The War Against Workers
News Stories for october 14, 2011
Unions Help fend off Occupy Wall Street eviction
Teamster Nation
The feared shutdown of Occupy Wall Street didn't happen this morning because Mayor Bloomberg didn't want to antagonize the union members there, our sources at OWS told us.
Union members, including Teamsters, showed up in droves early Friday morning to prevent the city from evicting the protesters. Reports the Huffington Post,
Teamster Nation
The feared shutdown of Occupy Wall Street didn't happen this morning because Mayor Bloomberg didn't want to antagonize the union members there, our sources at OWS told us.
Union members, including Teamsters, showed up in droves early Friday morning to prevent the city from evicting the protesters. Reports the Huffington Post,
Thousands of pepole at Occupy Wall Street erupted into cheers early this morning when it was announced Brookefield properties was postponing the cleaning of Zucotti Park.Read the source story here.
The cleaning, scheduled to start at 7AM, was perceived by many protesters as a ploy to evict them from the grounds. Last night, scores of volunteers took mops and brooms to the park in a plan to pre-empt Brookefield and city officials.
Thousands showed up at Zucotti early this morning before the sun had risen and practiced making a human chain to protect the park. They were ready for a confrontation with police and they were ready to be arrested.
Teamsters And UK Unions Protest Sotheby's In London
Teamster.org
More than 100 Teamster members and representatives from several global labor unions, including Unite the Union, the Trades Union Congress, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the International Transport Workers’ Federation, protested outside Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auctionthis evening.
Read the source story here.
Teamster.org
More than 100 Teamster members and representatives from several global labor unions, including Unite the Union, the Trades Union Congress, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the International Transport Workers’ Federation, protested outside Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auctionthis evening.
The protestors stood in solidarity with 43 art handlers in New York City who were locked out of their jobs without paychecks three months ago. The art handlers are represented by Teamsters Local Union 814.
Sotheby’s has demanded pay cuts and the right to terminate the employees’ pension fund. The company also wants to replace experienced unionized handlers with temporary, unskilled employees. These demands come on the heels of record profits and changes to Sotheby’s board of directors, which NewsCorp’s James Murdoch joined last year. In 2010, the company earned $774 million and it recently nearly doubled the salary of its CEO.Read the source story here.
DOT halts 1st Mexican truck due to safety concerns
Teamster Nation
The U.S. Department of Transportation backed off letting the first Mexican truck into the country -- even after its own inspectors okayed it -- because it isn't safe.
Teamsters and allies complained to the DOT that the carrier it approved for a cross-border pilot program is a fly-by-night Tijuana operation with one semi-tractor trailer junker that the U.S. designated a "gross polluter."
Read the source story here.
Teamster NationThe U.S. Department of Transportation backed off letting the first Mexican truck into the country -- even after its own inspectors okayed it -- because it isn't safe.
Teamsters and allies complained to the DOT that the carrier it approved for a cross-border pilot program is a fly-by-night Tijuana operation with one semi-tractor trailer junker that the U.S. designated a "gross polluter."
Read the source story here.
Labor Leaders, Rallying at Westlake, Urge Unity with Occupy Seattle (And a No Vote on I-1125)
The Stranger
"Now you know how we feel," said Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council, telling the few Occupy Wall Street protesters at Westlake this morning that labor, just like them, has been alternately demonized and shrugged off by the powers that be for a long, long time.
He thanked them for focusing Americans on the country's growing wealth gap, and received thanks from the protesters in return.
Karrsen Brannon-Young, elected by the protesters to speak for them at today's union-backed "Rally for Good Jobs," said union support gives the Occupy movement "more legitimacy," and he welcomed the roughly 200 union folks who'd shown up for the sunny mid-morning rally. "We want as much help as they can give us," Brannon-Young, who said he's been at Westlake for five days, told me later. "As much help as anyone can give us."
Brannon-Young said protest leaders would be meeting with union leaders later today to discuss next steps, but that everyone's now looking ahead to the next rally, the National Day of Action on Saturday, at noon, at Westlake. "We're gaining momentum," Brannon-Young said. "Our next goal is to figure out how to appeal to the broader public."
Read the source story here.
The Stranger"Now you know how we feel," said Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council, telling the few Occupy Wall Street protesters at Westlake this morning that labor, just like them, has been alternately demonized and shrugged off by the powers that be for a long, long time.
He thanked them for focusing Americans on the country's growing wealth gap, and received thanks from the protesters in return.
