Labor & Employment Law

Trumka: Tax Deal First of Many Battles for Workers

By James Parks

Congress passed an $858 billion  tax deal last night that extends vital assistance in emergency unemployment benefits (UI) for more than a year for the 1.4 million-plus long-term job seekers. But this deal comes at a terrible price because it rewards obstructionists with huge tax breaks for the nation?s richest and  throws away precious resources we could use to revive our economy, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.

Congressional Republicans have shown themselves to be morally bankrupt, Trumka said. Writing in Huffington Post, Trumka says :

While desperately poor families are forgoing Christmas this year?prompting children to pen ?Dear Santa? letters that ask for basics like boots, coats and money for electricity bills?Republicans fought tooth-and-nail for a gilded gift basket of income tax cuts worth $120 billion for America?s super-rich, and a new estate tax exemption would let off all but America?s 50 wealthiest families so their pampered children can keep more of their millions.

Let?s call these the cut-and-run Republicans, who cut taxes and run from responsibilities.

Read the Huffington Post artice here.

For two years, Republicans have raised alarms about the deficit, convincing some Democrats that it would be imprudent to spend money to fix our economy, Trumka said. But this is not the time to pull back on investing in our economy, he said.

…this is the time to invest and rebuild. When jobs and tax receipts are increasing, America can prudently address the deficit.

In an e-mail to union activists, Trumka warned the tax deal is just the initial battle working people will face between now and 2012, Trumka said. Soon, the same lawmakers who fought to get tax cuts for millionaires will come after Social Security and Medicare in the name of deficit reduction and ?shared sacrifice.? But they won?t ask Wall Street and moneyed interests to share in the sacrifice. Instead, they?ll come after working people, he said.

We must vigorously oppose solving our country?s long-term financial problems on the backs of working people. If the America we all love is going to survive this century?or even this decade ?we?ve got to find a way to restore balance in our politics and our economy.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 17, 2010 (boomark / email).