Big Win for Workers in California, Billionaires Proliferate and More News

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/09/22/big-win-for-workers-in-california-billionaires-proliferate-and-more-news/

Big Win for Workers in California, Billionaires Proliferate and More News

by Tula Connell, Sep 22, 2006

There are several items we want to highlight this morning, so grab your coffee and let’s go….

Can’t Bust Unions with State Funds in California
In 2000, California voters passed a law that prohibits contractors who receive state funds from using them to oppose their workers’ efforts to form unions. Corporate interests challenged the measure, of course, and its future seemed bleak after both a lower federal court and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law.

Yesterday, the full 9th Circuit upheld the measure, in what Nathan Newman notes is a big win for labor.

States and local governments hand out hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts each year, so preserving the right of states to prevent those funds from being diverted into anti-union uses is clearly a big victory for the freedom to form unions.

Given that federal labor law changes have been continually filibustered by rightwing politicians over the years, state support of unions is one of the few avenues for effective political support for labor these days. So any victory leaving state law options to support workers rights open is a reason to celebrate.

Get more info on the case here.

Being a Millionaire Just Ain’t What It Used to Be
The Bush administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy must be working—the latest list of the nation’s top 400 richest people for the first time includes only billionaires. Sure, Bill Gates and Warrant Buffet top the list, but several of the Walton family also make it on there—climbing the ladder through everyday low wages at Wal-Mart.

But Millionaires and Billionaires Get Richer While Bush Spends Our Tax Dollars
The Bush administration inherited a budget surplus from President Bill Clinton—and immediately turned it into a massive deficit. The bigger it grows, the more we pay to fund it. So instead of getting quality health care or education for our children, we see our tax dollars fund a drunken spending spree that pays for massive tax cuts for billionaires.

Bondad’s “A Concise History of Bush’s Fiscal Mismanagement” on Daily Kos charts the following frightening escalation of the U.S. budget deficit:

Despite claims to the contrary, the Bush administration has demonstrated they don’t have any control of the deficit. Consider the following information from the Bureau of Public Debt:

In 2002, total debt outstanding increased from $5.807 trillion to $6.228 trillion, or $421 billion. In 2003, total debt outstanding increased from $6.228 trillion to $6.783 trillion, or $555 billion.

In 2004, total debt outstanding increased from $6.783 trillion to $7.379 trillion, or $596 billion.

In 2005, yet total debt outstanding increased from $7.379 trillion to $7.932 trillion, or $553 billion.

So far in 2006, total debt outstanding has increased from $7.932 trillion to $8.527 trillion, or $595 billion.

Read the full post here.



E-Mail This Article | Digg it

Tags: jobs, billionaires, wealthy, national debt, Bush
Channels: Economy