Karrsen Brannon-Young, elected by the protesters to speak for them at today's union-backed "Rally for Good Jobs," said union support gives the Occupy movement "more legitimacy," and he welcomed the roughly 200 union folks who'd shown up for the sunny mid-morning rally. "We want as much help as they can give us," Brannon-Young, who said he's been at Westlake for five days, told me later. "As much help as anyone can give us."
Brannon-Young said protest leaders would be meeting with union leaders later today to discuss next steps, but that everyone's now looking ahead to the next rally, the National Day of Action on Saturday, at noon, at Westlake. "We're gaining momentum," Brannon-Young said. "Our next goal is to figure out how to appeal to the broader public."
Read the source story here.
The Republicans' Unprecedented Obstructionism by the Numbers
Crooks and Liars
"Congressional historians said Mr. Boehner's move was unprecedented." A month before Senate Republicans blocked Barack Obama's popular jobs bill, that's how the New York Times described Speaker John Boehner's refusal to grant the President's request for a September 7 address to joint session of Congress to present the American Jobs Act. As it turns out, "unprecedented" is apt description for almost every boulder in the stone wall of Republican obstructionism Barack Obama has faced from the moment he took the oath of office. From the GOP's record-setting use of the filibuster and its united front against Obama's legislative agenda to blocking judicial nominees and its admitted hostage-taking of the U.S. debt ceiling, the Republican Party has broken new ground in its perpetual quest to ensure that Barack Obama will be a one-term president.
Even before Barack Obama took the oath office, Republicans leaders, conservative think-tanks and right-wing pundits were calling for total obstruction of the new president's agenda. Bill Kristol, who helped block Bill Clinton's health care reform attempt in 1993, called for history to repeat on the Obama stimulus - and everything else. Pointing with pride to the Clinton economic program which received exactly zero GOP votes in either House, Kristol in January 2009 advised:
Crooks and Liars
"Congressional historians said Mr. Boehner's move was unprecedented." A month before Senate Republicans blocked Barack Obama's popular jobs bill, that's how the New York Times described Speaker John Boehner's refusal to grant the President's request for a September 7 address to joint session of Congress to present the American Jobs Act. As it turns out, "unprecedented" is apt description for almost every boulder in the stone wall of Republican obstructionism Barack Obama has faced from the moment he took the oath of office. From the GOP's record-setting use of the filibuster and its united front against Obama's legislative agenda to blocking judicial nominees and its admitted hostage-taking of the U.S. debt ceiling, the Republican Party has broken new ground in its perpetual quest to ensure that Barack Obama will be a one-term president.
Even before Barack Obama took the oath office, Republicans leaders, conservative think-tanks and right-wing pundits were calling for total obstruction of the new president's agenda. Bill Kristol, who helped block Bill Clinton's health care reform attempt in 1993, called for history to repeat on the Obama stimulus - and everything else. Pointing with pride to the Clinton economic program which received exactly zero GOP votes in either House, Kristol in January 2009 advised:
"That it made, that it made it so much easier to then defeat his health care initiative. So, it's very important for Republicans who think they're going to have to fight later on health care, fight later on maybe on some of the bank bailout legislation, fight later on on all kinds of issues."Read the source story here.
We are the 1 percent: We stand with the 99 percent
WeAreTheOnePercent
Terrific site that is just what the headline says. Here's a sample:
Read the source story here.
WeAreTheOnePercent
Terrific site that is just what the headline says. Here's a sample:
Read the source story here.
CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...
Business Insider
[...] So, what are the protesters so upset about, really?
Do they have legitimate gripes?
To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.
And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.
The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.
In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely—if ever—been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.
Read the source story here.
Business Insider[...] So, what are the protesters so upset about, really?
Do they have legitimate gripes?
To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.
And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.
The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.
In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely—if ever—been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.
Read the source story here.
Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party: Compare and Contrast
Slate
Style: Where the Tea Party is anarchic in principle and conservative in style, Occupy Wall Street is anarchic in style and liberal in principle. Tea Party rallies are dominated by middle-class, middle-aged white men who pack up their coolers and go home at the end of the day. The Occupy Wall Street encampment, which I visited a couple of times last week, is more like a Phish concert that forgot to end. The Tea Party, remember, was launched by a guy in a suit on the floor of a financial exchange; it's the backward-looking movement of people worried about losing their place in society. Occupy Wall Street was spawned by a poster of a ballerina perched atop Wall Street's bronze bull. It is the image-conscious, forward-looking movement of people worried that they may never live in the kind of country they want. Occupy Wall Street looks cooler. The Tea Party smells better.
