WHILE OBAMA GOES PUSSY AT THE SIGHT OF ONE OF HIS CRIMINAL
BANKSTERS DONORS, HE GETS REAL TOUGH FUCKING OVER THE AMERICAN WORKER!
In any event, the agreement
to reduce the duration of jobless benefits is the result of calculated
manipulation and deception on the part of both parties and the White House. The
division of labor between the Democrats and Republicans is by now well
established. The Republicans make demands for savage cuts, which then become
the baseline for “negotiations” in which the Democrats offer a “compromise”
that accepts brutal measures that would have been unthinkable even during the
Bush administration.
Obama and the Democrats are
well aware that this move will drive millions more people into the already
exploding ranks of the poor, homeless and malnourished. But, as the agreement demonstrates, they, like their Republican
counterparts, serve the class interests not of the “middle class” or the
“people,” but of a ruthless corporate-financial oligarchy.
*
Obama, Democrats hail deal to slash
unemployment benefits
By Barry Grey
16 February 2012
16 February 2012
In
the midst of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, with
long-term unemployment at record highs, the Obama administration has forged a
bipartisan agreement with the Republicans that will sharply reduce the duration
of jobless benefits.
The
deal reached Tuesday by members of a House-Senate committee would extend
through December a payroll tax cut and continue emergency unemployment
benefits. It includes provisions that will cut off the financial lifeline for
hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers and their families.
Presented
by the Obama administration and the media as a boon to hard-pressed working
Americans, the measure is in reality a
cruel and punitive assault on the working class—in the first instance,
those most severely impacted by nearly four years of mass unemployment.
It
is expected that the agreement will be finalized, passed by both houses of
Congress and signed into law by Obama by the end of the week. According to
press reports, over the course of 2012 it will reduce the maximum duration of
extended jobless benefits from the current 99 weeks to 73 weeks in those states
with the highest unemployment levels. The 73-week maximum will apply only to
states where the official jobless rate is above 9 percent.
In
36 of the 50 states, where the jobless rate is lower, the duration of benefits
will be cut from the current maximum of 93 weeks to 63 weeks—a loss of 30 weeks
of benefits!
In
addition, more barriers will be placed in the way of workers seeking to obtain
jobless benefits. They will be required to provide more proof that they are
actively seeking work, and, in a particularly demeaning and vindictive move,
states will be allowed to subject jobless applicants to drug tests.
The
reactionary and anti-working class character of the measure is underscored by
the fact that the cost of the partial extension of federal jobless benefits,
estimated at $30 billion, will be imposed on workers. The agreement requires
federal employees to pay a bigger share of their pension costs to offset the
continuation of the federal unemployment benefit program.
Obama and the Democrats are
well aware that this move will drive millions more people into the already
exploding ranks of the poor, homeless and malnourished. But, as the agreement demonstrates, they, like their Republican
counterparts, serve the class interests not of the “middle class” or the
“people,” but of a ruthless corporate-financial oligarchy.
They
have rejected any measures to create jobs or provide serious relief for the
unemployed not just because the ruling elite opposes any reduction of its
wealth to meet social needs. The ruling class has a deliberate strategy to keep
unemployment high and use economic insecurity and social misery as battering
rams to destroy the wages and conditions of the working class.
Obama
personifies the cynicism and contempt of the ruling class for the broad mass of
the people. He spoke Wednesday at a factory in Milwaukee, where he touted his
policy of “in-sourcing” jobs from abroad. He omitted the fact that this is
based on driving down the wages of US workers. “I’m glad to see that Congress
seems to be on the way to making progress on extending the payroll tax cut… as
soon as Congress sends the extension of this tax cut and unemployment insurance
to my desk, I will sign it right away.”
Just
last Thursday, one week before cutting benefits for the long-term unemployed,
Obama announced a settlement of charges of pervasive fraud committed by banks
in the foreclosure and seizure of homes. The settlement will save Wall Street
untold billions in penalties and fines from law suits that have now been
quashed. That too was presented by Obama as a boon to ordinary Americans.
