AFL-CIO Analysis of President Donald Trump’s FY 2018 Budget

Notice: The AFL-CIO addresses Trump's intent to slash $54 Billion from human needs but does not mention this fact reported by National Public Radio:

"Trump wants lawmakers to boost military spending in the coming fiscal year by 10 percent, or $54 billion. Rather than raise taxes or increase the deficit, the president is calling for equivalent cuts in other areas."

How is it the AFL-CIO ignored this?



AFL-CIO Analysis of President Donald Trump’s FY 2018 Budget

March 16, 2017

 AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made the following statement regarding President Donald Trump’s proposed budget: 
“Working people in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin didn’t vote for a budget that slashes workforce training and fails to invest in our nation’s infrastructure. President Trump’s proposed budget attempts to balance the budget on the backs of working families. The $54 billion cut to programs that benefit working families is dangerous and destructive. Huge cuts to the departments of Labor, Education and Transportation will make workplaces less safe, put more children at risk and make improving our failing infrastructure much more difficult. The administration can and should do better.”
The budget abandons the future—slashing investments in workers, communities, young people, protecting our environment and building democracy. There are major cuts in job training, education, health programs, the environment, the arts and foreign aid. Research programs in science and medicine are slashed. Sixty-two government programs/agencies are slated for elimination.
Here are some key highlights:
Department of Labor: Overall cut $2.5 billion (-20.7%)
The budget makes it harder for workers to get the training they need in order to advance in their industry and to compete globally.

• Major cuts:
  • Job training/employment/re-employment
  • Senior Community Service Employment Program eliminated
  • Job Corps
  • Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) grants eliminated
  • Safety and health training grants eliminated

Department of Health and Human Services: Overall cut $12.6 billion (-16.2%)
People suffering from terminal diseases will be affected by lack of new medicines, and low-income workers will not receive assistance to heat their homes during the cold months of winter.

• Cuts National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding by 18.3% (-$5.8 billion)
• Eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides assistance to help low-income people heat and cool their homes
• Eliminates $403 million in health professions and nursing training programs
• Restructures the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and directs money to states through block grants
• Increases funding for opioid prevention and treatment services by $500 million

Department of Education: Overall cut $9.2 billion (-13.5%)
This budget would destroy public schools and eliminate much-needed training for teachers. It also makes it harder for young people to go to college.

• Increases funding for school choice by $1.4 billion
  • Redirects $418 million to private/charter schools
  • Eliminates $2.4 billion for Supporting Effective Instruction state grants
  • Reduces or eliminates funding for teacher-preparation programs (State Teacher Quality/Supporting Effective Instruction grants)
  • Eliminates federal funding for before- and after-school and summer-school programs
  • Eliminates the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which provides grants for students with the greatest need

Department of State: Overall cut $10.9 billion (-28.7%)
The budget would harm workers around the world who are standing up to multinational corporations and repressive governments that restrict workers’ rights and lower wages.

• Cuts funding for U.N. programs
• Reorganizes and consolidates U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs

Department of Treasury: Overall cut of $0.5 billion (-4.4%)
These cuts allow the super-wealthy and corporations to get away with not paying taxes and allow big banks to crush small community banks.

• Cuts IRS by $239 million
• Eliminates funding for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund

Department of Transportation: Overall cut $2.4 billion (-12.7%)
This will mean less investment in railroads and airlines at a time when our nation has an infrastructure deficit of over $4 trillion.

• Privatizes air traffic control 
• Restructures and cuts federal subsidies for Amtrak
• Cuts funding for the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant Program

Commerce: Overall cut $1.5 billion (-15.7%)
This will mean more resources to enforce our nation’s trade laws. Our current trade policy has put corporations ahead of workers—resulting in jobs shipped overseas and lower wages.

• Strengthens International Trade Administration’s trade enforcement/compliance assistance
• Eliminates the Economic Development Administration, the Minority Business Development Agency and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Environmental Protection Agency: Overall cut $2.6 billion (-31.4%)
These cuts will make our drinking water less safe and our air more toxic.

• Claims to maintain funding for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure
• Discontinues funding for Clean Power Plan
• Reduces funding for Superfund cleanup
• Eliminates 50 EPA programs
• Cuts enforcement programs

Veterans Affairs: Overall increase $4.4 billion (+6.0%)
These funds provide much-needed resources for our nation’s veterans.

• $4.6 billion increase for VA health care to improve access and timeliness of medical service
• $3.5 billion in mandatory budget authority to extend and fund the Veterans Choice Program, which provides the option to see a private provider. The program was set to expire in August 2017.

Selected programs proposed for elimination
The budget targets for elimination arts and music programs and legal aid for the poor. Planning a future for the communities of Appalachia and protection from hazardous chemicals are also on the chopping block.