Structure and Tactics: The Tea Party has evolved toward a hierarchical decision-making structure; OWS insists on a horizontal, consensus-driven one. Both movements are nonviolent, with deviations. Tea Partiers created an ugly scene at the Capitol last year and were accused of using racial epithets and spitting at members of Congress. OWS protestors have come into conflict with the police, and been criticized for creating squalor and nuisance in Lower Manhattan. Their tactics include civil disobedience, confrontation with authority, and a willingness to get arrested—something Tea Partiers aren't interested in doing. This has already proved effective at drawing attention and sympathy. An episode of brutality by a New York City police officer with a can of pepper spray greatly expanded the profile of protests.
Read the source story here.
Slate
Style: Where the Tea Party is anarchic in principle and conservative in style, Occupy Wall Street is anarchic in style and liberal in principle. Tea Party rallies are dominated by middle-class, middle-aged white men who pack up their coolers and go home at the end of the day. The Occupy Wall Street encampment, which I visited a couple of times last week, is more like a Phish concert that forgot to end. The Tea Party, remember, was launched by a guy in a suit on the floor of a financial exchange; it's the backward-looking movement of people worried about losing their place in society. Occupy Wall Street was spawned by a poster of a ballerina perched atop Wall Street's bronze bull. It is the image-conscious, forward-looking movement of people worried that they may never live in the kind of country they want. Occupy Wall Street looks cooler. The Tea Party smells better.
Structure and Tactics: The Tea Party has evolved toward a hierarchical decision-making structure; OWS insists on a horizontal, consensus-driven one. Both movements are nonviolent, with deviations. Tea Partiers created an ugly scene at the Capitol last year and were accused of using racial epithets and spitting at members of Congress. OWS protestors have come into conflict with the police, and been criticized for creating squalor and nuisance in Lower Manhattan. Their tactics include civil disobedience, confrontation with authority, and a willingness to get arrested—something Tea Partiers aren't interested in doing. This has already proved effective at drawing attention and sympathy. An episode of brutality by a New York City police officer with a can of pepper spray greatly expanded the profile of protests.
Read the source story here.
Sotheby's Teamsters handbill B'way stars
Teamster Nation
When it comes to celebrity handbilling, Teamsters Local 814 kicks butt.
Our Sotheby's Teamster brothers were on Broadway last night. So were the stars. They came for the opening of "The Mountaintop," a play about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Almost every celebrity accepted a handbill about Sotheby's lock-out of Teamster art handlers.
Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen took flyers. So did former Mayor David Dinkins and his wife Joyce. Spike Lee. S. Epatha Merkerson. Magic Johnson and his wife Cookie. Julius "Dr. J" Irving and his wife Dorys. Tisha Campbell. Gayle King. Ben Vereen. Ahmad Rashad.
Read the source story here.
Teamster Nation
When it comes to celebrity handbilling, Teamsters Local 814 kicks butt.
Our Sotheby's Teamster brothers were on Broadway last night. So were the stars. They came for the opening of "The Mountaintop," a play about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Almost every celebrity accepted a handbill about Sotheby's lock-out of Teamster art handlers.
Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen took flyers. So did former Mayor David Dinkins and his wife Joyce. Spike Lee. S. Epatha Merkerson. Magic Johnson and his wife Cookie. Julius "Dr. J" Irving and his wife Dorys. Tisha Campbell. Gayle King. Ben Vereen. Ahmad Rashad.
Read the source story here.
Housing Bust Caused Deficits, Not Public-Sector Contracts, Study Finds
AFL-CIO Now Blog
When housing prices began to take a dive, revenues to state and local governments plummeted. Housing construction shuddered to a halt, creating ranks of unemployed workers who began drawing unemployment benefits rather than paying local taxes on their previously middle-class salaries. The businesses of suppliers and service-providers to contractors were forced into downturn. And many states continued to cut taxes, causing a perfect storm of budget woes for the states.
Yet who got the blame for this economic morass? Public-sector employees and their unions, who have been made the scapegoats for a budget crisis that had nothing to do with them—convenient targets for the right-wing forces that seek an end to unionization in all sectors.