The
extension of the 2 percent cut in payroll taxes under the bipartisan deal
reached Tuesday is also a fundamentally reactionary measure. While it cuts
taxes for workers making $50,000 a year by $1,000, it drains resources from the
Social Security trust fund, creating the conditions for massive cuts in the
retirement program for the elderly.
The
agreement also averts a 27 percent cut in the reimbursement rate for doctors
who treat Medicare patients. This too is paid for by cutting social spending
elsewhere, with some $20 billion in Medicare cuts that will particularly impact
rural hospitals and a preventive care and wellness program established as part
of Obama’s health care overhaul.
The
Democrats are not even pretending that they only reluctantly agreed to
Republican demands for reductions in the duration of jobless benefits. The New
York Times reported Wednesday that Democrats were “elated” and “privately
crowing” after the Republicans dropped their demand that the payroll tax cut,
estimated to cost $100 billion, be offset by cuts in social spending. The fact
is, both political parties and the White House have been looking for an
opportunity to reduce and ultimately eliminate the emergency jobless benefit
program.
The
pretext, to the extent that the White House bothers to provide one, is the
recent improvement in official employment data and the non-existent “recovery,”
which is supposedly accelerating. The White House has touted the employment
report for January, which showed a modest growth of 243,000 payroll jobs and a
fall in the official jobless rate to 8.3 percent.
However,
that still leaves 12.8 million workers without a job, according to the
government’s figures, and 24 million either unemployed or under-employed (15.1
percent of the labor force). A staggering 5.5 million workers have been out of
work for more than six months, and 4 million for more than a year. The share of
jobless workers who have been unemployed for more than six months actually rose
in January to 42.9 percent—a level nearly double that of any previous recession
since the 1930s.
Moreover,
the decline in the official jobless rate is largely the result of the exit of
hundreds of thousands of discouraged workers from the labor force. The rate of
labor force participation, a more accurate gauge of the jobs crisis, fell in
January to 63.7 percent, its lowest point since the slump began and its
low-point since 1983.
There
is also the very real possibility that the employment statistics were
manipulated to obtain a result that could be presented as positive in advance
of a deal to slash extended unemployment benefits. According to the Labor
Department, the economy actually lost 2,689,000 jobs in January. The Labor
Department arrived at its “seasonally adjusted” estimate of a net payroll gain
of 243,000 by factoring in the normal loss of temporary holiday jobs.
In any event, the agreement
to reduce the duration of jobless benefits is the result of calculated
manipulation and deception on the part of both parties and the White House. The
division of labor between the Democrats and Republicans is by now well
established. The Republicans make demands for savage cuts, which then become
the baseline for “negotiations” in which the Democrats offer a “compromise”
that accepts brutal measures that would have been unthinkable even during the
Bush administration.
*
Obama offers nothing to states,
cities devastated by GM plant closures
By Tom Eley
3 June 2009
3 June 2009
Plant
closings resulting from Monday’s forced bankruptcy of General Motors will cause
spiraling unemployment and deep cuts in social services in many cities and
states across the country. The Obama administration, whose Auto Task Force
dictated the terms of the bankruptcy, has offered no serious aid to the
affected workers and their communities.
GM
is carrying out at least 21,000 job cuts and the closure of 14 plants and
warehouses in eight states. In addition, the company has announced its
intention to dump franchise agreements with 2,300 dealerships by the end of
next year. Many of these will be forced to close, eliminating as many as
100,000 jobs in all 50 states.
The
gutting of GM, once the most powerful corporation in the world and a symbol of
US industrial might, will send shock waves through the economy, cascading into
more layoffs at parts suppliers and financial ruin for thousands of small
businesses.
The
bankruptcy will immediately result in state and local cuts in social services,
health care and education, with city and state workers targeted for layoffs,
wages cuts and other concessions. It will accelerate the foreclosure crisis and
further drive down home prices, as tens of thousands of workers are no longer
able to meet their mortgage payments.
The
Obama administration is using the concessions and layoffs, agreed to by the
United Auto Workers, to attack the wages and benefits of the entire working
class. Corporations will take the concessions imposed on auto workers as a
signal for similar measures against their own workers.