• Appalachian Regional Commission
• Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program
• Chemical Safety Board
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Legal Services Corporation
• National Endowment for the Arts
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)

Contact: Carolyn Bobb (202) 637-5018

Richard Trumka and labor leaders met in San Antonio, Texas... but what do they intend to do about Trump and his reactionary agenda?

 Richard Trumka • March 10, 2017 • San Antonio, Texas

Thank you, Brother Mike [Sacco]. It’s great to be with you, and all the folks from the Maritime Trades.
Listen, these are challenging times for our labor movement and our nation. Pay is too low. Inequality is too high. Good jobs are few and far between. But over the past four or five years, something has changed. Working people are speaking out. We are shaping the debate. We want better. And we are making one thing abundantly clear: we do not work for any politician or political party. We will not be an ATM for the Democrats or a rubber stamp for the Republicans. We will lead with our issues and our values. We will put our members and families first. Political independence is the way forward. It will strengthen our credibility and effectiveness. And that’s how we build an America that works for working people.
Political independence allowed us to take on a Democratic president and defeat the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership. Political independence empowered us to stand up to a Republican president and defeat a no-good, wage-stealing, robot-loving nominee for Secretary of Labor. In both cases, we rallied in towns and cities across the country, flooded Congress with calls and e-mails and made our position clear. And we won. Remember that. We won.
Working people are leading the way. We’re building a political movement for good jobs and better lives. There is nothing more important in America right now. For decades, our economy has been tilted to favor the wealthy few at our expense. The vast majority of Americans want the rules of the economy to benefit us, not the rich, not the wealthy, not Wall Street. That’s what we are pushing for.
Good jobs and raising wages is how we will measure the Trump Administration. President Trump promised throughout his campaign to make life better for American workers. But talk is cheap. When the president does something good for working people and good for the economy, we’ll say so, and we’ll work for it. When he does things that are bad for working people and bad for the economy, that lower our wages and make our workplaces less safe, that threaten our pensions and health care, we will fight him every step of the way. President Trump gets to choose his path. In us, he will either have a constructive partner or an unrelenting, resourceful and tough opponent.
Brothers and sisters, the unions of the Maritime Trades show us all what solidarity looks like, and I want you to know that your priorities are my priorities. You’ve made a powerful statement by standing strong with the Bakery Workers who’ve lost jobs at Nabisco. You’re shoulder-to-shoulder with my union, the United Mine Workers, who are fighting to make sure America keeps its pension promises.
We are there for you, too, whether it’s protecting the Jones Act or getting the Export/Import Bank back up and running. We’ll stand with our Canadian sisters and brothers to win a stronger economy and a better tomorrow, and we thank you for your work blocking the bad trade agreement between Canada and Europe.
You know, a moment ago I mentioned our success fighting the TPP. I want to be clear about that. Never for a moment think America’s labor movement is flat-out against trade. It’s simply not true. We’re FOR good trade. We want to open new markets for American products made by American workers and businesses. Done right, trade can create jobs, lower costs and lift up working people. Done wrong, it can unleash a wave of economic devastation no family or community should ever have to endure. We’re for fair trade. We’re for pro-worker trade. Give us a seat at the table for the next trade agreement. We’ll make sure it works for working families. And then we’ll fight to pass it. But otherwise, forget it. The days of corporate-written trade deals are over.
We know firsthand how trade can produce good jobs with strong wages. Shipbuilders, longshoremen, seafarers, you name it, those are careers to be proud of. Union members in Philadelphia and San Diego are building new tankers and container ships. American workers right now are producing the world’s most modern ocean-going propulsion systems — liquefied natural gas. LNG power is cutting-edge, and it shows that North American labor and know-how remain the best in the world.
All we need is a chance.
In his speech last week to Congress, President Trump proposed a massive infrastructure investment — $1 trillion dollars. We’ve wanted that for years. It’s an ambitious proposal, and America needs it, but it had better come with Davis-Bacon and powerful Buy America provisions. We’ll gladly partner with President Trump for every single thing that working families need. But I had to wonder about all of those Congressional Republicans who stood up and cheered for investing in infrastructure. Where were they for the last 8 years when President Obama was proposing the very same thing? This is the type of partisan politics that drive our members crazy. So my message to Congress is this: Cut the crap. Pass a bill. Do it the right way. Put America to work.
Let me tell you something we don’t need: the so-called Cadillac Tax. This is a solidarity tax, plain and simple. We have given up wage increases time and time again to preserve our health care. We fought for it. We bargained for it. This tax was a bad idea when Democrats included it in the Affordable Care Act. And it’s a bad idea now that Republicans want it as part of their ill-advised repeal efforts. For more than a century, the labor movement has fought to make health care a right for every American. Congress should focus on improving and building on the Affordable Care Act, our current employment-based system, Medicare and Medicaid. Brothers and sisters, if you come after our health care, we will fight you tooth and nail.
We can, and we will, win a new set of rules for the American economy. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is. And if for a minute you think it can’t be done, just consider that two years ago everybody and their brother thought the TPP was a done deal. And just a few weeks ago Andy Puzder looked like a slam dunk to be the next Secretary of Labor.
But working people had a different idea. We mobilized. We educated workers, and in the end, we came out on top. We learned a powerful lesson: nothing is inevitable. We saw activism work.
America wants more of that activism, not less. By a margin of two to one, registered voters want to increase Social Security benefits. By a margin of 3 to 1, folks want to tax companies on overseas profits and increase funding for public schools. People overwhelmingly support higher wages and more investments in infrastructure. And a growing number believe in unions! Make no mistake, momentum is on our side.
Brothers and sisters, America remains the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We can support middle-class jobs and succeed. We can be pro-worker and pro-business. We can trade fairly and form unions freely. That’s what America is all about. But it will take hard work and solidarity.
Any economist will tell you consumer spending drives 70% of the American economy. When workers earn a living wage, we are more likely to buy a new washing machine, replace the tires on the car or take a long-overdue vacation. That’s why the best way to build a strong, sustainable economy is with wage-driven growth. When I help you up, it gives me a boost. When you help me up, the way gets easier for somebody else. It’s not easy. When it counts, solidarity is hard. We’ve got to stand together during the long night, when it’s cold, when the outcome is uncertain. That’s when it matters. Solidarity. Arms locked. Shoulder-to-shoulder. To win a better life!
That’s the American way. It’s the union way. It’s solidarity, and it works, brothers and sisters. You know how to win for America’s hard-working families. You’ve done it many, many times, and you’ll do it again tomorrow. When we stand together, we win together.
Thank you, God bless you and the work you do.

