into a better job.  Remember the three things required for a good job? Pay, retirement and healthcare.  The United States has already begun the process to create a universal healthcare plan.  Call it what you want, Obamacare, Affordable Care Act – either way it will lead to millions more Americans getting access to healthcare options they have never had before.  With healthcare, people will live healthier, better lives because they will get preventative care. And that will save hundreds of billions of dollars the government spends each year on uninsured people who – in desperation – end up coming to the emergency room for medical care.

Retirement is a little more tricky; or is it? We already have a system for that too.  It may not be the best system, however it has worked for millions for more than a quarter-century.  Social Security is another way workers can invest in their future to retire with dignity.  Yet now our Congressional Representatives are threatening that very program.  We want people to have better lives: stop cutting Social Security! Ensure that people can actually live out their golden years on the money they have invested in the government.  If there is not enough money in the program, raise the cap and bring in a little more from the people who have plenty to spare.

There are two tricks to turn a relatively bad job into a better job by these standards.  To get a ‘good’ job, workers would still need to make $19 per hour – and that means less money for corporate executives and less profit paid out as dividends.

Don’t want to settle for just a ‘better’ job relying on Social Security and government healthcare?  You want a truly GOOD JOB?  I can tell you where to get one, but first you are going to have to sign this card.  That’s right folks, the Union is the ticket that gets you to the promised land of good jobs.

Good Jobs Report Graph 3

We all know that union workers make more on average than non-union workers.  Unions are also more likely to have employer-provided healthcare and retirement options than non-union workers.  So if you want a good job, join the union.

The CEPR report confirms what I have been saying on this blog for years now.  The CEPR report even goes as far as say that union organizing has had more influence than sending all our kids to college.

“Increasing unionization appears to be substantially more effective than a comparable expansion of college attainment. Given that increasing college attainment is a long and expensive process, these findings suggest the importance of emphasizing unionization as much or more than college attainment as a key path to improving job quality.”

Unions help train workers to get good jobs.  Some states are begging for skilled trade workers. We need to organize.  We need to remove the stigma that working with your hands for a living is a bad thing.  All workers deserve the opportunity to get a good job.  We need to continue to rebuild our ranks and pull the floor up!

Meanwhile, down in DC, Simpson and Bowles Work To Wreck Social Security

  By Liz Iacobucci | April 19, 2013 - 11:55 am | ,
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It’s probably going to get lost in today’s news, now breaking out of Boston, but…

SocialSecurityposter1Down in DC today, Erskine Bowles and Alan K. Simpson are scheduled to announce yet another of their “debt reduction” plans. Yes, it includes chained-CIP; yes, it includes cuts to Medicare. What is doesn’t include is much in the way of new revenues. Here’s how the Washington Post describes today’s plan:

“seeks far less in new taxes than the original, and it seeks far more in savings from federal health programs for the elderly.”

Yeah, this public policy debate is going in the wrong direction.

Here’s a better suggestion: Let’s return to the good ol’ days when investment income was taxed at the same rate as wage income.

Why does US tax policy give preferential tax treatment to dividends, just because investors don’t have to get their hands dirty in order to receive the income? America is supposed to be the land of Horatio Alger (“pull yourself up by your bootstraps, work hard, and you’ll get ahead”). If our tax code is going to have different standards for earned versus unearned income, shouldn’t the “hard work” type of income be the one we prefer?

Instead, ever since the Bush tax cuts, dividends have been taxed at a much lower rate. And that economic distortion has led to all sorts of bad outcomes. (Read “What Mitt Romney Taught Us about America’s Economy” here.)

According to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, this backwards tax preference will cost $616 billion in revenue over the next five years. (It’s one of the largest “tax expenditures” in the tax code.)

So, let’s call that $1.2 trillion over the next decade… and we’re well on our way toward debt reduction – without any cuts to Social Security or Medicare. Toss in another $516 billion worth of estate taxes (I’m doubling the five-year cost of that tax preference, as calculated by the Joint Committee). Maybe throw in $315 billion from ending the special tax treatment for life insurance annuities. And we’re well over $2 trillion in deficit reduction—all without a single cut to a single government program.