The
state of Michigan, which already has the highest unemployment rate in the
nation at 12.9 percent, will bear the brunt of the closures, with 42 percent of
all national GM layoffs taking place there. Nearly 9,000 jobs will be lost in
Michigan from Monday’s announced plant closures. The shutdowns are concentrated
in southeast Michigan. They will be carried out in Flint, Livonia, Orion
Township, Pontiac and Ypsilanti Township. On Friday, 700 workers were laid off
when GM shuttered a stamping plant in Grand Rapids, in southwest Michigan.
It
is estimated that since 2000, Michigan has lost 17 percent of its jobs—about
three quarters of a million in all—as a direct result of the crisis in the auto
industry. Now the state anticipates 520,000 job losses this year and next.
The
consequences for the state’s limited social welfare system will be disastrous.
According to one estimate, Michigan could lose an additional $18.3 billion in
income. It already faces a $3 billion two-year budget shortfall, and officials
recently revised downward their revenue estimate for the 2010 fiscal year by
$1.7 billion, calling for an across-the-board spending cut of 8 percent.
“It’s
clearly going to impact the safety net,” Governor Jennifer Granholm warned. “People,
who are hurting, need services more, and we have fewer dollars.” Michigan has
already carried out $300 million in budget cuts for the current fiscal year.
Oakland
County in suburban Detroit will lose three factories and 6,600 jobs, the most
of any county. Oakland County was already in difficult financial straits due to
declining property tax revenue, a result of layoffs and the foreclosure crisis.
The loss of GM-related tax revenue will result in layoffs for county workers
and sharp cuts in social programs, said Bob Daddow, Oakland County’s deputy
executive. “I will be going to war,” Daddow told the Detroit News. “We
will need to make cuts in all departments. We have been doing these cuts all
along...but the worst is yet to come on governmental revenues.”
The
closure of the GM Truck and Bus plant will deepen the social crisis in
impoverished Pontiac, Michigan. About 1,100 workers will lose their jobs, and
the city will lose 20 percent of its current tax base, or $10 million, said
Fred Leeb, the city’s emergency financial manager. Leeb made clear that
Pontiac’s working class would pay the price for the shutdown. “We fear that we
are going to have to cut even more deeply,” he told the Detroit News.
“And there will be concessions to ask from the (city) unions.”
Flint,
Michigan has lost about 50,000 GM jobs in 30 years. One thousand more were
added to the grim tally when GM said Monday it would close its Powertrain Flint
North plant. Monday night, the Flint City Council met to enact a series of
measures to bridge a $13 million budget deficit, including the layoff of about
90 firefighters and police and the shuttering of a fire station.
The
city of Livonia, an inner-ring suburb of Detroit, will lose its GM engine
plant, and with it $474,000 in annual tax revenue, about 1 percent of its
total. City workers have already been asked to accept pay cuts. The
Detroit-Livonia-Warren area had an unemployment rate of 14 percent as of May.
Ypsilanti’s
Willow Run transmission plant laid off 600 workers on Monday, and 500 more jobs
will be shed by December 2010. The township will lose 4.4 percent of its tax
revenue, and Washtenaw County will see a loss of $3.8 million in tax receipts.
The Ypsilanti Public Schools confront a $1.4 million deficit, which will be met
primarily through teacher layoffs. The city faces a budget deficit of almost a
half million dollars.
In
Livingston County, Michigan, the GM bankruptcy may lead to a number of parts
suppliers shutting down. Already hundreds of auto parts workers have lost their
jobs in recent months, according to the county’s Economic Development Council
director, Fred Dillingham. Metaldyne, which employs 100 workers in the county,
last week filed for bankruptcy protection. “We have a number of companies with
as much as 90 percent of their business from GM. We have an awful lot of
trickle-down effect from GM,” Dillingham told Livingston Community News.
The
closure of GM Mansfield in Ontario, Ohio is likely to result in the elimination
of city jobs and pay cuts for municipal employees. With revenues already down a
quarter million dollars, the city is bracing for disaster.
Spring
Hill, Tennessee, which has seen its Saturn plant idled, most likely to be
closed permanently, was a single-industry town. When GM opened the plant in
1990, fewer than 1,500 people lived there. Now it has 24,000 inhabitants.