"The Wrong Target: Public Sector Unions and State Budget Deficits," a new study released today by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California,Berkeley, makes clear the real causes of the state- and local-government budget crisis. Using data compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, authors Sylvia Allegretto, Ken Jacobs and Laurel Lucia show that when the impact of the housing bust is added into tables that purport to link public-sector labor contracts with state-level budget crises, public workers' compensation becomes statistically insignificant. (Study is available here in PDF format.)
Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
When housing prices began to take a dive, revenues to state and local governments plummeted. Housing construction shuddered to a halt, creating ranks of unemployed workers who began drawing unemployment benefits rather than paying local taxes on their previously middle-class salaries. The businesses of suppliers and service-providers to contractors were forced into downturn. And many states continued to cut taxes, causing a perfect storm of budget woes for the states.
Yet who got the blame for this economic morass? Public-sector employees and their unions, who have been made the scapegoats for a budget crisis that had nothing to do with them—convenient targets for the right-wing forces that seek an end to unionization in all sectors.
"The Wrong Target: Public Sector Unions and State Budget Deficits," a new study released today by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California,Berkeley, makes clear the real causes of the state- and local-government budget crisis. Using data compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, authors Sylvia Allegretto, Ken Jacobs and Laurel Lucia show that when the impact of the housing bust is added into tables that purport to link public-sector labor contracts with state-level budget crises, public workers' compensation becomes statistically insignificant. (Study is available here in PDF format.)
Read the source story here.
House Republicans won't vote on jobs, but will vote to punish women
Daily Kos
As the House prepares to take up the job-creating "Protect Life (Unless it's a Woman's) Act"—H.R. 358, aka the "Let Women Die" bill—POLITICO notes that they're treading where the GOP's presidential candidates refuse to go, maybe letting the crazy scary people carry their water.
The relative silence of the Republican candidates is mostly a sign that they're all committed to anti-abortion positions, not that they don't care about the issue, anti-abortion groups say.
But Republicans can't let social conservatives feel overlooked by the focus on the tea party's spending concerns—so they're about to make sure those critical GOP voters know that they haven't forgotten about their campaign pledge to block federal funding of abortions.[...]
Read the source story here.
Daily Kos
As the House prepares to take up the job-creating "Protect Life (Unless it's a Woman's) Act"—H.R. 358, aka the "Let Women Die" bill—POLITICO notes that they're treading where the GOP's presidential candidates refuse to go, maybe letting the crazy scary people carry their water. The relative silence of the Republican candidates is mostly a sign that they're all committed to anti-abortion positions, not that they don't care about the issue, anti-abortion groups say.
But Republicans can't let social conservatives feel overlooked by the focus on the tea party's spending concerns—so they're about to make sure those critical GOP voters know that they haven't forgotten about their campaign pledge to block federal funding of abortions.[...]
Read the source story here.
ILWU supporters protest as train delivers grain to EGT terminal
The Daily News
For the second time in two weeks, a freight train delivered grain to the EGT terminal at the Port of Longview without incident Thursday afternoon, though 70 longshore union protesters demonstrated nearby at the old Long-Bell log pond.
Protesters with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union lined Fibre Way for about two hours waiting for the train, the fourth that has delivered grain to the $200 million EGT terminal. They stayed outside a fence and waved signs as it passed but made no effort to get in the way.
"We're sending a message to the community that we're having a peaceful protest," Local 21 President Dan Coffman said.
It was the second consecutive EGT-bound train to arrive without disruption within the last two weeks. The mile-long train carried soy beans and originated from Alpena, S.D., Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas said.
Read the source story here.
The Daily News
For the second time in two weeks, a freight train delivered grain to the EGT terminal at the Port of Longview without incident Thursday afternoon, though 70 longshore union protesters demonstrated nearby at the old Long-Bell log pond.
Protesters with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union lined Fibre Way for about two hours waiting for the train, the fourth that has delivered grain to the $200 million EGT terminal. They stayed outside a fence and waved signs as it passed but made no effort to get in the way.
"We're sending a message to the community that we're having a peaceful protest," Local 21 President Dan Coffman said.
It was the second consecutive EGT-bound train to arrive without disruption within the last two weeks. The mile-long train carried soy beans and originated from Alpena, S.D., Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas said.
Read the source story here.
ILWU objects to proposed language of ballot measure to recall sheriff
The Daily News
The longshore union is challenging the proposed recall ballot for Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson, saying it doesn't state the union's charges against Nelson forcefully enough and makes the union's allegations seem "petty."
Read the source story here.
