US coronavirus hospitalizations hit new peak
The number of hospitalizations from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States reached 61,964 as of Tuesday evening, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Also on Monday, the seven-day average of daily deaths in the US surpassed 1,000 for the first time since August 22. Both statistics demonstrate that the coronavirus is rampaging uncontrolled across the country, while the US ruling elite continues to send workers back to infected factories, offices and schools.
The current hospitalization rate is now higher than the previous all-time high recorded in April, while the number of known new cases is more than three times what it was seven months ago. The number of coronavirus tests returning a positive result has also risen to 7.7 percent, up from 4.0 percent at the start of October, indicating that current testing measures are not fully capturing the true extent of the pandemic.
Still higher numbers loom. In contrast to April, there are not even token measures in place to contain the pandemic, such as the national lockdown that covered most of that month. The policy is instead one of herd immunity, that is, the unchecked spread of the pandemic through the entire population.
This was spelled out explicitly by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in an interview on CNN last month, when he admitted, “We’re not going to control the pandemic.”
Overall, there have been more than 10.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, including 3.6 million that are currently active. Of those who became infected, more than 245,000 have died.
One of the most severe outbreaks in the country continues in El Paso, Texas. According to the city’s coronavirus dashboard, 1,292 new cases were reported Tuesday, and nine new deaths. There are currently 27,895 active cases in the county, more than eight times the number of active cases a month ago.
The number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county is 1,076, with 319 patients under intensive care. Dozens have been airlifted to other places in Texas and New Mexico, as the hospitals in El Paso itself are at capacity and emergency field hospitals that have been set up are already strained.
Across the US-Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez, a new mobile hospital that can house 20 COVID-19 patients has been opened to handle the surge in the city. Ciudad Juarez has faced a similar situation to that in El Paso, where a sharp increase in cases in the multinational metropolitan area has forced Mexico’s federal government to send additional aid to the city and the state of Chihuahua as a whole. Ciudad Juarez has suffered 16,641 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and 1,525 deaths.
To handle the surge in the past month, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego ordered restaurants, bars and salons to close, in a two-week lockdown of the county. It is slated to end Wednesday night, although it may be extended. One factor is the sharp rise in deaths in the past month. Six refrigerated temporary morgues are already full and 10 more are en route. Samaniego has requested that a further four be provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to be sent to local funeral homes as needed.
These procedures, however, are not sustainable indefinitely, as hospitalizations continue to rise elsewhere across the country. The number of field hospitals, available beds, intensive care units and ventilators available to treat coronavirus patients, or patients with any other ailment, are rapidly shrinking. Transferring patients is all the more difficult in the United States, where Medicaid and insurance vary from state to state, meaning that even if beds are available, a given patient still might not be able to move and receive treatment because of the retrograde state of health care in the country.
In one particularly harrowing account, Dr. Emily Porter, a physician in Texas, shared a Twitter appeal for COVID beds from a Texas doctor. The appeal, to the Emergency Physician Forum group on Facebook, reads: “Does anyone who works in Texas have open covid beds at your hospitals accepting transfers? Getting desperate here in my little town in panhandle. No beds at our hospital and anywhere within 200 miles isn’t accepting. I’ve been calling dozens of hospitals for my 5 patients in my 8 bed ER who need to be transferred out.”
As Dr. Porter noted, “emergency physicians are literally crowdsourcing COVID beds on social media while hospital administrators are home sleeping.”
Similar new lockdown measures are being prepared in California. The number of hospitalizations has increased in the state by 32 percent over the past two weeks, according to Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of health and human services. As a result, San Diego, Sacramento and Stanislaus counties—home to 5.5 million people—are going to re-enter the most restrictive phase of their lockdowns starting this week.
Ghaly warned that “if things stay the way they are…over half of California counties will have moved into a more restrictive tier.” This will involve closing down in-person restaurant dining in much of the state, along with gyms and a variety of other nonessential indoor venues. California currently has more than 990,000 cases and 18,000 deaths, with an average of nearly 6,000 daily cases and more than 40 deaths.
Other states are taking similar large-scale measures. Utah Governor Gary Herbert has announced a universal mask mandate while in public for the entire state. There are at least 137,000 cases and 672 logged deaths in the state, with a rate of new cases four times what it was at its peak in late July.
The state has 453 patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, including 185 patients in ICU beds. At present, Utah has only just enough staffed ICU beds to cope with current cases, and hospitalizations are trending upwards. North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming are similarly overwhelmed.
Workers should not, however, lower their guard because of various actions taken by states. The measures that have been taken are inadequate.
As shown in the case of El Paso, lockdowns take more than two weeks to slow the rate of new cases and hospitalizations. Moreover, none of the new lockdown measures so far are aimed at closing schools or workplaces, which have become the two main vectors of transmission.
What is needed is not a piecemeal closing and reopening carried out county by county and state by state, but a nationally and internationally coordinated effort, including the closure of all workplaces, except those required to produce the personal protection equipment, food and other social necessities, and other resources essential for containing and ending the pandemic, with no loss in income for the workers affected. The focus must be on saving lives rather than protecting the profits of corporations and hedge funds.
Coronavirus spreading out of control at Sterling Stamping Plant: A case study of infections in the US auto industry
An ongoing outbreak of coronavirus at Fiat Chrysler’s Sterling Stamping Plant (SSP) in suburban Detroit suggests that a wide-ranging cover-up of new infections is underway in the auto industry as a whole. Sterling Stamping, located adjacent to the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit, is the largest stamping plant in the world, with more than 2,100 workers. It produces car body parts for the lucrative Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, Ram pickup trucks and Chrysler minivans.
Figures on the spread of the disease at SSP, which are being collected and published here for the first time by the Sterling Heights Rank-and-File Safety Committee in the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter, come amidst a growing body of data pointing to the leading role of factories and workplaces in spreading the virus outward into broader communities. On November 6, Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker announced that 52 workplaces have been the leading source of outbreaks in the state since the beginning of July. According to Illinois health figures, nearly one in three “outbreaks,” defined as a cluster of five or more cases, occurred in factories and workplaces.
The heavily industrialized Midwest, where much of the auto industry is concentrated, is currently the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. But in spite of the significant public health risk posed by the operating of factories, the auto industry and the United Auto Workers union are engaged in a massive cover-up of the real spread of the virus in the factories.
