In Floods,Parties' Agendas Surface (but it's GOP that's already used opp.)

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: In the Floods, Parties' Agendas Surface
Post-Hurricane Crisis Presents an Opportunity to Pursue Longtime Goals

By Jonathan Weisman and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 10, 2005; Page A04


After the political tidal wave of 1994 swept conservatives into control of Congress, Republicans doggedly tried -- and repeatedly failed -- to repeal a Depression-era law that requires federal contractors to pay workers the prevailing wages in their communities. Eleven days after the deluge of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush banished the requirement, at least temporarily, with the stroke of his pen.

The president's suspension of the Davis-Bacon rules on wages is one example of the many avenues the disaster has opened for the administration and lawmakers of both political parties to incorporate long-held -- and normally polarizing -- policy goals into the huge federal aid racing to the Gulf Coast.

Federal procurement agents are using the outpouring of federal largess -- $62 billion so far -- to ease quotas for minority and small businesses in government contracts. Republicans are trying to revive, for schoolchildren displaced in the disaster, their frustrated efforts to create government vouchers for private schools. Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to use the emergency to expand Medicaid health insurance for low-income families and to reverse some tax cuts Bush pushed through Congress.

Taken together, the efforts have the potential to alter domestic policy in a way that parallels the reshaping of realms such as military intervention and civil liberties after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

With a weakened president, a Republican Party eager to demonstrate concern for the disadvantaged and a Democratic Party accused of obstructionism, the horse-trading will only intensify, said Paul C. Light, who specializes in governmental organization at New York University. "If you're seeing it now, when Congress was on vacation and hadn't had much time to think about it, imagine what you'll see in six weeks when they've had time to sit down and work on it," Light said....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090901867.html?sub=AR

[Toots]

1. If Unions don't stand up and do something about this they are history

This is the death blow to Unions if they don't react. there needs to be a nation-wide walk out over this. If they don't do something now then what the hell good are they anyway. This is the most important bill for workers there is and not a peep. Empires are built wioth slave labor or "Cheap Labor" if you will. How can American Workers sit by and watch this happen?

[halobeam]

3. That's an excellent point. The unions had very well better fight this

with everything they have. I wouldn't be surprised if they win the fight either. Most Americans have had it with the working class getting hit the hardest.

[halobeam]

2. This is a time to make changes, we've been hit hard with a disaster.

There are opposing views about how to best handle this. The intensification of what is called "horse-trading" is completely normal in a situation like this. This disaster however, effects people and the Republicans are going to have a harder time driving their agenda which doesn't support the human aspect of the circumstance, and the Democrats may very well be sided with by a larger majority because their programs, whether addressed before this hurricane or not, will more so meet the needs of the people. Democrats had better fight hard, surprisingly they may find a few successes for the citizens of this country and the Republicans may lose a few battles for the rich.

[fasttense]

4. Time to suspend child labor laws, build workhouses and

start debtor's prisons. :sarcasm:

[havocmom]

5. May be sarcasm to you, but probably the goal of some in power today.

Look for it to happen in your lifetime if we do not ensure that future elections are fair and honest.

[nookiemonster]

6. Unions are the great nemesis of the Bush admin.,

and all Republicans, for that matter. Any apparatus that's put in place to force negotiation from the corporation is seen as a threat.

One look at history will tell you all you need to know regarding the creation of the labor movement.

[havocmom]

8. Every mention Samuel Gompers to anyone under the age of 30?

Most will give you a blank stare. They don't teach much in US history anymore.

[nookiemonster]

9. Don'tcha know it.

"Triangle fire" is also probably thought to be a really cool name for a band.

:sarcasm:

[havocmom]

10. Ever been to Butte, MT or Bisbee, AZ?

You might enjoy much of the history of both those locations. You might REALLY enjoy a visit to either ;)

[mandomom]

7. Bush has likely coldly calculated the needs

of the new "have-nots". He expects that the tens of thousands of newly unemployed, hungry scared citizens will give in and take jobs at low wages, non-existent safety protections and no benefits. He feels he has hiot another trifecta. So many disasters, so much hay to make. I assume his daily prayer includes a demand on god for the death of at least 2 more SCOTUS justice, too. All the better to dismantle America. Thank goodness Hallibutrton was able to get its government contracts to "rebuild" the gulfport, even before the first food/medical deliveries to the flood victims.

[bluedeminredstate]

11. So true!

If we don't hear him crow about hitting the trifecta it'll only be because Poppy and Karl administered beatings to prevent that phrase escaping his thin little lips.
Everything else you say is the very image of how this little, little man operates - God and Chimpy's cronies, they are intertwined in everything he does.
God, I loathe this sick administration and their fucked up ideology.

:puke:

[AX10]

12. The GOP uses anything they can find to help themselves.

I hate them! :grr:

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Even the dead -- politically, and economically. nt