LBJ's "Great Society" was killed by the Vietnam War

Trump and his Budget Director, Mulvaney, are pushing a budget supported by less than 20% of the American people under the guise tax-payers don't like social programs and would rather have their taxes pay for militarism and war.


I notice there have been no polls asking the American people about this.


The polling question could be posed very straight forward:


Do you want your tax-dollars spent on social programs or wars?


As we all know, we can't have both wars and social programs.


Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" was killed by his Vietnam War:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuuEFTgodc8


Even the capitalist economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, understood we can't have both "guns and butter."


We can have a great society but not one that includes spending on these dirty imperialist wars.
This is the way to the "Great Society;" there is no other way... ask your friends, neighbors and fellow workers to sign this petition... take this petition to the next demonstration against Trump you attend... let your member of Congress know you are circulating this petition... write a Letter to the Editor supporting peace as the way to prosperity for all... we can't have prosperity for all without peace... we can't achieve peace without a struggle:


Campaign for a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”


We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.


We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.


A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care--- general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Or paid for with a tax on Wall Street transactions. Or financed with a combination of these methods. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.


A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.


We need to restore the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).


“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded and repealed to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.


All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.


Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.


We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.


Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. A Basic Income for All must be guaranteed. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end; restore the Glass-Steagall Act.


Turn Habitat for Humanity into a massive public works project to create jobs and assure everyone has a decent home.


Free education through university; cancel student debt. End military recruitment in the high schools.


Unemployment and lack of a National Public Health Care System is the price we pay for militarism and wars. We are entitled to a Peace Dividend……...

Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.


Name                Address                                    City                                State                  E-mail
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LBJ Outlines His Great Society - Jan. 4, 1965

On Jan. 4, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson outlined his goals for a Great Society in his State of the Union. You can watch and read his entire speech at http:...

youtube.com

Trump intends to shove a Wall Street budget created by the imperialist merchants of death and destruction down our throats

Trump has brought some real creeps into his cabinet. Steve Bannon and the Nazi Gorka aren't the worst of the lot, they have their equal in the Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, whose claim is that social programs are not working for tax-payers.


Mulvaney intends to take the axe to Meals on Wheels, the school lunch program and now he admits Social Security programs, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid are on the chopping block.


Mulvaney argues these programs don't work and tax-payers have told Trump they don't want these programs.


Mulvaney's budget has the support of less than 20% of the American people.


Of course, neither the billionaire Trump nor the racist Mulvaney who is apparently most comfortable at a cross-burning with a white sheet over his head never think of asking the people who benefit from these programs if they want to keep the programs, their suggestions for making the programs work better or if they think the programs should be expanded.