The
collapse of the Big Three has brought with it a sharp decline in funding for
the arts and culture. The General Motors Foundation, which contributed $31.4
million to the arts in 2007, has told many art and cultural organizations,
“mostly in Detroit,” not to count on any contributions this year, the Financial
Times reported last week. Toledo, Ohio, recently announced that its
three-day jazz festival, the Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival, would be
cancelled this year after Chrysler said it would no longer provide $100,000 in
annual funding.
In
the face of this mounting social crisis, President Barack Obama has offered
little more than rhetorical palliatives, telling workers that their
“sacrifices” will ensure the future for coming generations. But for the auto
workers’ children, the future foretells poverty amidst a crumbling social
safety net.
On
Tuesday, Obama sent Edward Montgomery, his director of recovery for auto
communities and workers, along with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, to tour a
Romulus, Michigan GM plant that thus far has not been slated for closure. This
was followed by Solis’ appearance at a “worker round table” at Eastern Michigan
University in Ypsilanti, the ostensible purpose of which was to discuss the
retraining of workers for new jobs in the “green economy.”
The
meeting was little more than a media stunt organized by the Democratic Party
and UAW executives to present the Obama administration as a defender of jobs
and divert working class anger along nationalist lines.
In
her remarks, Solis outlined a series of “job training” programs that will
supposedly equip workers for new high-tech and environmentally-friendly
industries. But as Solis and Obama well know, these token programs cannot
possibly provide decent employment for the vast majority of the workers who are
losing their jobs as a result of the administration’s auto industry policy.
In
what is shaping up as the worst job market since the Great Depression, even
college graduates—many with degrees in engineering, computer science, robotics
and management—face the highest rate of unemployment for those with a four-year
degree in decades.
Among
the Obama administration initiatives Solis outlined was $49 million in
assistance to Michigan workers who have lost jobs due to “international trade,”
federal assistance for the weatherization of homes, and summer youth programs.
These are already existing programs. She could not announce any new programs to
deal with the social crisis created by the bankruptcy of GM because the Obama
administration has no plans for such programs.
After
Solis spoke, the panel discussion was turned over to a number of local
Democratic Party politicians and union officials. Don Skidmore, the Willow Run
UAW local president, set the “America first” tone, declaring, “We’ve got to
stop the bleeding of American jobs south of the border!” Another speaker
demanded to know why Toledo, Ohio was able to keep its GM engine plant open.
UAW
official Donnie Enersen denounced immigrant workers. “They’re coming into
America, not paying taxes, not paying into Social Security,” he said.
The
union officials are seeking to divide workers along national and even regional
lines, in order to deflect attention from their real enemies—the Obama
administration and the Wall Street financiers who are behind the carve-up of GM.
The
World Socialist Web Site spoke with a small number of workers, most of
whom were recently retired, who came to the meeting to demonstrate against the
closure of the Willow Run plant. Corky, a GM worker with 12 years, said, “We
thought we were going to stay open until 2010. On Friday when we walked out of
work we thought we would be coming back in mid-July. I got a call from a fellow
worker that night saying we were no longer going to work there.
“It’s
unfair. We’ve made enough sacrifices. I’m tired of it. This was my seventh GM
plant. For two-and-a-half years I was driving down to Toledo, Ohio to work,
even when gas was $4 a gallon. I’ve made sacrifices. My dad is a retired GM
worker and his benefits are being cut. I put my blood and sweat into every transmission
that comes off the line.
“Yesterday
when they announced the bankruptcy and plant closing I was all tears and
emotions. Now I’m angry.”
*
Obama prepares sweeping cuts in
social programs
8 January 2009
Barack
Obama took the occasion of his first press appearance in Washington as
president-elect to declare his determination to impose policies of budgetary
austerity, including the elimination of entire federal programs and
cost-cutting in the entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid that are of vital importance to tens of millions of elderly and poor
people.
Obama
announced his appointment of Nancy Killefer, a director at the management
consulting firm McKinsey & Co., to a new White House post of chief
performance officer. Killefer, a Treasury official in the Clinton
administration, will be in charge of setting performance standards for federal
agencies and enforcing them on agency officials. Those programs that fail to
meet these standards will be targeted for reorganization or elimination.