Since the restart of production in May after a two-month shutdown forced by wildcat strikes, the auto industry has largely abandoned any pretense of regular reporting on the spread of the virus. However, by mid-May at least 22 workers at Fiat Chrysler alone had perished from the disease. The last press release on FCA’s “Covid Response Newsroom” on its website dates to June 29.
For most plants, even piecemeal figures of any sort are simply unavailable. But a leaked management report from FCA’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant, which showed a total of 59 cases and two deaths, indicates that management and the UAW are tracking the spread in secret and in great detail.
Sterling Stamping is one of the few plants where figures are being announced to anyone. However, new cases are not being made public. Instead, UAW Local 1264 is quietly notifying workers through perfunctory internal text messages, including the location within the plant and the last date that the infected person worked at the plant. It is not clear whether workers are being notified when they have been exposed to infected co-workers.
At present, there have been 26 total confirmed cases at the plant since the start of the pandemic. This represents a sharp increase from nine total cases at the start of October, a 189 percent increase in less than six weeks.
However, infections are accelerating even faster than this figure suggests. Ten days into November, there have been almost as many infections in the plant, eight, as the nine infections for the entire month of October.
Infections have occurred in virtually every area of the plant, but the highest concentrations are in the press room and skilled trades, with seven and five confirmed cases respectively. Given that skilled trades, including electricians, pipefitters and millwrights circulate throughout the plant, it is likely that cases in this department have resulted in the exposure of large numbers of production workers. Six salaried workers have also been infected, including two in the administration building and several production supervisors. Three cases each have occurred in the hi-lo (forklift) department and in assembly.
Infections in the plant are increasing significantly faster than in surrounding Macomb County. Since October 1, cumulative positive test results in the county increased from 20,226 to 30,192, a 49 percent increase. This means that cumulative cases are rising at SSP more 140 percent faster than positive test results in the surrounding community.
While all of the automakers no doubt have detailed statistical breakdowns of infections at all of its plants, it is impossible for us to know with certainty how representative the situation at SSP is for the auto industry as a whole. But there is nothing to suggest that the plant is unique. It lies upon a major auto corridor in Macomb County, with Sterling Heights Assembly, KUKA Systems and Ford’s Sterling Axle and Van Dyke Transmission plants in close proximity. To the south along Mound Road are the GM Tech Center, Warren Truck and Warren Stamping plants. Together, these facilities employ more than 40,000 workers.
What do we currently know? Here is a partial list of the most recent developments, based on information gathered by rank-and-file safety committees and reported to the World Socialist Web Site:
- According to a leaked report, there have been at least 59 infections and two deaths at Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit.
- Two weeks ago, separate outbreaks occurred in two departments on opposite sides of Sterling Heights Assembly. Three skilled trades stewards are reportedly out sick.
- There have reportedly been over 100 infections in the last three weeks at FCA’s Tipton Transmission Plant, near Kokomo, Indiana.
- According to the Faurecia Gladstone Rank-and-File Safety Committee, a major outbreak is currently underway at the parts plant in Columbus, Indiana.
- In September, workers at Lear’s Hammond, Indiana plant stopped production after discovering two infected workers had been allowed to continue working while awaiting their test results.
- Management at GM’s Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri has resorted to using supervisors to fill COVID-related absences, in violation of the contract.
- At least eight workers at GM’s Silao Complex in Guanajuato, Mexico, had died of coronavirus as of August 31.
- In mid-August, the UAW announced 32 new cases at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville.
- In early August, local health officials launched an investigation into a possible outbreak at FCA’s Belvidere Assembly in northern Illinois.
- In July, 33 year-old contractor Alberto Alvarado died at Ford’s Van Dyke Transmission Plant.
- At least 13 infections and one death occurred over the summer at the DENSO parts plant in Battle Creek, Michigan.
- The death of two workers sparked a wildcat strike in June by 3,200 parts workers in Matamoros, Mexico.
- Six Tesla workers in Fremont, California tested positive for COVID-19 in June after CEO Elon Musk defied local lockdown orders to keep the electric vehicle plant operating.
- In late June, shortly after the restart of production, workers stopped production at Jefferson North Assembly Plant after reports of three confirmed cases on “B” crew. This was followed by a work stoppage at SHAP after a materials handler tested positive.
The UAW’s own announcements expose their complicity in allowing the virus to spread unchecked throughout the plant. Each text ends with the boilerplate statement: “Management has assured the Union that all safety protocols have been followed.” In other words, the UAW is providing management with a blank check.
The UAW’s blanket assurances aside, autoworkers know perfectly well that the company routinely disregards elementary safety measures. Workers report to us that management in the plant is not even enforcing the wearing of masks.
Industry-wide, autoworkers are being subjected to byzantine procedures which make even reporting an infected case as difficult as possible. The obvious purpose is to discourage workers from even reporting potential cases. Co-workers at SHAP tell us that they are being told they have not been “exposed,” and do not need to get tested or quarantined, if they were around an infected worker for “only” 10 or 12 minutes rather than 15, or if they worked 12 feet away from them instead of six. Our brothers and sisters at General Motors plants also inform us that GM does not count cases in its own internal figures where tests were administered by workers’ doctors instead of GM medical personnel.
Because of this, the real state of the infection may be far higher than suggested by the Sterling Stamping figures. Workers in the plant have informed us that even local UAW committeemen and other officials have privately acknowledged that the real spread of the virus in the plant is higher than has been admitted to the workforce.
Workers have the absolute right to complete and up-to-date information on the spread of the disease. To fight for this right, and to protect their lives and those of the community as a whole, we call on autoworkers to join the rank-and-file safety committee at their plant, or, if one does not exist, to move quickly to form one. We and our sister committees throughout the country are fighting to not only break through the management-UAW information blackout but to provide autoworkers with the means for a counteroffensive against the “herd immunity” policies of the auto companies, completely independent of and in opposition to the UAW and both corporate-controlled parties.
OE BIDEN'S DEMOCRAT PARTY IS FOR BOTTOMLESS
SOCIALISM, WELFARE, SUBSIDIES AND BAILOUTS FOR WALL STREET.