And neither Trump nor Mulvaney have asked tax-payers what they think about their plans to increase the defense budget for a new nuclear arms race, more spending on "modernizing" the armed forces with all kinds of new barbaric bombs and armaments and these dirty imperialist wars... all tantamount to dumping the Nation's wealth created by the working class into the deepest depths of the oceans for all the good this military spending does.


What we need is just the opposite of what Trump and his cabal of morons are doing.


This is what we need and are entitled to from government but this rotten and thoroughly corrupt Wall Street government will never consider... put this up against Trump's budget and let ALL the people decide:


Campaign for a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”


We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.


We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.


A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care--- general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Or paid for with a tax on Wall Street transactions. Or financed with a combination of these methods. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.


A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.


We need to restore the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).


“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded and repealed to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.


All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.


Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.


We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.


Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. A Basic Income for All must be guaranteed. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end; restore the Glass-Steagall Act.


Turn Habitat for Humanity into a massive public works project to create jobs and assure everyone has a decent home.


Free education through university; cancel student debt. End military recruitment in the high schools.
Unemployment and lack of a National Public Health Care System is the price we pay for militarism and wars. We are entitled to a Peace Dividend……...


Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

Paul Ryan is a complete idiot.

This bozo--- Republican Paul Ryan backed by the Koch brothers, the AMA, pharmaceutical and insurance companies--- says Medicaid is no good because doctors don't honor it because they don't get paid enough.


Well, the solution is not to end Medicaid under these circumstances; the solution is to take away the licenses of these doctors to practice to force them to provide health care under Medicaid.

General Strike! Shut the country down!

There is some talk about "shutting the country down" and a "general strike."


But, what those proposing these actions are trying to accomplish is very vague.


I think working people should shut this country down until we get a National Public Health Care System.

Why aren't the millionaire labor "leaders" led by Richard Trumka now meeting trying to figure out what can be done about Trump considering such action?

Trump on his reactionary health care legislation: "Nothing to complain about."

Another lie. What isn't there to complain about?

Erdogan says 'spirit of fascism' rampant in Europe

I guess it takes one to know one.

Where is the left on health care reform?

Let me give an example of how the left has shirked its responsibility in becoming a catalyst for real health care reform.


The current issue of "In These Times" does not even have one single article on the health care issue even though the health care issue is front and center on the minds of everyone.


In this same issue there is a list of names of over 4,000 donors to the publication.

Wouldn't we be having a national discussion on the need for a National Public Health Care System if each and everyone of these 4,000 contributors took the time to write a Letter to the Editor of their local newspapers?


The question we need to be asking is why wouldn't a publication like "In These Times" which claims to be a socialist publication be using its resources to spark such a movement?


And what about the dozens of other left publications?


In fact, "In These Times" refused to publish a letter I wrote to them suggesting just such an initiative.


Sixteen pages listing all of its financial contributors and thanking them... but not one single word about the need for these contributors and its readers to build a movement for real health care reform while the entire country is focused on health care. How can this be? Would Eugene Debs have shirked such a responsibility to be the voice for a National Public Health Care System while the entire nation is focused on health care?


Once again we see where intellectuals can not relate to the problems of the working class in seeking out and advocating real solutions.


I am not picking on "In These Times;" I just happened to be reading it after having received it in the mail yesterday.


Are these "intellectuals" really so far out of touch with reality that they would evade the central issue of the here and now?


Or are these "intellectuals" who miss no opportunity telling us how we should think and how we must vote just accommodating the Democrats by trying to keep people out of this debate and out the struggle for real health care reform?


This is mind-boggling.

One In Five Doctors Say: “No New Medicare Patients”

Either Paul Ryan is full of it or he has no idea what he's talking about

Paul Ryan Explains The GOP Health Care Plan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nk9_KT3LU


Does anyone really believe any of this?

The joke is on voters who trusted Trump’s healthcare promises

I need to ask this question:


Is it our goal to make everyone buy health insurance or is it our goal to make sure everyone gets the health care they need?


An observation:

Fixating on making sure everyone buys health insurance is actually depriving people of health care.

A comment:


Having health insurance is no guarantee one will get the health care they need.


Several obstacles are involved with the delivery of health care through health insurance companies:


1. High premiums.


2. High co-pays.


3. High deductibles.


Another question:


Why has the government allowed doctors to refuse to accept Medicare and Medicaid? Allowing this is sabotaging these programs.


Another question:


How come the government can force everyone to have health insurance but can't force doctors to accept Medicaid and Medicare?


Another question:


How can the government force everyone to buy health insurance but can't dictate to pharmaceutical companies the price they charge for medications?


Comment:


The private for-profit health care system has failed the American people... the time is now for a National Public Health Care System... there is no other alternative that works to provide everyone with health care.