The
president-elect made the statement on the eve of a speech Thursday in which he
will make the case for a proposed stimulus package. It was a clear effort to
appease both congressional Republicans and the sizeable faction of fiscal conservatives
among the congressional Democrats, reassuring them that while unlimited funds
are to be provided to bail out big business, there will be a tight rein on
spending for programs that support the needs of working people.
Obama's
remarks on Wednesday shed light on the basic character of his stimulus plan,
which is tailored to the demands of the financial and corporate elite and will
provide hundreds of billions in additional public funds to prop up corporate
profits, while doing little to provide relief for tens of millions of working
people facing the deepest slump since the Great Depression.
Obama
noted the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate released Wednesday that
the federal deficit for the current fiscal year will top $1.2 trillion, without
counting any additional spending for the economic stimulus plan that the Obama
administration and Congress will enact after his inauguration. "Trillion
dollar deficits will be a reality for years to come," he warned, declaring
that containing the deficit and putting the lid on federal spending must become
"fundamental principles of government."
When
a reporter from the Wall Street Journal asked about Medicare and Social
Security, noting that these were among the largest federal expenditures, Obama
replied, "We are beginning consultations with members of Congress around
how we expect to approach the deficit. We expect that discussion around
entitlements will be a part, a central part, of those plans." He added
that once the stimulus package was adopted, by mid-February, "we will have
more to say about how we're going to approach entitlement spending."
These
remarks and comments by Democratic congressional leaders are a warning of what
is to come: a frontal assault on the most important components of what remains
of a social safety net in the United States—the programs that provide at least
minimal retirement benefits and medical coverage for tens of millions of
elderly people, as well as medical coverage for millions of low-income
families.
While
both Social Security and Medicare are solvent, currently taking in more tax
revenues than they pay out, the Social Security Trust Fund, which represents
the accumulated contributions of three generations of working people, has been
effectively plundered to pay for the Bush administration's tax cuts for the
wealthy, two wars and the immense US military establishment.
Out
of $10.7 trillion in total federal debt, about 40 percent, or $4.3 trillion, is
borrowed from Social Security. The Trust Fund is the largest holder of federal
debt, followed by US private investors, who hold $3.4 trillion, and foreign
investors, many of them governments, who hold $3 trillion.
The
CBO figure of $1.2 trillion likely underestimates the current year's deficit by
a significant amount. It includes nothing for the stimulus package which has
yet to be spelled out in detail by the incoming administration, and assumes no
emergency spending to finance Obama's promised buildup of US military forces in
Afghanistan. Reuters reported Wednesday that Obama's secretary of defense,
Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, is requesting an
additional $70 billion for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not
counting the additional cost of a doubling of US forces to some 60,000 in
Afghanistan.
The
CBO estimates that the US unemployment rate, at 6.7 percent in November, will
rise to 9 percent by the end of this year, although many economists project a
rate of 10 percent or more. Double-digit unemployment would drive up spending
on jobless benefits, food stamps and Medicaid, among other programs, swelling
the deficit even further.
The
CBO also placed the cost of the Treasury bailout of Wall Street at $180 billion
in 2009, although Congress is expected to authorize an additional $350 billion
on top of the $350 billion already expended since October. The bailout of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored mortgage finance
companies brought down by the subprime mortgage crisis, will add another $240
billion to the deficit.
Senate
Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, echoed
Obama's warning of trillion-dollar deficits for several years, as well as his
pledge to tackle long-term problems in the financing of Social Security and
Medicare. He told the press, "It would send a very healthy message to the
markets and the American people if President-elect Obama were to simultaneously
announce an economic recovery package and the beginning of a bipartisan process
to deal with our long-term imbalances."
House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who has close ties to the right-wing faction of
House Democrats, the so-called Blue Dogs, added his voice to the chorus calling
for long-term deficit-reduction measures, going so far as to suggest that the
Obama administration might have to follow the example of the Republican
administrations of the 1980s, when White House budget officials engaged in
across-the-board budget cuts by executive order, a process called
"sequestering."
Congressional
Democrats opposed sequestering 20 years ago, pointing out that there was no
constitutional authority for such executive action without congressional
authorization. It is a measure of how far to the right the Democratic Party has
moved that one of its top leaders now embraces such a policy.