THE LOOTING OF AMERICA:
BARACK OBAMA AND
HIS CRONY BANKSTERS set themselves on America’s pensions next!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/04/obamanomics-assault-on-american-middle.html
The new aristocrats, like the
lords of old, are not bound by the laws that apply to the lower orders.
Voluminous reports have been issued by Congress and government panels
documenting systematic fraud and law breaking carried out by the biggest banks
both before and after the Wall Street crash of 2008.
Goldman
Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and every other major US bank have been
implicated in a web of scandals, including the sale of toxic mortgage
securities on false pretenses, the rigging of international interest rates and
global foreign exchange markets, the laundering of Mexican drug money,
accounting fraud and lying to bank regulators, illegally foreclosing on the
homes of delinquent borrowers, credit card fraud, illegal debt-collection
practices, rigging of energy markets, and complicity in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi
scheme.
NO PRESIDENT IN HISTORY SUCKED IN MORE
BRIBES FROM CRIMINAL BANKSTERS THAN BARACK OBAMA!
This was not
because of difficulties in securing indictments or convictions. On the
contrary, Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee in March of 2013
that the Obama administration chose not to prosecute the big banks or their
CEOs because to do so might “have a negative impact on the national economy.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-bankster-owned-president-citigroup.html
This is a further shift
leftward by Wall Street from the last election cycle, when between 50 percent
and 52 percent of the contributions through mid-year 2017 from J.P. Morgan,
Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America went to Republicans. Those banks sent
between 37 percent and 45 percent of the contributions to Democrats.
President Trump: Joe
Biden, Barack Obama Threw Delphi Workers ‘to the Wolves’ in Auto Bailout
25 Oct 2020861
2:59
President
Trump says then-President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden threw
former Delphi workers “to the wolves” in their bailout of the auto industry
that resulted in slashed pensions for roughly 20,000 Americans.
During a campaign rally
in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Trump touted his recent memorandum that orders federal
agencies to devise a plan that would restore the pensions of about 20,000
former non-union Delphi Corporation workers.
“This week I signed an order to protect the pensions of workers
at the Delphi Corporation … these workers were taken advantage of very badly,”
Trump said. “When GM went bankrupt, Biden and Obama threw these workers to the
wolves. Their pensions were totally wiped out, they were treated very unfairly.
My order is to restore the pensions and healthcare benefits promised to workers
in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio because I will never let anyone rip off our
great American workers. We’re going to take care of our workers.”
In 2009, as part of the
Obama-Biden administration’s taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM),
the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) terminated the pension plans
of non-unionized Delphi workers. In some cases, workers had their pensions
gutted by as much as 75 percent.
A federal report in
2013 detailed that the Delphi workers
would likely have their pensions cut by an estimated $440 million. Meanwhile,
GM topped off unionized Delphi
workers’ pensions at a cost of about $1 billion.
“What they did to you was very unfair,” Trump said as he pointed
to Delphi retirees in the audience. “They lied to you. They lied to you.”
Exclusive:
Forgotten by Obama-Biden Auto Bailout, Delphi Workers Refuse to Forget What Was
Taken from Them (Part One) https://t.co/T8SME62Vb4 via @BreitbartNews Biden was a disaster on this. All
talk and no action. Remember and VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2020
Former Delphi workers who
spoke to Breitbart News recently detailed how the
pension-slashing scheme uprooted their livelihoods. One retiree said she lost
her home, and her retirement plans to move to the Florida coast have been
squashed.
Another retiree said his wife died in the process, as he was
forced to find work in order to pay for her medical bills. He had assumed that
after 30 years at Delphi, he and his wife would have a good healthcare plan in
their retirement. That ended when his pension was cut by about 30 percent.
Delphi, which has since split
into Aptiv and Delphi Technologies, announced in 2006 that it would shutter 21 of its
29 plants in the United States — offshoring some 20,000 U.S. jobs to
Mexico, China, and other foreign countries.
At the time, Delphi employed
nearly 50,000 Americans, who earned about $30 an hour
on the assembly line. Now, workers in Mexico for the company earn about $1 an
hour.
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Exclusive–Rep. Mike
Turner: If Obama-Biden Can Cut Delphi Pensions, They Can Do It to Anyone
25 Oct 202092
4:45
Rep. Mike
Turner (R-OH) says that if Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden and former
President Barack Obama can help slash the pensions of non-union Delphi workers,
they can cut benefits for others as well.
In 2009, as part of the Obama-Biden administration’s
taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM), the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation (PBGC) terminated the pension plans
of about 20,0000 non-unionized Delphi workers. In some cases, workers had their
pensions gutted by as much as 75 percent.
A federal report in 2013 detailed that the Delphi workers
would likely have their pensions cut by an estimated $440 million. Meanwhile,
GM topped off unionized Delphi
workers’ pensions at a cost of about $1 billion.
This week, Trump signed a memorandum that
orders federal agencies to devise a plan on how to restore the Delphi workers’
slashed pensions over the next 90 days.
Turner, who has been fighting for over a decade on behalf of the
Delphi workers, suggested to SiriusXM Patriot Breitbart News Saturday that Biden cannot be
trusted not to pick winners and losers as the Obama-Biden administration did in
2009.
LISTEN:
Breitbart · Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) – October 24, 2020
“These people earned these pensions,” Turner said. “They gave to
General Motors, they were part of General Motors’ overall success and … General
Motors, through bad management, ended up in bankruptcy in the 2008 financial
crisis. And to pick these individuals … [with] health concerns, families that
have had to lend them money, people who lost their homes, all because they
didn’t get the pensions that they were entitled to and that they earned.”
“This was their choice,” Turner continued. “It wasn’t just that
there was a Delphi salaried retirees pension problem. There was a General
Motors and Delphi problem that the Obama-Biden administration made … they
didn’t have to do this; they chose to do it. This pension had been funded,
these people earned these pensions, and they chose to pick winners and losers
and they picked them.”
While Biden has claimed he would consider reviewing the issue,
Delphi retirees have said he had seven years to
speak on their behalf as vice president and chose to not act.
Trump, in contrast to Biden, has been consistent in his wanting
to restore the Delphi pensions when he first learned of the issue, Turner said.