American Health Care Act: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

A must listen and share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi9M7DRazI

Health Bill Would Add 24 Million Uninsured but Save $337 Billion, Report Says

Cut 24 million people from health care in the name of reform to "save" $337 billion dollars so the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction have more money to spend on militarism and wars from which they will reap fabulous profits.

It never ceases to amaze me how the left refuses to carry out its responsibility to help the American people sort through the confusion on this health care mess intentionally sown by the Democrats and Republicans whose strings are pulled by their Wall Street puppeteers.

If you believe you will never get old, never get sick, or these worthless politicians bribed by Wall Street insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the American Medical Association have your best interests in mind, I want whatever you are smoking.

The left is missing the best opportunity it has had in decades by not taking a stand in support of a National Public Health Care System and falling for being "led" by the Democrats in supporting Obamacare claiming down the road a stand will be taken for single-payer universal health care system when we have all seen how the main proponents of single-payer have bailed out of this struggle time and time again only to bring it out as an excuse for inaction on health care reform.

Advocating for a National Public Health Care System is the working class alternative to Ryan-care and the rapidly failing Obamacare.

The left is paying a very heavy price for allowing a bunch of well-heeled, muddle-headed, upper middle class intellectuals, millionaire labor leaders and the heads of the foundation-funded outfits manipulate and control this health care debate in favor of the Democrats to the detriment of the health of working class families.

I have been attacked by these outfits for "advocating socialized health care that is too controversial to win the support of the American people" when, in fact, every single time a National Public Health Care System is patiently explained alongside Ryan-care, Obamacare and single-payer universal health care, the majority of the people will always support a National Public Health Care System based on the model of public education: publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered--- nothing any more controversial than public education which works very well when properly financed and properly administered free from the profiteers trying to feed at the public trough like they do with militarism and wars.

Why this hesitancy to take up the struggle for a National Public Health Care System?

We know the Republicans are opposed. And we know the Democrats will use every single devious, dishonest and undemocratic means including the lie that they want to get to this but first we need to take "baby steps" over many years of "incremental reforms."

We have been hearing this lie from Democrats ever since Democrats forced Franklin Roosevelt to withdraw National Public Health Care from the New Deal Reforms.

Well, let us be very blunt: When working class families are sick they need health care right there and then not twenty, forty sixty years down the road... in fact, Democrats after forcing Roosevelt to take it off the table promised to deliver it "later." Well, how long must we wait? It has been almost 80 years since these Democrats took National Public Health Care off the table. How many people have gone without health care since? How many people have been driven into poverty as a result? How many people have lost their homes to pay for health care? How many working class families have gone through medical bankruptcies since? How many working class families have been driven into poverty as a result of horrendous health care bills?

Enough of the "promises" that are nothing but "lies" perpetrated to get votes. Every single election we hear from the Democrats they are going to provide health care reforms and all they have done is gone along with Republicans chipping and chopping away at Medicaid and Medicare.

All of these well-heeled, muddle-headed, upper middle class intellectuals controlling and manipulating the left into silence when it comes to a National Public Health Care System are wealthy enough to afford insurance premiums and co-pays... they don't have any empathy or understanding of what it means not to have access to health care because you can't afford it.

If any of the people who claim they are for single-payer were really going to take up this struggle they would be doing so now... instead they are out trying to drum up support for Obamacare.

And they claim a National Public Health Care System can't be won in the current political climate--- another lie; people united in struggle can win anything. The fact is, these people always find an excuse not to fight and struggle for anything and this is why these worthless Democrats have been able to work with Republicans to chip away and chop away at Medicaid and Medicare... they trust politicians like Obama and Hillary Clinton to take care of them when the fact is, it was Obama who appointed the thorough reactionary Wall Street servant, Alan Simpson, to head up the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to open the attack on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Now is the time for the real left to open up a struggle for a National Public Health Care System--- sitting on the sidelines or advocating for the defense of Obamacare is nothing short of working class betrayal. We can't win if we don't struggle... dare to struggle; dare to win.

Fund a National Public Health Care System not militarism and wars and over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe preparing for more wars when we should be learning to live in peace with the rest of the world so we can reap a Peace Dividend and beat swords into plowshares...

This is a program for real change... the Republicans will fight us, the Democrats will try to undermine our struggles; both serve the tiny greedy Wall Street minority of millionaires and billionaires not the American people...

Campaign for a “21^st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care---  general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Or paid for with  a tax on Wall Street transactions. Or financed with a combination of these methods. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded and repealed to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. A Basic Income for All must be guaranteed. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end; restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

Turn Habitat for Humanity into a massive public works project to create jobs and assure everyone has a decent home.