Now let’s apply a little “dynamic scoring”. (Haven’t heard of it? It what the GOP used, back in 2001, to argue that the country could afford the Bush tax cuts. Just assume that the tax code changes will improve the economy, and that will generate even more tax revenues.) Ok, you’re right… “dynamic scoring” didn’t work so well with the Bush tax cuts. But remember the Clinton tax hikes? Remember how the economy improved and the budget went from deficit to surplus?

Add in a little “dynamic scoring” (of the tax-HIKE variety) and… Presto Change-o! Suddenly, we’re doing a whole lot better than Simpson-Bowles.

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Also in the message mix, today: a great, big “oops!” from the two Harvard economists whose research has bolstered the GOP’s austerity agenda. Turns out they made a mistake in their spreadsheet analysis. Yes, this is the very same analysis that Paul Ryan used, during last year’s presidential campaign, to argue that our slow economy was caused by national debt. [Hello? Most of us out here in the real world think the economy’s hurting because so many people are out of work.] Yes, these are the same two economists who testified before the Simpson-Bowles Commission.

Here’s the kicker: their mistake was discovered by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Yes, public-funded higher education still works!

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Image from @DanielAdam68 on twitter.

Watching the news this morning, we’re seeing incredible acts of dedication and bravery. Special thanks to everyone whose jobs take them into danger, all those who protect the rest of us. Thoughts and prayers are with the family of the MIT Police officer who was killed; with the MBTA officer who was injured; and with everyone else whose lives have been forever altered by the events of the past few days.

Writing this from the security of my own home, I salute you all.

NH Citizens Alliance and NH Peace Action Oppose Chained CPI And Call For End To Pentagon Waste

  By Matt Murray | April 13, 2013 - 12:00 pm | , ,
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Left Melissa Bernardin, Right Will Hopkins, at Senator Ayotte's office on 2-27-12 calling to 'Pull the Pork' on Pentagon Spending

As everyone already knows the President has released his budget and the masses have begun to revolt.  The main issue of the revolt is cuts to Social Security.  The cuts at face value appear minor but will result in  a significantly lower Social Security check for those who are already struggling to stay afloat.

Many organizations including the AFL-CIO have come out against the Presidents budget and specifically the ‘chained CPI’.  Today a New Hampshire based organization has come out opposing cutting Social Security as well as proposed a solution.

The first of two statements come from Will Hopkins, Executive Director of NH Peace Action. Hopkins is an Iraq war veteran from Company Cco3-172nd INF NHANG based in Iraq from March 2004 to February 2005.

Left Melissa Bernardin, Right Will Hopkins, at Senator Ayotte's office on 2-27-12 calling to 'Pull the Pork' on Pentagon Spending

Left Melissa Bernardin, Right Will Hopkins, at Senator Ayotte’s office on 2-27-12 calling to ‘Pull the Pork’ on Pentagon Spending

“Since 2001, Pentagon spending has skyrocketed, more than doubling over the decade. We spend tens of billions more on the Pentagon today than we did during either Vietnam or the Cold War, even adjusting for inflation. At a time when almost no one in Washington agrees on anything, almost everyone agrees it’s time to cut Pentagon bloat. Military leaders, national security experts — even some forward-looking Pentagon contractors — agree that reductions are necessary and coming.

“Reshaping the bloated Pentagon budget to fit our actual needs saves money to be invested in other priorities right here at home, and it can be done without jeopardizing our troops or our safety.  As a veteran whose boots were on the ground in Iraq, I resent that members of Congress are even considering gutting programs that benefit the American people, in order to keep outdated and unnecessary Pentagon programs and bloated CEO salaries. This should be an easy choice. Congress needs to Pull the Pork from the Pentagon instead of exploring options that hurt the pocketbook of American veterans.”

Echoing Hopkins is Melissa Bernardin, Coordinator for NH Citizens Alliance’s Campaign to End Pentagon Waste.

“There is absolutely no reason why Congress should even consider cutting benefits for seniors and veterans when there are clear examples of Pentagon waste that could be addressed first, like the amendment to eliminate the ‘missile to nowhere’ that Senator Kelly Ayotte introduced.