The Daily News
The longshore union is challenging the proposed recall ballot for Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson, saying it doesn't state the union's charges against Nelson forcefully enough and makes the union's allegations seem "petty."
If Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning allows the recall to go forward, the union is asking him to rewrite the ballot to "give a more accurate depiction of the ‘Charge or Recall' and to not minimize the actions of Mark Nelson."
"Our charges are severe and need to be addressed; not understated, watered down and swept under the rug," according to the union's court filing, which was submitted Thursday.Read the source story here.
The further collapse of campaign finance regulation
Daily Kos
First the Supreme Court affirmed that the First Amendment allowed corporations to engage in unlimited independent expenditures on behalf of candidates. Two months later, the DC Circuit held (and the FEC did not appeal) that if individual corporations could do that, so could groups of corporations and individuals working together. Again, though, these were for independent expenditures only—ads not coordinated with a candidate or her campaign.
It's time for the next shoe to drop. As today's New York Times reports, a recent Ben Nelson ad (paid for by the Nebraska Democratic Party with DSCC help) heralds the next wave of corporate dollars flowing into federal elections through direct coordination with candidates.
Read the source story here.
Daily Kos
First the Supreme Court affirmed that the First Amendment allowed corporations to engage in unlimited independent expenditures on behalf of candidates. Two months later, the DC Circuit held (and the FEC did not appeal) that if individual corporations could do that, so could groups of corporations and individuals working together. Again, though, these were for independent expenditures only—ads not coordinated with a candidate or her campaign.
It's time for the next shoe to drop. As today's New York Times reports, a recent Ben Nelson ad (paid for by the Nebraska Democratic Party with DSCC help) heralds the next wave of corporate dollars flowing into federal elections through direct coordination with candidates.
Read the source story here.
Obama Is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong About Free Trade
The Nation
[...] Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, who is running for an open US Senate seat in 2012, made the economic case.
Read the source story here.
The Nation
[...] Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, who is running for an open US Senate seat in 2012, made the economic case.
“Trade agreements should be in the best interests of our nation and its people, but sadly this has not been the case with the past free trade agreements,” Baldwin told the House. “Have some of our wealthiest corporations profited from them? Indeed. But the rest of America, especially the middle class, has struggled with job loss, closed factories, and economic and emotional anguish across the country.”
[...] Lori Wallach, who directs Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, made the political case.“It is bizarre that President Barack Obama has switched from his long-awaited focus on jobs to spending effort passing three George W. Bush–signed, NAFTA-style trade deals that official government studies show will increase our trade deficit even as polls show most Americans oppose NAFTA-style trade pacts and recognize that they kill American jobs,” said Wallach.
[...] Baldwin’s right.Wallach’s right.
Obama’s wrong—very, very, very wrong.
Signing these free-trade deals will harm the economy.
And it will make it a lot harder for voters in factory towns to support his re-election.Read the source story here.
Report: 25 Percent Of Millionaires Pay Lower Taxes Than 10.4 Million Middle-Class Americans
Think Progress
It is not surprising that Republicans like GOP candidate Mitt Romney who slam the Buffett Rule as “class warfare” simultaneously benefit from the same sort of preferential treatment. In fact, a new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service finds that 25 percent of the nation’s millionaires have a lower effective tax rate than 10.4 million middle-class Americans:
Think Progress
It is not surprising that Republicans like GOP candidate Mitt Romney who slam the Buffett Rule as “class warfare” simultaneously benefit from the same sort of preferential treatment. In fact, a new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service finds that 25 percent of the nation’s millionaires have a lower effective tax rate than 10.4 million middle-class Americans:
About 25 percent of millionaires in the U.S. pay federal taxes at lower effective rates than a significant portion of middle-income taxpayers, according to a legislative analysis.Read the source story here.
Preferential treatment of investment income and the reduced impact of payroll taxes on high earners lets about 94,500 millionaires pay taxes at a lower rate than 10.4 million “moderate-income taxpayers,” representing about 10 percent of those making less than $100,000 a year, according to the report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service dated Oct. 7.
Occupy Wall Street’s ‘Political Disobedience’
Bernard E. Harcourt, in The New York Times
Our language has not yet caught up with the political phenomenon that is emerging in Zuccotti Park and spreading across the nation, though it is clear that a political paradigm shift is taking place before our very eyes. It's time to begin to name and in naming, to better understand this moment. So let me propose some words: "political disobedience."