Unemployment and lack of a National Public Health Care System is the price we pay for militarism and wars. We are entitled to a Peace Dividend……... Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

The Global Wealth Report

From Credit Suisse...


Something to think about:

Class inequality is constantly expanding at a global level.

The unequal distribution of the world's wealth was further intensified after the international synchronized capitalist crisis. According to the annual research on global wealth (carried out by Credit Suisse), 90% of the population possesses about 10% of the wealth, while the poorest 75% possess less than 3% of the wealth. Indeed, of the 10% of the population that possesses 90% of the wealth, 1% alone possesses almost 50% of the wealth. At the same time, 71% of the world's population lives with less than the equivalent of 8 dollars per day.

The results of these class inequalities are also reflected in the lack of access of 780 million people to clean water, the lack of access of 2.5 billion people to health facilities and 1.3 billion people's lack of access to electricity.

Almost 3 billion people gather wood and biomass residues in order to cook, a practice that is connected to 3.5 million premature deaths due to poor indoor air quality.

Finally, almost 800 million people are recorded as being chronically malnourished, while 3.5 million people die from hunger every year.

http://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=AD783798-ED07-E8C2-4405996B5B02A32E

But poverty doesn't seem to bother Credit Suisse as they will get rid of over 900 jobs over the next year.

Here's the secret payoff to health insurance CEOs buried in the GOP Obamacare repeal bill

Check it out:

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamacare-ceos-20170307-story.html

Paul Ryan lies about health care just like everything else.

Republican Paul Ryan is running the biggest scam about health care I have ever heard. I don't think we have ever been subjected to more lies and misinformation.


Paul Ryan claims we only have two options:


1. Do nothing. Stay with Obamacare.

2. Repeal Obamacare and go with the Republican scam.


There is an alternative: a National Public Health Care System, the only way to fix this mess.

More lies and slanders against North Korea coming from Nikki Haley

I post this, what U.S. Ambassador to the United Nation's, Nikki Haley, said about the leader of North Korea because it shows how these Wall Street imperialists attribute bad things to others which could easily be said about someone like Trump, which would be more accurate in making such a statement; not that truth has ever mattered in carrying out Wall Street's imperialist agenda.

Here is what Nikki Haley said about the leader of North Korea:

"We are not dealing with a rational person,"

"It is an unbelievable, irresponsible arrogance that we are seeing coming out at this time (the testing of missiles- A.L.M.)."

Donald Trump is the real nut job.

The fact of the matter is, North Korea, even with its missile tests, poses no threat to anyone; while Donald Trump and the U.S. government pose a threat to everyone including ourselves.

North Korea has never attacked anyone.

North Korea has 24 ballistic missiles and has conducted two nuclear weapons tests; compare this to what the United States has done and continues to do.

Let us be very clear about Korea, North and South.

If the people were left to decide their own destiny without U.S. interference, there would be one Korea and it would be a socialist Korea by democratic choice.

The United States oversaw and directed a massive slaughter of Communists in southern Korea at the end of World War II on a scale of the barbaric slaughter and savagery the CIA carried out in Indonesia.

The United States has isolated North Korea and imposed a succession of thoroughly corrupt and politically repressive governments on the people of South Korea.

In my opinion, it is foolish for North Korea to be wasting its limited resources on weapons and it should not be testing nuclear weapons because this is harming themselves without providing any real defense. On the other hand, anyone who thinks North Korea has no right to be testing these weapons should be among those doing everything possible to stop the Wall Street imperialist agenda which intends to try to bring an end to socialism and prevent the re-unification Korea.

After all, whose Navy is going to be using the new JeJu Naval base; and for what purpose?

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/781812.html

The United States has refused to negotiate nuclear non-proliferation treaties and nuclear disarmament. Israel has nuclear weapons no one wants to talk about.

It is time for an international peace movement to muster the strength to force all countries to end the nuclear arms race and insist on beating swords into plowshares. It is time for the peace majority to be heard from.

I challenge anyone to dispute what I have said here.

An alternative to Trump's Wall Street agenda

Campaign for a “21^st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care---  general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers dispensing free health care which is a basic and fundamental human right; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed with a modest pay-roll tax. Or paid for with  a tax on Wall Street transactions. Why not a wealth tax on the rich? Or financed with a combination of these methods. A National Public Health Care System is not controversial; it is just like public education. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.), Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) and Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.).

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded and repealed to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. A Basic Income for All must be guaranteed. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end; restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

Turn Habitat for Humanity into a massive public works project to create jobs and assure everyone has a decent home.