“It’s time for Congress to commit once and for all to ending Pentagon waste and instead shift that spending into housing, health care, education, and infrastructure repair. We are calling for a fundamental restructuring of our priorities so that we can pay for programs that create jobs and protect our communities.”

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte introduced and secured passage of an amendment in late March to eliminate the “missile to nowhere” program – a weapons system that the Army will never procure. Advocates say it is one of many examples of Pentagon waste that could be eliminated to allow Congress to instead use the budget in a more appropriate way for domestic priorities.

According to a recent Forbes article, several veterans’ organizations have come out against chained CPI, including Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), AMVETs and the Blinded Veterans Association. U.S. Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter was one of 107 House Democrats who signed a Feb. 15 letter opposing benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

AFGE Says The Presidents Budget Fails Working Americans

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 11, 2013 - 3:00 pm | ,
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Budget includes proposals that would harm middle-class Americans 

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget marks a shameful abandonment of his campaign promise to protect the middle class and needy from tax increases or harmful benefit cuts, the head of the largest federal employee union said today.

“Instead of holding to its promise to protect the middle class and the working poor, the administration seems determined to contribute to a worsening of living standards for federal workers, disabled veterans, and the elderly,” American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. said.

The budget includes proposals that would cut federal retirement benefits, cut Federal Employee Health Benefits, cut Social Security benefits, and cut federal jobs.  The budget also proposes to end the three year pay freeze with a 1% adjustment, an amount so low that it banks $18 billion in savings over ten years for the government to spend elsewhere.

Federal Retirement

The administration’s budget hits federal retirement benefits in three ways: denying pay adjustments, so the salaries on which retirement benefits are based are lower, increasing by 1.2% the amount of salary that employees hired prior to 2013 would pay for their benefit, and reducing the annual cost-of-living increase in Social Security and annuities by using an inferior measure of inflation.

These proposals are unjustified and deviate completely from the standards set by large private employers.  About 98% of private employers that provide traditional pensions charge their employees nothing for this benefit; the administration just keeps charging more and more each year.  The 1.2% contribution increase in the budget would be a permanent cut, even though it is presented as part of a fix to a temporary “problem.”

Regarding the proposed change to the chained CPI, Cox said, “This is no ‘technical fix.’ It is a benefit cut on some of the most vulnerable citizens in our country – the elderly who built this nation’s prosperity, disabled veterans who sacrificed their health and bodily integrity to this nation’s security, and federal retirees who labored under an agreement that their retirement benefits would be adjusted to maintain their living standards in old age.”

According to an analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, using chained CPI for indexing income tax brackets would mean raising taxes 14.5 percent for those earning between $10,000 and $20,000 a year. Sixty-nine percent of the tax increases resulting from chained CPI-indexing would come from households earning less than $100,000, the Center said.

Switching to chained CPI will hit others equally hard. Federal retirees, whose average pensions under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) are just $13,000, will suffer substantial declines in living standards under chained CPI. The average Social Security recipient, who at age 65 receives just $15,000 per year, will suffer cuts of $650 a year by age 75 and $1,130 a year by the time she or he turns 85.

Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) Cuts

The administration’s budget also calls for $8.4 billion in cuts to the government’s financial support for federal employees’ health insurance.  The changes sought by the administration would penalize the ill by charging them higher premiums, penalize families with more than two members by charging them higher premiums, and penalize those in high health care cost regions by charging them higher premiums.

“Adding FEHBP cuts to the pay freeze, furloughs, and retirement and Social Security cuts just defies comprehension.  The President actually says in his budget that federal employees “deserve our respect and gratitude.”  I would describe this package of cuts as evidence of disrespect and ingratitude, and I know that’s how all of our members feel as well,” Cox said.

Poultry processing

The budget also proposes an overhaul to the poultry inspection process that would leave one federal inspector responsible for examining up to 175 birds per minute – or three birds every second – as they whiz down the inspection line. AFGE, along with food safety and consumer watchdog groups, has been urging the administration to withdraw this rule change since it was first proposed in January 2012.

While the poultry slaughter inspection program does need to be modernized, AFGE is concerned that this proposal could have adverse impacts on both food safety and worker safety, Cox said.

