Bring Home The Davis-Bacon

[Sapphire Blue]

Bring Home The Davis-Bacon
Beth Shulman
September 14, 2005

Beth Shulman is the author of The Betrayal of Work: How Low Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans (The New Press, 2003) and works with the Russell Sage Foundation’s Future of Work and Social Inequality Projects.

Dear President Bush:

Have you no shame? By suspending the Davis-Bacon laws in the areas devastated by the hurricane you are taking advantage of those already suffering. Davis-Bacon laws require federal contractors to pay laborers and mechanics at least the prevailing-wage rates (and fringe benefits) that other similar workers in the area receive. Once again, wealthy contractors, who are being awarded contracts without competitive bidding that guarantee them a certain profit regardless of how much they spend, will reap millions from this disaster. At the same time, the Americans doing the hard work of restoring these ravaged cities are forced to live without even a basic living wage.

Mr. President, America watched in shock as victims cried for help and bodies floated alongside the survivors. In the gut-wrenching wake of Hurricane Katrina we saw a stark portrait of those left behind. We live in the world's richest country, yet in New Orleans, thousands lost their lives due to a lack of money, transportation, a safe destination or the know-how to get out.

New Orleans is just the most horrific example of what our society has become: a neglectful place, indifferent to Americans with the least income. In the name of freedom, your administration has starved our government of funds for programs that support average Americans and opened the door for death by a thousand little cuts. In New Orleans, cuts eliminated money for shoring up the levees that could have saved the city and thousands of its residents. Nationwide, cuts have strip-mined child care, pre-school and public schools, which undermines our country's future by guaranteeing that another generation will be poor.

While championing tax breaks for the rich, Congress, urged on by you, continues to cut programs that help send poor children to college, provide housing vouchers and support job training programs. Some 45 million Americans are still without health care, including many of the New Orleans evacuees. The basic needs of human beings in America are more and more available only to those who can afford to buy them. Survival, in short, has become a commodity of the rich.

Continued @ http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050914/bring_home_the_davisbacon.php

[stillcool]

1. meanwhile...

Blackwater Security guards, deputized by the governor, are paid $350.00 a day to patrol the streets of New Orleans. America is a crime scene.