Unemployment and lack of a National Public Health Care System is the price we pay for militarism and wars. We are entitled to a Peace Dividend……... Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

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Liberals

I have a lot of liberal friends but the thing with liberals is they seem to be easily co-opted to the point where they won't move beyond their intellectualism to action and actually do something.

From the files of Lyndon Baines Johnson obtained from the LBJ Library... a most disgraceful part of labor's history.

As a FaceBook friend pointed out:

"What a nefarious and blatant attempt to destroy a union and to terrorize immigrants and anti-communist hatred. Solid research and primary document of the Red Scare in US and Texas."

Note: Click on the pages to enlarge them to make reading easier.

Can we learn from history if we are denied historical facts?

Lyndon B. Johnson claimed he learned a lesson from his father being driven out of the Texas Legislature. What he learned was probably not what his populist left wing father would have wanted him to learn... nor his mother, who drove home and imparted a message of high morals and principles to her children.


LBJ's father was driven out of the Texas Legislature by a cabal of right wingers from the oil, gas and power-generating industries along with big land-owners and big-ranchers.


Shortly before leaving office, his father had voted to approve funding a road building project near the Johnson family home and after he was driven from office ended up as a laborer working on building the road he had voted to fund. LBJ observed his father hard at work building the road. LBJ viewed this as a "senseless loss of power." If only his father would have capitulated and acquiesced to the rich and powerful, just a little.


The lesson LBJ learned was to acquiesce and capitulate for self-serving political expediency as a pragmatic matter in order to try to gain a few reforms for the people here and there and put off the battle for social and economic justice until another day.


When becoming President LBJ felt he had risen in power to the point where he could recoup his setbacks and losses and go full steam ahead with major reform initiatives calling his project, "The Great Society."


But LBJ ran up against the huge and powerful Military-Industrial Complex which insisted he support the Vietnam War instead of "The Great Society;" and, once again, LBJ capitulated, instead of standing and fighting like his principled father would have done... and LBJ lost his power anyways as the people he really wanted to help ended up fighting against his dirty Vietnam War.


To his credit, after he left office, LBJ ended up supporting and endorsing George McGovern for president who he admired for having the principled courage and strength of his father... but, his abandonment of the Great Society for a senseless war in Vietnam haunted him into an early grave and likely contributed to his death... having been completely deserted by the "friends" he acquired in quest of a "politics of pragmatism" which in the end, in spite of having great power, ended up being worthless as far as creating the kind of socially just society he believed in.


There has to be some kind of moral here for us today as many great liberals have suffered similar fates for the same reason.


All of what I have written here can be verified through research and interviews.


What amazes me is the length so many "biographers" and "political analysts," "journalists" and pundits will go to in order to distort these historical facts.


One must ask how it can be, that one of the biggest political battles ever waged in this country was over the "Full Employment Act of 1945" and it has been made just about impossible to find the complete story. It is not by accident LBJ's vote, press clippings, speeches, etc. on this important piece of legislation authored by his close friend, fellow New Dealer and political ally, Congressman Wright Patman, can't be found in the LBJ Library.


Just as the LBJ Library refuses to make available the notes and audio recording of the meeting that took place at LBJ's ranch in Texas Hill Country under an old oak tree overlooking the Perdernales River with LBJ, the progressive George McGovern and Sargent Shriver, McGovern's liberal running mate, at which time Lyndon B. Johnson pledged his support and gave his whole-hearted endorsement to George McGovern who had opposed his war in Vietnam but supported all of his efforts to achieve "The Great Society."

I have been fighting the LBJ Library staff for two years trying to get them to release these tapes and notes on the LBJ, McGovern/Shriver meeting and in this struggle, not one single researcher, writer, journalist or professor will join me. The "establishment" does not want us to understand and know actual history because they fear someone will come along with LBJ's tenacity and George McGovern's principles and run for president... perhaps a Democrat like Henry Wallace with friends like Elmer Benson, Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois who would take up the struggle alongside the people outside of the Wall Street imposed constrictions of the Democratic Party--- which is where great movements and their leaders go to die.

The American people have a right to have a say in what kind of health care we have in this country... democracy requires no less

Why should we let Trump or the Democrats dominate the discussion on health care?

Obamacare is a complete failure without any support from the majority of the American people.

Trump hasn't even eliminated the penalty for not buying into it which means he intends to penalize anyone who doesn't carry private insurance. How dishonest and deceitful can the Republicans get?


Even John Boehner has admitted the Republicans only intend to modify Obamacare even if they call it something else.

We need a National dialog in our neighborhoods and communities about health care. I hope this will be shared and discussed widely because whenever people are provided with all options, most people will choose National Public Health Care.

Let me explain what National Public Health Care is in relation to other forms of health care...

The best way to explain a National Public Health Care System is to explain it the way our public schools work... it would be based on the model of public education which works very well as intended when properly funded and properly administered:

Public funding.

