Boehner’s Failure and the road ahead- Trumka

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement on House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) “Plan B” failure and the latest fiscal developments:

Speaker Boehner’s failure last night should be seen as one thing: A reset button to listen to the will of the American people. The slate is clean and we call on the President to come forward with an offer that reflects the reasons he won the election. Across the country working people continue to demand no tax cuts for the richest two percent and no benefit cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. At this point, cuts to the Social Security COLA to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent should be off the table. The President and Congress have no obligation to radical Republicans who have no ground to stand on. What they do have is the backing of millions of hardworking women and men tired of being held hostage by far right-wing Republicans who clearly have little interest in governing.

Oppose Free Trade – Support Fair Trade

For years, America’s political leaders have pursued unsustainable and unacceptable trade deals that decimate American jobs.

For all those years, there has been broad consensus that–at a bare minimum–people who lose their jobs because of unfair trade deals like NAFTA deserve help and training for finding new jobs. After all, it’s the least our country can do for someone who works a lifetime in an industry, only to see his or her job shipped off to China, right?

But the basic bipartisan consensus to help people whose lives have been turned upside down by outsourcing ended yesterday, when the House Republican leadership abruptly refused to schedule a vote to extend help for victims of outsourcing.

The expiring program–called Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)–provides financial help and training for workers who lose their jobs or see their hours or wages reduced due to outsourcing, offshoring or increased imports.

Sign our electronic petition to Speaker Boehner. It says: “It’s inexcusable that our leaders keep promoting policies to encourage outsourcing. Doing nothing for the victims of these policies is totally unacceptable.” Go here: