Leading Progressive, Labor Groups Hail Passage of Obama Budget

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.midatlanticlabor.com/appiesnet/wordpress/?p=877

DATE: March 29, 2009 Lauren Weiner, 202-470-5870

As President Obama Marks 100th Day in Office, the Campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now! Hails Congressional Passage of the President’s Budget Blueprint for Long-Term Economic Prosperity

Road to Economic Recovery Paved for America’s Struggling Middle-Class Families Through Transformational Commitments to Health Care Reform, Education and Clean Energy

Washington D.C. – As President Obama marks his 100th day since taking office, the campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now!, a coalition of 116 national and over 700 state and local progressive, labor and advocacy organizations working together to pass the President’s historic budget, praised passage today in the U.S. House and Senate of the President’s blueprint for long-term economic recovery through transformational investments in health care reform, education, and clean energy.

Since launching the campaign early last month, the coalition has held well over 400 grassroots events, put hundreds of thousands of dollars into advertising, logged over 80,000 calls into congressional offices, gathered up and submitted over 8,500 personal letters to Congress – most of those handwritten — and logged more than 61,000 emails to Congress in support of President Obama’s budget. Today, the campaign held dozens of grassroots events across the country thanking members of Congress who stood up for America’s struggling middle-class families by supporting the President budget, as well as events criticizing members who turned their backs on them by just saying ‘no.’ See below statements from leading members of the campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now! :

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: “America’s workers applaud Congress for passing President Obama’s budget resolution that is a transformational blueprint for growing the middle class and making the economy work for everyone again. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that we build an economy that works for working Americans. President Obama’s budget includes a huge down payment on national health care reform, investment in growing green jobs and addressing climate change and more funding for education. The budget also moves away from the failed economic policies of the past and includes tax cuts for middle-class working families, rather than for the wealthy and Big Business. We commend Congress for passing President Obama’s budget resolution and look forward to continuing to work with the President and Congress to improve the lives of America’s workers and invest in the future of our people, our communities and our nation.”

Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME): “This budget marks another important step on the road to economic recovery; one that paves the way for health care for all,” said “Combined with the passage of President Obama’s jobs and economic recovery bill, the expansion of health care for children and the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act, this budget shows the enormous progress we have made in changing the direction of our nation for the better.”

FULL story at link.

[Half King]

1. What a crock

Progressives my eye. Nothing but corporate whores, each and every one.

Here is who they are and what they stand for,

http://www.rebuildandrenew.org/node/6

Their main purpose,

"We, the undersigned organizations, have joined in a campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now to support and build upon the President’s budget priorities."

So tell me now, what the hell is "progressive" about supporting Obama's budget priorities?

For instance, budget priority in the area of healthcare--continue to support the dysfunctional relationship between employment and health care, futher excerbating the misallocation of resources that dysfunctional relationship causes, and further increasing the power of the corporations and their "joblock" ball and chain.

Taxcuts to the middle class? You got to be kidding, a few happy meals a week for the regular worker, meantime--those stock market losses the wealthy just got smacked with, they get to take them off of 2006's income--generate a retroactive refund. Yeah, talk about "clawback".

And "failed policies of the past". What does that mean. Bush cuts taxes. He cuts taxes on the poor far more than on the wealthy. The end result, the poor pay less of the total taxes and the rich pay more. The Bush taxcuts resulted in a more progressive taxcode. Now, Obama cuts taxes to the poor, and he says he is going to increase them on the wealthy. Obama will make the tax code more progressive. I am trying to figure out just where the "change" is.