Public administration.

Public delivery.

There would be neighborhood and in small cities and rural areas community health care centers that would include everything from general health to vision, hearing, dental care, dietitians, preventive health care education, family planning and mental health.

Instead of doctors and other health care professionals, nurses and workers being on private payrolls they would be public employees just like public school teachers and college professors and instructors.

Same thing for hospitals.

This would include everything in the way people need for health care... pre-natal through burial.

Everyone in; nobody out.

We could pay for this in a couple ways or a combination:

1. With a Peace Dividend. Cut military spending drastically and end these wars and shut down all the military bases on foreign soil.

2. With a payroll tax on employers and employees; just like with Social Security (this is the way Frances Perkins proposed paying for it.)

3. A tax on Wall Street transactions and/or a tax on the wealthy.

Everyone would just be able to walk into a health care center and get the care they need without long waits or waiting periods.

There could be satellite centers in schools and places of employment, in shopping malls.

There would also be an emphasis on preventive health care because it is much cheaper to stay healthy.

A National Public Health Care System is the most cost effective way to deliver health care.

What is important is that the American people be drawn into this conversation in the way democracy is intended with all the types of health care being honestly explained... the options are:

1. We continue with health care remaining private, for-profit health care managed by insurance companies with the American Medical Association establishing fees for procedures even for Medicaid and Medicare which is what both Obama-care, Romney-care and what the Republicans are proposing is. This is the reactionary, neo-liberal and conservative approach to health care.

2. Single-payer universal health care like they have in Canada with the government collecting taxes, including a pay-roll tax, quasi governmental administration where administration is shared by the public and private sectors, with private delivery. Doctors establish fees charged with government approval and some push back in an attempt to keep fees charged a little lower.

3. A National Public Health Care System as I have described.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world and the American people are entitled to a world-class National Public Health Care System.

Wouldn't it be nice if the politicians, Physicians for a National Health Program, American Medical Association and the party hacks and over-paid media pundits were as honest as I am in putting all the options before the American people?

I challenge anyone and everyone to challenge anything I have said.

I will debate anyone, anytime, anyplace on the health care issue.

It is time for the American people to be able to discuss health care free from any restrictions.

Health care reform should be an issue that brings us all together because we all need, and are entitled to, health care. The right to health care is a very basic and fundamental human right which should not be rationed to only those who can afford it.

By advocating for National Public Health Care we become an obstacle to Trump's thoroughly reactionary agenda and we lay the ground-work for a new working class based political party by establishing an alternative agenda which places human need before profit and we advance the cause of peace and social justice while laying the basis for the socialist alternative to capitalism as we challenge the Wall Street crowd for political and economic power using an issue which clearly explains why the private, for-profit "free enterprise" system doesn't work.

Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor envisioned a National Public Health Care System as part of the New Deal package of reforms and Franklin Roosevelt removed it under pressure from the American Medical Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers and the rest of the Wall Street crowd in the same way they ganged up on and defeated the Full Employment Act of 1945 put forward by liberal populist Texas Congressman Wright Patman and progressive Henry Wallace.

The time has come to stand up to this Wall Street crowd when it comes to health care.

After all, a National Public Health Care Program would create over twelve-million good-paying, real living wage jobs putting us closer to our objective of full employment by putting people to work providing the American people with free health care. Don’t expect this government to provide working people with the kind of health care reform we need without a struggle.

Education. Organization. United Action. This is the key to winning any reform.

What you can do:

* Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper, your union newsletter, community publication, etc.

* Get your union, senior group, political party to pass a resolution.

* Talk to family, friends, neighbors, fellow workers. Here is a sample petition like the one I am circulating:

Campaign for a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care--- general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore C.E.T.A., WPA and CCC.

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end. Restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

We are entitled to a Peace Dividend.

Name Address City State E-mail

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Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.
Contact info:

Here is a sample Letter to the Editor like the one I wrote to the Austin American-Statesman which was published:


National Public Health Care System Needed


Re: Feb. 9 article, “Trump looks to stabilize health insurance market”

So, the “health” — read: profits — of the health insurance industry supersedes the human right of access to health care?

Left out of the discussion is the real solution to this health care mess, which would eliminate the health insurance industry: national public health care based on the public education model. Publicly financed. Publicly administered. Publicly delivered.

It makes more sense to finance a network of publicly funded neighborhood and community health care centers across the country dispensing free health care for everyone instead of squandering the precious wealth of our nation maintaining over 800 military bases dotting the globe protecting Wall Street’s interests and wasting trillions of dollars on these dirty wars from which only the Wall Street merchants profit.

ALAN MAKI, LAKEWAY