“This proposal isn’t about food safety. Speeding up processing times is all about generating more profit for the chicken slaughter industry by moving chickens from the farm to your kitchen table as quickly as possible – regardless of the potential health consequences,” Cox said.

 

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

For the latest AFGE news and information, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

AFT President Randi Weingarten Voices Concern Over Social Security Cuts In Budget Proposal

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 11, 2013 - 12:00 pm | ,
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AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement in response to President Obama’s budget proposal.

“President Obama’s budget lays out a number of critical investments that will put Americans back to work, rebuild the middle class, and strengthen our communities and public schools. But we have serious concerns about any proposal that jeopardizes the Social Security and Medicare benefits seniors, veterans and disabled Americans rely on to get by. Such cuts are irresponsible and untimely, and put our economic recovery at risk.

“America is strongest when we live up to our shared responsibility to create good jobs, expand the middle class and ensure that all children have the opportunity to not only dream their dreams, but achieve them. President Obama has issued a bold proposal to provide free, public preschool to every 4-year-old and expand high school opportunities to be more hands-on and more focused on thinking rather than testing, like those at P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School) in Brooklyn, N.Y. The president’s budget also invests in our public schools and students through proposals to rehire teachers and keep them in the classroom, and to preserve Pell Grants to make college more affordable and accessible. And expanded mental health services will help keep our schools and communities safe and ensure children who need extra support can get what they need.

“This moment also requires real investment in putting Americans back to work, and the president has offered tangible proposals to create good jobs while also rebuilding and upgrading our aging infrastructure. And to keep our families healthy, this budget preserves funding for community health centers, strengthens primary care and reproductive health services for low-income women, expands training for healthcare workers, and increases funding for healthcare professionals in underserved areas. The president is also proposing a balanced approach to roll back the disastrous impacts of sequestration and raise revenue by closing loopholes and asking the wealthiest Americans to do their part.

“The American people deserve a budget that accelerates our economic recovery and lays the foundation for an economy built on shared prosperity and opportunity. Congress should take immediate action on these critical investments in our children, our schools and our nation while rejecting any cuts to Social Security and Medicare.”

Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s Statement on FY 2014 Budget Proposal

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 10, 2013 - 8:10 pm | , , ,
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From WIKIPediaA president’s budget is more than just numbers.  It is a profoundly moral document.  We believe cutting Social Security benefits and shifting costs to Medicare beneficiaries – while exempting corporate America from shared sacrifice – is wrong and indefensible.

The administration’s budget cuts cost-of-living increases for current and future Social Security beneficiaries by $130 billion over 10 years, and much more in future years.  It shifts $64 billion in health care costs to Medicare beneficiaries over 10 years.  Yet despite closing some loopholes, it calls for corporate income tax reform that is “revenue neutral” – meaning it fails to ask big, profitable corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.

The Obama budget also continues to demand more sacrifice from federal employees than from Wall Street.  Federal employees did not cause the Great Recession.  They did not cause the deficits that resulted from the Great Recession.  Yet their pay and their retirement keeps getting cut.  Why?

Putting aside the injustice of demanding sacrifice from the innocent while letting the guilty off scot free, the Obama budget falls short of putting our economy on a path towards higher wages and full employment.  As we have said many times, the greatest economic challenge facing America is the jobs crisis, not the deficit.  Yet the administration cuts the part of the budget that pays for investments in worker training and jobs, which has already been cut to its lowest level since the Eisenhower administration, by another $100 billion. This austerity budget is bad economic policy at a moment when the economy remains weak and we urgently need more job-creating investments.

The President’s budget does include several proposals worthy of praise.  It aims to provide universal access to pre-kindergarten programs that are so important to our children.  It strengthens programs to protect workers against wage theft, unsafe workplaces and employer retaliation. It closes the outrageous loophole that allows Wall Street financial managers to pay a special lower tax rate.  And it reforms some of the tax loopholes that allow corporations to get away with shifting profits overseas to avoid U.S. taxes.

Last November, working Americans voted for jobs and growth, not for budget austerity and benefit cuts.  We urge the President to drop these cuts and build support for investing in jobs.