“Donald Trump deserves great credit here because he heard the
stories of the injustice, he heard what had occurred to these people, and he
stepped in to right this wrong,” Turner said. “Dr. Peter Navarro has been such
a leader in this topic, really diving in to what happened — what happened at
the administration at the PBGC and the Obama-Biden administration. [Navarro]
made a presentation to the president and a recommendation for him to
intervene.”
“What’s interesting to watch … Joe Biden, when this happened, he
fully supported the Obama administration’s efforts to take General Motors
through this bankruptcy process in which [the Delphi non-union workers] were
picked to be the losers,” Turner continued.
“[Biden], on camera, specifically said that there was ‘nothing
we could do’ and just recently he’s campaigning in Youngstown and he says ‘If
I’m president, I’ll fix this,'” Turner said. “He went from ‘there’s nothing you
can do’ to if he’s president he can fix this. Luckily we have a president who
stepped in to fix this.”
In 2012, federal documents unveiled how the Obama-Biden
administration’s Treasury Department worked to gut the
pensions of the Delphi workers. In other emails, PBGC officials indicated they
had the green light from the Obama-Biden administration to slash the pensions.
Those involved with the pension-slashing scheme, such as Tim
Geithner, Steven Rattner, and Ron Bloom, are currently pouring thousands of dollars
into Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign.
Delphi, which has since split into Aptiv and Delphi
Technologies, announced in 2006 that it would shutter 21 of its
29 plants in the United States — offshoring some 20,000 U.S. jobs to
Mexico, China, and other foreign countries.
At the time, Delphi employed nearly 50,000 Americans, who earned about $30 an hour
on the assembly line. Now, workers in Mexico for the company earn about $1 an
hour.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart
News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Trump to Devise Plan
that Would Restore Pensions for Delphi Workers
22 Oct 2020934
5:45
President
Donald Trump issued a memorandum on Thursday ordering federal agencies to
devise a plan to restore the roughly 20,000 pensions of former Delphi workers
who had their pensions slashed in the Obama-Biden administration’s bailout of
General Motors (GM).
In 2009, as part of the
Obama-Biden administration’s taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM),
the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) terminated the pension plans
of about 20,0000 non-unionized Delphi workers. In some cases, workers had their
pensions gutted by as much as 75 percent.
A federal report in
2013 detailed that the Delphi workers
would likely have their pensions cut by an estimated $440 million. Meanwhile,
GM topped
off unionized
Delphi workers’ pensions at a cost of about $1 billion.
After 11 years with no federal action on the issue, Trump is
ordering the trade adviser Peter Navarro, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin,
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia to devise a
plan on how to restore the Delphi workers’ slashed pensions over the next 90
days.
Navarro said in a press call that the pensions “might well be
able to be done through executive action” without the need to involve Congress.
Just signed an order to
support the workers of Delphi Corporation and make sure that we protect the
pensions of all American workers! Obama-Biden FAILED American workers and
FAILED the workers of Delphi. I ALWAYS put American workers FIRST!
— Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump) October
22, 2020
“This is a very good day for blue-collar America,” Navarro said.
“… the signal today is we have a strong commitment to reversing what we
judge to be one of the worst losses to blue-collar America … and it happened on
[former Vice President] Joe Biden and [former President] Barack Obama’s watch.”
The memorandum reads:
The Secretary of the
Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor, in
consultation with the Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing
Policy, shall review the
Delphi matter described in subsection 1(a) of this memorandum and inform the
President within 90 days of the date of this memorandum of any appropriate
action that may be taken, consistent with applicable law, to
address affected Delphi retirees’ lost pension benefits, and bring additional
transparency to the decision to terminate the plan, consistent with appropriate
protections for privileged and confidential material. This review shall include
an evaluation of the feasibility of enacting legislation and whether the plan
may be restored to its pre-termination status under section 1347 of title 29,
United States Code. [Emphasis added]
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), who has advocated for the Delphi
workers for more than a decade, praised Trump’s order.
“Today, President Trump is taking action to finally help these
hard-working people who were robbed by the Obama-Biden administration,” Turner
said in a statement. “For 11 long years, I have been at the forefront of
helping the Delphi Salaried Retirees fight to retain their pensions, which they
earned through years of faithful service. President Trump is proving yet again
that he supports American workers.”
Another portion of the memorandum gives Navarro, Mnuchin, Ross,
and Scalia 180 days to review insolvency issues in regards to PBGC pension plans.
“Actions may include proposing legislation that appropriately
balances the interests of all those covered by the pension system — from
retirees, workers, employers, and unions, to plans and taxpayers — to address
the insolvency of such plans and to maintain the future solvency of the PBGC’s
Single-Employer and Multi-Employer Programs,” the memorandum reads.
In 2012, federal documents
unveiled how the Obama-Biden administration’s Treasury Department worked to gut the
pensions of the Delphi workers. In other emails, PBGC officials indicated they
had the green light from the Obama-Biden administration to slash the pensions.
Those involved with the
pension-slashing scheme, such as Tim Geithner, Steven Rattner, and Ron Bloom,
are currently pouring thousands of dollars
into Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign.
Navarro said the “root evil” of the Obama-Biden administration’s
slashing of the Delphi workers’ pensions “was a globalist trade policy that
shipped jobs to China and Mexico.”
“As we face these insolvency issues, part of the problem is that
we offshore our production and no longer have the ability, in terms of our
manufacturing base, to sustain our retirees and it’s a key part of the Trump
mission to bring those jobs back,” Navarro said.
Former Delphi workers who
spoke to Breitbart News recently detailed how the
pension-slashing scheme uprooted their livelihoods. One retiree said she lost
her home and her retirement plans to move to the Florida coast have been
squashed.
Exclusive:
Forgotten by Obama-Biden Auto Bailout, Delphi Workers Refuse to Forget What Was
Taken from Them (Part One) https://t.co/T8SME62Vb4 via @BreitbartNews Biden was a disaster on this. All
talk and no action. Remember and VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump) October
21, 2020
Another retiree said his wife died in the process as he was
forced to find work in order to pay for her medical bills. He had assumed that
after 30 years at Delphi, he and his wife would have a good healthcare plan in
their retirement. That ended when his pension was cut by about 30 percent.
Delphi, which has since split
into Aptiv and Delphi Technologies, announced in 2006 that it would shutter 21 of its 29 plants
in the United States — offshoring some 20,000 U.S. jobs to Mexico, China, and
other foreign countries.
