Labor & Employment Law

Be a Working Family Voice in Today?s National Budget Debate

By Mike Hall

This morning, you can make your voice heard at a national town hall meeting for the public to discuss how to address the nation?s budget, fiscal future and economic recovery.

Working families need to take part in the discussion to make sure our views aren?t drowned out by deficit hysterics who have Social Security and Medicare in their crosshairs.  The nonpartisan group sponsoring the national town hall?America Speaks?will submit the budget strategies and priorities that come out of today?s meeting to President Obama, Congress and the budget deficit commission Obama formed in February.

The online and in-person meetings kick off at 11:30 a.m. EDT today. They will be connected via satellite video, webcast and interactive technologies. Click here to find an event in your area, here to join the discussion online and here to submit a question.

We can?t let Social Security, government spending for job creation, rebuilding our infrastructure, providing educational opportunities or even immigration be painted as the culprits for the budget deficit. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

The main driver of the recent increases in deficit projections is worsening economic conditions?in short, the present deficit crisis is largely a symptom of the jobs crisis.

Solving the jobs crisis and the deficit will require large amounts of public investment in the short term, which should be paid for in future years by taxing Wall Street.

If we create jobs today, the payoff comes not just in workers? paychecks now, but in a stronger economy and smaller deficit in the future.

Also, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, most of the deficit over the next 10 years will come from the Bush administration?s tax cuts for the rich, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the staggering economy.

In addition, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has analyzed the budget discussion materials America Speaks features on its website and finds that if those are the ground rules for today?s meeting, ?the game will be played with stacked deck.?

The group?s Federal Budget 101 presentation and Options Workbook claim to present a

range of viewpoints in order to frame an intelligent discussion of the country?s long-term budget problems, but fail to do so.

Click here and here for CEPR?s analyses.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 26, 2010 (boomark / email).