Occupy Wall Street is best understood, I would suggest, as a new form of what could be called "political disobedience," as opposed to civil disobedience, that fundamentally rejects the political and ideological landscape that we inherited from the Cold War.
Read the source story here.
Bernard E. Harcourt, in The New York Times
Our language has not yet caught up with the political phenomenon that is emerging in Zuccotti Park and spreading across the nation, though it is clear that a political paradigm shift is taking place before our very eyes. It's time to begin to name and in naming, to better understand this moment. So let me propose some words: "political disobedience."
Occupy Wall Street is best understood, I would suggest, as a new form of what could be called "political disobedience," as opposed to civil disobedience, that fundamentally rejects the political and ideological landscape that we inherited from the Cold War.
Read the source story here.
Cold Pizza from Herm Cain
Timothy Eagan, in The New York Times
By almost any measure — social, political, economic, logical — Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan is nuts, nuts, nuts. Go ahead and jack up the price of nearly everything that moves in the United States with a 9 percent national sales tax on all new purchases and services. Talk about instant branding: every time you buy something, you'll be hit with the Herm Cain tax at the checkout line.
And this is just the start. The nearly 50 million filers whose main federal tax is now a payroll deduction and not an income tax would see their overall bill from the government increase by nearly 100 percent. This conclusion comes from the economists and fact-checkers who have actually looked at the napkin sketch of a plan Cain got from some accountant friend of his in Cleveland.
In essence, Cain is proposing the largest shift in tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and middle class in the nation's history. Oh, and he apparently would scrap the two great government programs that keep millions clinging to fragile middle-class status — Social Security and Medicare — because he wants to eliminate the payroll taxes that now pay for those insurers of dignity.
Read the source story here.
Timothy Eagan, in The New York Times
By almost any measure — social, political, economic, logical — Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan is nuts, nuts, nuts. Go ahead and jack up the price of nearly everything that moves in the United States with a 9 percent national sales tax on all new purchases and services. Talk about instant branding: every time you buy something, you'll be hit with the Herm Cain tax at the checkout line.
And this is just the start. The nearly 50 million filers whose main federal tax is now a payroll deduction and not an income tax would see their overall bill from the government increase by nearly 100 percent. This conclusion comes from the economists and fact-checkers who have actually looked at the napkin sketch of a plan Cain got from some accountant friend of his in Cleveland.
In essence, Cain is proposing the largest shift in tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and middle class in the nation's history. Oh, and he apparently would scrap the two great government programs that keep millions clinging to fragile middle-class status — Social Security and Medicare — because he wants to eliminate the payroll taxes that now pay for those insurers of dignity.
Read the source story here.
- The Seattle Times:
Costco is the state's second-largest donor to an initiative -- ever - CBS-Buffalo:
Teamsters LU 264 Files Suit In Erie County - Teamster.org:
NBC – Jacksonville, FL: Teamsters Union Files Federal Complaint - Daily Kos:
Wisconsin: Bill introduced to restore collective bargaining rights - The New York Times, Opinion:
Labor Rights, Under Republican Attack - Crooks and Liars:
Politics of Mockery: The Despicable 53% Tumblr - Think Progress:
Breaking His Promise To Create 700K Jobs, Gov. Rick Scott Now Says 'I Don't Have To Create Any Jobs' - Daily Kos:
New poll shows Occupy Wall Street viewed twice as favorably as tea party - The Seattle Times, opinion:
Occupy Seattle and the resonance of democracy - The Olympian:
State figures show cost of employee pay is lower - Think Progress:
The Terrifying Plausibility Of 9-9-9 - Crooks and Liars:
New Hampshire Lawmakers Boo Bachmann's Anti-Union Speech - AFL-CIO Now Blog:
Cornell Study Shows Partnerships Between Employers, Labor and Community Groups Work - Daily Kos:
House Democrats ask Justice Department to investigate banks over debit card fees - The Colorado Independent:
Lansing mayor welcomes Occupy protesters with open arms - Think Progress:
Corporations That Received Money From Perry's Jobs Fund Gave Him $7 Million In Donations - Think Progress:
Top 10 Giveaways To Big Oil In Rick Perry's 'Jobs' Plans - Teamster Nation:
Philly passes paid sick days for workers - Think Progress:
Green Jobs Make Up 35% of Design and Construction Industry" - AFL-CIO Now Blog:
Boston Unions Join Occupy Boston Actions - The Washington Post:
Financiers for Occupying Wall Street - AFL-CIO Now Blog:
Danger: Income Inequality Threatens National Stability