At the time, Delphi employed
nearly 50,000 Americans, who earned about $30 an hour
on the assembly line. Now, workers in Mexico for the company earn about $1 an
hour.
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Joe Biden Sought ‘Grand
Bargain’ to Reduce Deficit Through Cuts to Social Security
20 Oct 20207,959
7:57
Joe
Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, worked to forge a “grand bargain”
with congressional Republicans on deficit reduction during the Obama years. As
part of the effort, the former vice president openly advocated for putting
entitlement programs, including Social Security, on the negotiating table.
Shortly after taking office in 2009,
President Barack Obama and his administration were struck with a complex
problem. The economy, which was still in the midst of the Great Recession, was
struggling to rebound, with job losses, bankruptcies, and home foreclosures
running rampant. At the same, the deficit was at an all-time, hitting 8.9
percent of Gross Domestic Product, because of the Bush-era tax cuts and
recession required stimulus spending.
While on the surface the issues
seemed to be separate, in reality, they were intertwined. A mounting deficit,
without restrictions in the country’s money supply, could cause widespread
inflation, much like it did in the late-1960s and early-1970s. Even if
inflation were avoided, a continuing deficit could still hamper long-term
economic growth and prevent foreign investment.
Although the
considerations given to the deficit were mostly practical by Obama’s inner
circle, at least some of the calculations must have also been political. As
early as April 2009, only four months into Obama’s Oval Office tenure, the
seeds of the Tea Party movement were already beginning to sow. For Obama to
achieve many of the promises made on the 2008 campaign trail, it was vital for
Democrats to keep control of Congress in the upcoming midterms. That outcome,
however, could be endangered if Republicans aligned with the Tea Party
succeeded in painting the president’s fiscal policies as “reckless.”
Given such concerns, Obama began
signaling his desire to tackle the deficit in early 2010. In February of the
year, Obama created via executive order a National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform. The commission, which would be bipartisan, would
consist of 18 members, with 12 appointed by Congress and six by the president.
Its goal would be devising a long-term proposal for lowering the deficit and
achieving a balanced budget by at least 2015.
To chair the commission, Obama
tapped former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) and Erskine Bowles, a one-time chief
of staff to ex-President Bill Clinton. The commission, simply known as
Simpson-Bowles, was set to release its recommendations by December 2010 in
hopes that the incoming Congress would act on them the following year.
Even though
Biden was not a member of the commission, the vice president took an interest
in its work because it overlapped with his official role in helping run the
administration’s economic recovery efforts. Biden, who had long favored freezing all federal spending,
including social security, to rein in the deficit, worked with not only Simpson
and Bowles on crafting a proposal, but also the commission’s executive
director, Bruce Reed. As a former Clinton administration official in the
early-1990s, Reed had partnered with then-Senator Biden on authoring the 1994
crime bill.
The eventual proposal that
Simpson-Bowles authored sought to reduce the deficit by more than four trillion
dollars. It would have stabilized the growth of the federal debt by 2014, while
reducing it by more than 60 percent by 2023. Although the goals looked good,
the cost would have fallen heavily on individuals who rely on federal spending
and entitlement programs, like Social Security.
Simpson-Bowles proposed to cut
Social Security benefits for those in the top half of the income tax bracket,
while raising the retirement age to 69. The plan also would have reduced the
cost of living adjustments that are made to benefits as inflation rises.
The proposal, when it was released
in December 2010, was derided by both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans,
who had just won control of the United States House of Representatives, were
emboldened to believe that voters, backed by Tea Party sympathy, would want
larger cuts to achieve a balanced budget sooner. Democrats, on the other hand,
especially those that self-identified as progressives, viewed the cuts to
programs such as Social Security as draconian.
Although the Simpson-Bowles proposal
was never introduced in Congress, its ideas for reducing the deficit quickly
took hold among Obama administration officials, specifically Biden. Shortly
after the commission wound down, the vice president announced that Reed would
become his chief of staff, seeming to signal that deficit reduction would be
Biden’s new priority.
Starting in
early-2011, Biden and Reed began holding talks with top congressional leaders,
including then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, on how to how to achieve a
“grand bargain” on the deficit. Those talks, profiled in Bob Woodward’s
book The Price of Politics, seem to indicate
that Biden was eager to strike a deal, even offering to put Social Security and
Medicare on the “table.”
By the
summer of 2011, Biden had roped more members of Congress into the talks, with
the group now expanded to six Democrats and six Republicans. As Woodward noted, Biden was close to hammering out a deal that
would have cut federal spending by $2 trillion, including programs like Social
Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps. When Republicans fretted over proposed tax
increases, especially allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, Biden suggested a
compromise by raising the retirement age for Social Security and also creating
a mechanism to means-test the program.
As part of the compromise, Biden
also pitched Republicans on a relatively obscure change to the cost of living
formula in hopes of sealing a deal. Biden, in particular, sought to amend the
formula that determined the cost of living adjustments for programs like Social
Security. At the time, Biden suggested that such programs in the future be tied
to the United States Chained Consumer Price Index (Chained CPI) rather than the
current United States Consumer Price Index.
Chained CPI is predicated on the
notion that when the cost of living increases because of changes in the prices
of goods, consumers will adjust their purchasing patterns to make up for the
rise. The theory suggests that even though cost of living might increase on
paper, the impact is negligible on consumers.
Had Biden succeeded in tying Social
Security and other entitlements to Chained CPI, it would have cut the expected
growth in program benefits that recipients had become accustomed to over time.
Attaching Social Security to Chained CPI has long been opposed by progressives
and advocacy groups like the AARP on the grounds that seniors are more impacted
by inflation since a significant portion of their incomes go to medical costs,
which are always rising at rates higher than the rest of the economy.
Even though Biden attempted to make
Chained CPI central to the deficit negotiation, the talks ultimately fell apart
when congressional Republicans were unable to sell any proposed revenue
increases to their members.
Despite the
failure, Biden, with Obama’s backing continued trying to forge a “grand
bargain” on deficit reduction in 2012 and 2013. Each time the talks included tying Chained CPI to
Social Security and other entitlements programs.
The former
vice president’s position on deficit reduction comes back into the spotlight as
Biden has promised to not only protect, but also expand Social Security if elected in
November.