 

Senator Sanders and AFLCIO To Deliver 2 Million Petitions To Reject Social Security Cuts

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 9, 2013 - 10:32 am | ,
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Flicker Creative Commons via DonkeyHotey

Organizations Representing Tens of Millions of Americans to Deliver Over 2 Million Petition Signatures Directly to the White House Rejecting Cuts to Social Security Benefits

Will Be Joined By U.S. Senator Who Vows to Block Benefit Cuts

Coalition Includes AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, CREDO, National Organization for Women, Social Security Works, Alliance for Retired Americans, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, Democracy For America, Campaign for America’s Future, The Other 98%, Progressives United, Blue America, Rebuild the Dream, Center for Community Change, Health Care for America Now and Others

(Washington, DC) – Senator Bernie Sanders and Reps. Mark Takano and Rick Nolan will join organizations representing tens of millions of Americans to deliver more than two million petition signatures opposing cuts to Social Security benefits to the White House on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 12:30 p.m. ET.

*Watch Livestream here: strengthensocialsecurity.org/sos

Leading progressive organizations, groups representing retired Americans were quick to denounce the White House proposal for “chained CPI” — which would cut Social Security benefits for millions of seniors and veterans. Grandparents who retire today would get $650 less a year when they are 75 and over $1,100 less a year when they reach age 85, according to the Social Security Administration.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who will join the event, vowed last week to “do everything in my power to block President Obama’s proposal to cut benefits for Social Security recipients through a chained consumer price index.”

WHO:             -Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

-Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA)

-Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN)

-Former Obama for America Supporters & Seniors on Social Security

-Stephanie Taylor, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Co-Founder

-Jim Dean, Democracy for America, Chair

-Damon Silvers, AFL-CIO, Policy Director

-Max Richtman, Nat. Cmmte. to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, President and CEO

- Bonnie Grabenhofer, National Organization for Women, Executive Vice President

-Roger Hickey, Campaign for America’s Future, Co-director

-Manny Herrmann, MoveOn.org Deputy Dir. of Online Organizing Platforms

WHAT:          Delivery of more than 2 million petition signatures directly to the White House

WHEN:          Tuesday April 9, at 12:30pm (ET)

WHERE:           1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW – Washington DC (In front of the White House opposite of Lafayette Square)

*Watch Livestream here: strengthensocialsecurity.org/sos

The House GOP Is Acting Like Teenagers, As President Obama Submits His Budget

  By Liz Iacobucci | April 7, 2013 - 10:46 am | , ,
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teenagers

This Wednesday, President Obama is expected to file his budget proposal for the next fiscal year.

Are you wondering why his budget is expected to include

Straight from an observer in DC, here is the best explanation I’ve heard so far:  Having President Obama support these policies is a guaranteed way to get Republicans to oppose them.

“Yes, we have reached that level of adolescence on Capitol Hill.”

By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Nathanael T. Miller [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Here’s the thing about teenagers: they don’t always think ahead to the consequences of their actions.

AFGE Blast President Obama For Cutting Federal Workers Retirements To Balance The Budget

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 6, 2013 - 7:00 am | , ,
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WASHINGTON – American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. today issued the following statement in response to reports that President Obama will propose $35 billion in cuts to federal employee retirement as part of his fiscal 2014 budget to be unveiled next week:

“The poets remind us that it is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.  But it is hard to forgive our friend President Obama when his administration continues to act more and more like our enemies.

“His administration has frozen our pay for three years. It oversaw and approved shifting retirement system costs for new employees that will lower their salaries by 2.3% forever. The administration signed the Budget Control Act that brought us the sequester. It is implementing the sequester by imposing lengthy furloughs on federal workers while leaving the larger and costlier contractor workforce untouched. It pushes a cruel cut to Social Security, veterans’, and federal employee retirement benefits through the chained CPI.

“And now, a final act of betrayal. The White House proposes a fiscal 2014 budget with $35 billion MORE in retirement system cuts, accelerating the race to the bottom for federal workers and their families.

“We cannot understand how an administration that claims to stand up for working and middle class Americans can simultaneously push policies that would impose such enormous pain on its own workforce.

“This proposal is as unnecessary as it is cruel, and we urge lawmakers to reject it entirely.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.