Robert
Bixby, director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan group that advocates
fiscal austerity, provided an indication of what is being contemplated, saying,
"I would analogize it to what the government is doing with the auto
companies. Congress said, we'll give you the money but you have to show us a
plan for sustainability." In return for emergency loans to the US auto
companies, Congress demanded tens of thousands of layoffs, the closure of
dozens of plants and draconian cuts in auto workers' wages and benefits.
Four
years ago, George W. Bush began his second term as president by proposing a
sweeping privatization of Social Security, a measure which was never formally
introduced in Congress due to overwhelming popular opposition. The plan was
quietly shelved after the debacle of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the Bush
administration's gross incompetence and utter indifference to the plight of
poor and working class Americans. It has thus been left to Obama, who
occasionally postures as the heir of Franklin Roosevelt, to take responsibility
for dismantling the last legacy of the New Deal.
Patrick
Martin
Get on the daily free news emails at wsws.org for the NON
corporate rape and pillage slant!
*
WHO IS DOING OBAMA’S WELFARE PLAN FOR BIG BANKERS AND WALL
ST? BUSH’S VERY OWN ARCHITECT FOR BANKERS’ WELFARE TIMMY GEITHNER.
CHANGE? RIGHT! JUST THE KIND WALL STREET BOUGHT IN OBAMA!
*
April 27, 2009
Geithner, Member and Overseer of Finance Club
Last June, with a financial hurricane gathering force, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. convened the
nation’s economic stewards for a brainstorming session. What emergency powers
might the government want at its disposal to confront the crisis? he asked.
Timothy F. Geithner, who as
president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank oversaw
many of the nation’s most powerful financial institutions, stunned the group
with the audacity of his answer. He proposed asking Congress to give the
president broad power to guarantee all the debt in the banking system,
according to two participants, including Michele Davis, then an assistant
Treasury secretary.
The proposal quickly died amid protests that it was politically
untenable because it could put taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars.
“People thought, ‘Wow, that’s kind of out there,’ ” said John
C. Dugan, the comptroller of the currency, who heard about the idea afterward.
Mr. Geithner says, “I don’t remember a serious discussion on that proposal
then.”
But in the 10 months since then, the government has in many ways
embraced his blue-sky prescription. Step by step, through an array of new
programs, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have assumed an unprecedented role
in the banking system, using unprecedented amounts of taxpayer money, to try to
save the nation’s financiers from their own mistakes.
And more often than not, Mr. Geithner has been a leading architect
of those bailouts, the activist at the head of the pack. He was the federal
regulator most willing to “push the envelope,” said H. Rodgin Cohen, a
prominent Wall Street lawyer who spoke frequently with Mr. Geithner.
Today, Mr. Geithner is Treasury secretary, and as he seeks to
rebuild the nation’s fractured financial system with more taxpayer assistance
and a regulatory overhaul, he finds himself a locus of discontent.
Even as banks complain that the government has attached too many
intrusive strings to its financial assistance, a range of critics — lawmakers,
economists and even former Federal Reserve colleagues — say that the bailout
Mr. Geithner has played such a central role in fashioning is overly generous to
the financial industry at taxpayer expense.
An examination of
Mr. Geithner’s five years as president of the New York Fed, an era of unbridled
and ultimately disastrous risk-taking by the financial industry, shows that he
forged unusually close relationships with executives of Wall Street’s giant
financial institutions.
His actions, as a regulator and later a bailout king, often
aligned with the industry’s interests and desires, according to interviews with
financiers, regulators and analysts and a review of Federal Reserve records.
In a pair of recent interviews and an exchange of e-mail messages,
Mr. Geithner defended his record, saying that from very early on, he was “a
consistently dark voice about the potential risks ahead, and a principal source
of initiatives designed to make the system stronger” before the markets started
to collapse.
Mr. Geithner said his actions in the bailout were motivated solely
by a desire to help businesses and consumers. But in a financial crisis, he added, “the
government has to take risk, and we are going to be doing things which
ultimately — in order to get the credit flowing again — are going to benefit
the institutions that are at the core of the problem
No comments:
Post a Comment