Biden’s campaign did not return
requests for comment on this story.
Auto parts workers demand full disclosure as COVID-19 cases surge at Indiana Faurecia plant
The Faurecia Gladstone Rank-and-File Safety Committee demands that the company and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union (IBEW) make public all information, including dates and locations of cases, on the spread of the coronavirus in the plant. We hereby call on all of our brothers and sisters to be prepared to halt production if necessary so the plant can be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to protect our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
It is outrageous and indefensible that Charlie, our self-sacrificing and loyal plant engineer for many years—a man who goes out of his way to help every worker and keep every line running—had to be sent home last Saturday with pneumonia which is very likely an advanced symptom of COVID-19. Despite the fact that he is nearing retirement, has underlying medical conditions and is at high risk for serious complications from the virus, the company has been treating him like an expendable commodity.
Forcing him to work long hours in every part of the plant in the midst of an upsurge of the contagion is only the most blatant expression of the contempt with which the company treats every one of us. They treat us like garbage.
But we are not alone. The rank-and-file safety committees in the United States know the plight of workers at the Magna auto parts plants in India. We are going through the same problems at the Faurecia Gladstone plant in Indiana, the FCA Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Michigan and the Ford Chicago Assembly Plant in Illinois. We are fighting against the coronavirus under conditions in which we have been and continue to be lied to every day. We must have the truth.
The COVID-19 shutdowns which occurred throughout the world during March, April and early May and saved the lives of tens of thousands of workers did not happen because the corporations, governments and unions took action to protect the lives of workers. On the contrary, they only happened because our brothers and sisters rebelled against the unions and took matters into their own hands to save lives.
At Gladstone we were told that we had to work because we were essential workers when we were not. We were lied to. All of the companies that we produce parts for were shut down. The company used that lie to ramp up production and boost their profits. They closed most of the shop, permanently let go more than 250 people, and forced those of us left in the shop to work seven days a week for 12 hours a day. They took the government’s money through the CARES Act—in essence our money—when they did not even have to operate.
The situation has reached a breaking point. The explosion of COVID-19 across the United States is accelerating. Hospitals from El Paso to Wisconsin are overwhelmed, and the death toll, already at 240,000, is projected to pass 400,000 by the end of January.
The powers-that-be know that the factories are centers that are spreading the disease. Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker admitted last Friday that 52 industrial facilities have been the leading source of COVID-19 outbreaks since July 1. His statement followed by just a few days leaks in the news media of specific locations that were spreading COVID-19. State officials had these facts months ago but have been concealing them from the public.
What are the same statistics for Indiana and states across the country? We know that at Gladstone the management covers up cases and sweeps them under the rug on a daily basis to force us to come to work.
Throughout the auto industry, management is using safety regulations not to protect us, but on the contrary, to harass and victimize whistleblowers who speak up in defense of their fellow workers. Among the most notorious cases are the firing of James Grady here at Faurecia Gladstone and Sergio Contreras Ortega at GM’s plant in Silao, Mexico.
They are trying to make this outbreak the employees’ fault. The purpose of the form called “SAFETY CHAT” that we have to sign is to put the blame on us for the lack of safety in the plant. They claim it gives them the power to point you out and fire you for the least little violation of their safety rules.
They put up a good show up front when you first come into the plant, with safety films to watch and posted regulations that you have to stay six feet apart. In practice, the situation on most lines is just the opposite. We are packed in like sardines. You bump into each other. You are tripping over each other. And the company tells us again and again that it is not in the budget to correct these catastrophic conditions.
We have supervisors, gap leaders, forklift drivers and many others in the plant who tested positive for COVID-19 and suffered different levels of illness, from mild to severe. The company refuses to tell anyone who has been infected or who has been exposed. They sweep it under the rug and put somebody else in their place going on with business as usual.
We have single parents in the plant who have tested positive for the coronavirus, and they are scared to death that they will take it home to their children. Adding insult to injury, they are sent home to quarantine without being fully compensated for their time missing work. We are the victims, and we are made to pay for the company’s negligence.
JOE BIDEN'S DEMOCRAT PARTY
IS FOR BOTTOMLESS SOCIALISM, WELFARE, SUBSIDIES AND BAILOUTS FOR WALL
STREET.
THE LOOTING OF AMERICA:
BARACK OBAMA AND HIS CRONY BANKSTERS set
themselves on America’s pensions next!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/04/obamanomics-assault-on-american-middle.html
The new aristocrats, like the lords of old, are not bound by the laws that apply to the lower orders. Voluminous reports have been issued by Congress and government panels documenting systematic fraud and law breaking carried out by the biggest banks both before and after the Wall Street crash of 2008.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan
Chase, Bank of America and every other major US bank have been implicated in a
web of scandals, including the sale of toxic mortgage securities on false
pretenses, the rigging of international interest rates and global foreign
exchange markets, the laundering of Mexican drug money, accounting fraud and
lying to bank regulators, illegally foreclosing on the homes of delinquent
borrowers, credit card fraud, illegal debt-collection practices, rigging of
energy markets, and complicity in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
NO PRESIDENT
IN HISTORY SUCKED IN MORE BRIBES FROM CRIMINAL BANKSTERS THAN BARACK OBAMA!
This was not
because of difficulties in securing indictments or convictions. On the
contrary, Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee in March of 2013
that the Obama administration chose not to prosecute the big banks or their
CEOs because to do so might “have a negative impact on the national economy.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-bankster-owned-president-citigroup.html
This is a further shift
leftward by Wall Street from the last election cycle, when between 50 percent
and 52 percent of the contributions through mid-year 2017 from J.P. Morgan,
Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America went to Republicans. Those banks sent
between 37 percent and 45 percent of the contributions to Democrats.
Joe Biden Rakes in More than $50M from Wall Street,
Including from Soros
16
Oct 20208
3:01
Democrat
presidential candidate Joe Biden is raking in tens of millions of dollars from
Wall Street, weeks away from the November 3 election against President Trump.
In the last few months,
Biden’s campaign and his fundraising committees have “benefited from big money
contributions from finance leaders on Wall Street and across the country,” according
to a new report by CNBC.
Wall Street donors to date
have spent more than $50 million to help get Biden elected, as they view his
candidacy as a return to the economic status quo, which has often spelled
economic decline for Main Street.
