Fixing our Economy with Union Values

Greed. Avarice. Reckless speculation. Zero accountability. That’s what got America into the financial mess we’re in. But those aren’t the values we advocate when we are teaching our children how to get ahead, how to support themselves financially, or how to be successful. We teach them just the opposite: responsibility, hard work, fairness, cautiousness, and generosity.

Those are also union values, and they’re the values that our governors, senators, representatives and elected officials at every level must draw on if we are to repair a decade of economic damage caused by Republican malfeasance. We have no choice but to draw on our own ethics and principles—not the ethics of Wall Street bankers—if we want to grow an economy that strengthens our country and middle-class families for the long run.

President Obama inherited an economy in free-fall with huge deficits, skyrocketing health care costs, rising unemployment, and banking and housing markets on the brink of collapse. It took two years, and we still have quite a way to go, but the fact is that under George Bush, our economy was losing 700,000 jobs a month. Despite Republican obstructionism, Democrats were the ones to turn America around by cutting taxes for 95 percent of working families, and investing in the sectors of our economy that are projected to grow the most jobs: health care, energy, education. And, there’s still more work planned.

• Putting Americans to work rebuilding roads, bridges, rails, and ports, strengthening our economy and our infrastructure across all 50 states.

• Investing in a clean energy economy, and providing tax credits to spark manufacturing of windmills, solar panels, and electric cars here at home; and

• Valuing and rewarding with decent pay and family-supporting benefits those who are already employed in the jobs and sectors that are here to stay—like the 4.2 million Americans who work in retail; grocery workers; food processing meat packing and other plant workers.

In addition to the Recovery Act, which stabilized the financial system and helped to prevent a second Great Depression, the President and Democrats have taken several actions to save and create jobs and to get our economy moving again and to ensure that as the engine of our economy comes back to life, it will run for working people, not Wall Street.

• Passed the Manufacturing Enhancement Act to help create jobs, lower business costs, and strengthen the manufacturing sector.

• Supported Americans looking for work by passing the Unemployment Compensation Act which restored badly needed assistance to hard-working Americans who lost their jobs in the recession.

• Reinstated fiscal responsibility in government spending and ensured that American taxpayers will never again be forced to bail out big banks.

• Passed the Home Buyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010, extending the eligibility for new home buyers to receive a tax credit for their purchase.

• Passed a bill that will cut taxes and increase lending for small businesses, helping them to grow and hire new workers. It also lets businesses write off half of their equipment investments this year, and lets employers deduct health insurance costs from their taxes.

• Signed into law emergency aid for states saving the jobs of more than 140,000 teachers and preventing the layoffs of police officers, firefighters and first responders.

If Democrats Don't Pass Health Reform, Will They Lose Younger Voters?

As a new article in Newsweek points out, young Americans are the least likely to be insured. And no, not because they're lazy or don't want to pay:

Young Americans are uniquely affected by the nation's broken health-care system. The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that aims to improve health care, found in a report released in December that nearly half of all young adults between 19 and 29 said they were uninsured at some time during the past year. Because this age range brings with it a number of transition points that can lead to coverage being cut off—high school and college graduation, and early internships or jobs that don't provide coverage—it's a decade fraught with peril.

Given the weakness in the economy, says Sara Collins, co-author of the report, young adults looking for insurance through their employers face an uphill battle. If the economy gets worse, so too will the health-care outlook for young Americans.

So it's no surprise that young Americans are more in favor of comprehensive health care reform than any other age group. From the article:

...even after months of demonization, including countless falsehoods about government takeovers and "death panels," young people remain the group that supports health-care reform at the highest rates. When the Commonwealth Fund asked young respondents whether it was important for Congress and the president to improve the health-care system, 88 percent said yes.

Now if Congress lets down young people on health care, will young people turn away from political involvement? If one of the most important issues to young Americans is allowed to wither and die, what will young people think of the politicians they voted for, the ones who promised that this time would be different? From the Newsweek piece:

If the Democrats drop health care, there will be an entire generation of young voters unable to point to a single major legislative accomplishment from the party during their lifetime. And as far they will be concerned, when it came time for the Democrats to act on an issue that was particularly important to them, they folded.

Democrats worried about their re-election campaigns this fall should be very concerned about this. Young people are a crucial part of their base, and were instrumental in Obama's electoral success. If they turn away from the Democrats or from politics, much like my generation did after the promises President Clinton made turned to dust, it will be the party's loss most of all. So Congress should pass health care reform--if not for the country, if not for all the uninsured or under-insured Americans outthere--to at least keep alive the hope, activism, and civic-mindedness of our nation's youngest voters. After all, corny as it sounds, they are America's future. Let's keep them healthy, happy, and politically engaged.