CNBC reports:
The joint committees, which raise money for the
Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties, are
being fueled, at least in part, by Wall Street executives. Those
committees accept six-figure contributions. [Emphasis added]
…
People in the financial
industry have largely favored Biden, spending more than $50 million to back his
candidacy,
according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, compared with more
than $10 million for Trump. [Emphasis added]
Some of those Wall Street
donors to Biden include President Obama’s former Treasury Department secretary
Tim Geithner, who contributed $150,000 to the Biden Action Fund in August.
Geithner, while in the Obama administration, coordinated to slash pensions for
roughly 20,000 Delphi workers in the midst of
the auto bailout for General Motors (GM).
Wall Street executives Antonio Gracias and Jonathan Shulkin each
delivered $300,000 to Biden’s campaign in August, while venture capitalist John
Doerr donated more than $355,000 to the Biden Action Fund in the last three
months.
Likewise, Wall Street investor Jonathan Soros, the son of
billionaire left-wing mega-donor George Soros, gave a little less than $145,000
to Biden in the third quarter, while Wall Street venture capitalists and
investors John Doerr, Stephen Mandel, and Pete Muller gave Biden nearly $1.5
million.
In the third quarter, alone, the Biden Action Fund got more than
$4 million from Wall Street donors, with huge donations from executives at the
Blackstone Group, JPMorgan Chase, The Carlyle Group, and Kohlberg Kravis &
Roberts.
Wall Street and nearly all of the nation’s biggest
banks have lined up to support Biden and
his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), against Trump’s economic
nationalist agenda. Goldman Sachs and Moody’s Analytics each released reports
to investors indicating their backing of a “blue wave” on election day as the
biggest net gain for the financial industry.
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Likewise, Wall Street
is behind Biden’s plan to hugely expand legal immigration levels, beyond
already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4 million visa
workers a year.
Biden has elated Wall Street so much that for the
first time in a decade, more financial executives are donating to Democrat
candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for Responsive Politics
analysis reveals.
CNN: ‘All
the Big Banks’ on Wall Street Backing Joe Biden Against Trump
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
28 Sep
20203,632
3:20
Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden is raking in Wall
Street cash from all the big banks at five times the rate of President Trump, a
CNN report admits.
An analysis by CNN found that “all the
big banks are backing Biden” against Trump, with the former vice president
taking a larger margin of Wall Street donations than even failed Democrat
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
CNN reports:
The securities and
investment industry donated just $10.5 million to Trump’s presidential campaign
and outside groups aligned with it, according to a new tally by
OpenSecrets. It has sent nearly five times as much cash, $51.1
million, to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. [Emphasis
added]
That means Trump
is losing the fundraising race among Wall Streeters by a slightly greater
magnitude than in 2016.
During that cycle, former New York Senator Hillary Clinton and groups aligned
with her raised $88 million from the securities and investment industry, while
Trump took in just $20.8 million. [Emphasis added]
…
But a CNN Business
analysis of OpenSecrets research shows that Biden is beating Trump
in fundraising from all of America’s big banks — in some cases by
wide margins. [Emphasis added]
At the big banks — which
saw little-to-no consequences for their role in the 2008
financial crisis — Biden is sweeping up donations from employees by huge
margins. At Goldman Sachs, for example, Biden has raised more than $156,000,
while Trump has taken less than $12,000.
JPMorgan Chase employees have given
three times as much campaign cash to Biden as Trump. Biden has taken nearly
$380,000. At Morgan Stanley, Biden has taken more than twice as much as Trump,
taking nearly $258,000 from the bank’s employees compared to Trump’s $96,010.
Despite pitching himself
as a defender of blue-collar Americans, Biden has not only been widely backed by Wall Street but also by wealthy
residents on Park Avenue.
Biden’s campaign has
raised over $1 million from donors living on Park Avenue, according to Federal
Election Commission (FEC) filings, as Breitbart News reported. This is more than eight times the
$127,000 raised by the Trump campaign from the same area.
This month, Biden touted Wall Street’s support for his plan
to abolish America’s suburbs by seizing control of local zoning laws to
construct housing developments and multi-family buildings in
neighborhoods. Likewise, Wall Street is behind Biden’s plan to hugely expand legal immigration levels, beyond
already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4 million visa
workers a year.
Biden has elated Wall Street so much that for the
first time in a decade, more financial executives are donating to Democrat
candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for Responsive Politics
analysis reveals.
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Likewise,
Wall Street is behind Biden’s
plan to hugely expand legal
immigration levels, beyond already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards
and 1.4 million visa workers a year.
Biden has elated Wall
Street so much that for the first time in a decade, more financial executives
are donating to Democrat candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for
Responsive Politics analysis reveals.
Joe
Biden’s Campaign Is
Awash
in Wall Street Cash
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
2 Jun 202080
4:01
Joe Biden
has adopted the anti-Wall Street rhetoric of some of his former rivals for the
Democrat nomination, but that has not stopped him from collecting an enormous
war chest of campaign cash from the financial sector.
Biden on Tuesday said that America
“wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers and CEOs, it was built by the great
American middle class.”
· 6h
Biden: “The president held up the Bible at St. John’s
church yesterday. I just wish he opened it once in a while.”
Biden: “If it weren’t clear before, it’s clear now: This
country wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers and CEOs, it was built by the great
American middle class.”
21 people are talking about this
Securities industry employees, a
close proxy for Wall Street, have donated $29,703,244 to Biden’s campaign
or to political committees supporting his campaign for the
presidency, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The sector is the second-largest source of campaign contributions to Biden’s
campaign, coming only after Democrat Party and left-wing organizations.
Donald Trump, by contrast, has only
received around $6,320,861.
Biden has
also received far more campaign cash from employees of J.P.Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs than
his Republican rival, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. For
example, Biden has taken more than 6 times as much money from J.P. Morgan Chase
employees than Trump.
Employees at those four firms have
donated a total of $508,259 to Biden’s campaign, according to data from the
Center for Responsive Politics. Morgan Stanley was the biggest contributor to
Biden of the group, with donations totaling $171,274.
Trump has received just $27,981
dollars from Morgan Stanley employees. J.P. Morgan employees have contributed
$23,942. Bank of America employees given $40,448. Goldman’s contributions add
up to a grand total of $4,211, according to data from the Center for Responsive
Politics. A total of $96,582, less than one-fifth of Biden’s take.
Political contributions from
Citigroup were unavailable at the time of publication.
The campaign cash from the big Wall
Street banks have poured into Democrat coffers in the 2020 election cycle.
Slightly more than 58 percent of Goldman’s contributions to Congressional
candidates have gone to Democrats. More than 62 percent of Morgan Stanley’s
contributions went to Democrats. Bank of America was nearly even, with 49.9
percent going to Republicans and 49.6 percent going to Republicans. J.P. Morgan
favored Democrats by nearly 60 percent to 30 percent, with 10 percent going to
independent candidates.
This is not a function of just
giving to the majority party. Goldman’s contributions favor Democrats in the
House and Republicans in the Senate, while Morgan Stanley’s and J.P. Morgan’s
favor Democrats in both. Bank of America contributors favor Republican
candidates for the House and Democrats in the Senate.
When measured by contributions to
all federal candidates, all four skew Democrat. J.P. Morgan’s contributions are
the most tilted, with 73.4 percent going to Democrat candidates, and Bank of
America’s the least, with 58.5 percent going to Democrats. Morgan Stanley tilts
67.9 percent Democrat. Goldman lean is 61.28 Democrat.
This is a further shift leftward by
Wall Street from the last election cycle, when between 50 percent and 52
percent of the contributions through mid-year 2017 from J.P. Morgan, Morgan
Stanley, and Bank of America went to Republicans. Those banks sent between 37
percent and 45 percent of the contributions to Democrats.
Obama Officials Who Helped Slash Pensions for Delphi Workers
Shower Joe Biden with Campaign Cash
Alex Wong/Getty Images
19
Oct 20201,387
5:42
Former Obama administration officials, linked to the slashing of
pensions for 20,000 Delphi workers, are showering Democrat presidential
candidate Joe Biden with campaign cash to oust President Trump from office.
In 2009, as part of the Obama-Biden administration’s
taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM), the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation (PBGC) terminated the
pension plans of about 20,0000 non-unionized Delphi workers. In some
cases, workers had their pensions gutted by as much as 75 percent.
A federal report in 2013 detailed that the Delphi workers would likely have their pensions
cut by an estimated $440 million. Meanwhile, GM topped off unionized Delphi workers’ pensions at a cost of about $1
billion.
In 2012, federal documents unveiled how the Obama-Biden
administration’s Treasury Department worked to
gut the pensions of the Delphi workers. In other emails, PBGC officials
indicated they had the green light from the Obama-Biden administration to slash
the pensions.
Trump officials have said the president is working on an
executive plan to restore the Delphi
pension after more than a decade of no help from the Obama administration.
A number of Obama officials directly involved with the auto
bailout deal that slashed the pensions are now banking on a Biden victory on
November 3 — pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the former vice
president’s campaign with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).
Among those officials involved in the deal were former Treasury
Secretary Tim Geithner, who reportedly contributed $150,000 to
the Biden Action Fund in August. As previously noted, emails in 2012 detailed
how Geithner’s agency at the time “was the driving force behind terminating the
pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing
company.”
Geithner was said to have delegated out responsibility for the
Delphi pensions to a select team of Obama officials, though insiders have said
he was pushed to help the workers but did not lift a finger.
Likewise, Obama official Steven Rattner has contributed a total
of $5,600 to Biden’s campaign last year and this year. Rattner was at the
center of the Delphi pensions slashing scheme, as noted in the 2013 federal
report previously mentioned:
According to Auto Team leader Rattner, pensions were another
area where the Auto Team “encouraged” GM to cut costs. GM had a pay-as-you-go pension plan for salaried
employees that was not funded and GM salaried employees and retirees wanted
their full pensions, but Mr. Rattner told SIGTARP that the Auto Team
wanted cuts to those benefits. [Emphasis added]
…
Auto Team leader Rattner told SIGTARP that GM came to the Auto
Team because “GM wanted to do something for the [Delphi] salaried retirees.”
Mr. Rattner discussed it with then-GM CEO Henderson. Although Mr. Rattner could
not remember the specifics of the conversation, he told SIGTARP that he thought
there was nothing defensible from a commercial standpoint that could be done
for the Delphi salaried retirees. Mr. Rattner told SIGTARP, “We
didn’t think there was anything defensible. We felt bad, but we didn’t
think it was justifiable.” [Emphasis added]
Ron Bloom, another Obama official, has given $2,800 to Biden’s
campaign. Bloom is named in the 2013 federal report regarding the Delphi
pension slashing scheme, which notes his direct involvement:
Although Delphi salaried retirees had asked Auto Team official
Bloom to consider preserving the pensions out of fairness, Auto Team
official Bloom told SIGTARP that GM “did not provide a top-up to the
salaried guys because I think [GM] concluded there was not a commercially
reasonable reason to do it.” Mr. Bloom added that GM’s automotive
parts suppliers “received a hundred cents on the dollar,” the UAW’s retirees
received a number “less than a hundred, but more than the bondholders,” and
some got less than the bondholders. Mr. Bloom told SIGTARP that they
could not make everyone whole and “That’s not to say that people
didn’t lose a lot or [were] hurt or were treated in a way that – sort of in a
human way you would say that’s unfair. I don’t think that anybody
thinks bankruptcy is fair. It is what it is, though.” [Emphasis added]
Matthew Feldman, who had potentially more involvement in the
Delphi pension slashing scheme than any other Obama official aside from
Rattner, has not made contributions to Biden. Members of Feldman’s firm,
Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where he is co-chairman, have donated tens of
thousands to Biden.
It is unclear how many Obama officials who are linked to the
Delphi pension slashing scheme are eyeing jobs in a Biden White House should he
win on November 3. Biden is considering a number of
former Obama officials for top-level jobs, many under the mantle of
“diversity.”
Delphi, which has since split into Aptiv and Delphi
Technologies, announced in 2006 that it would shutter 21 of
its 29 plants in the United States — offshoring some 20,000 U.S. jobs to
Mexico, China, and other foreign countries.
At the time, Delphi employed nearly 50,000 Americans, who earned about
$30 an hour on the assembly line. Now, workers in Mexico for the company
earn about $1 an hour.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on
Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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