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Daily NewswireNational/PoliticalA safety net for government jobs? In Washington this week, President-elect Obama called on Congress to create 3 million jobs over the next two years – “more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.” Republicans on Capitol Hill did a little quick math: That means 20 percent, or some 600,000 new jobs, will be in the public sector. That would boost the ranks of federal employees by a third, they said, none too pleased about the prospect of a “big government” revival. “The federal government is bloated, inefficient, and spends too much of your hard-earned money,” said Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, in a statement. Some 600,000 new government jobs “will only add to the waste, fraud, and abuse coming out of Washington, D.C., and fail to provide a true economic stimulus.” But that calculus leaves out a key phrase that Obama transition officials insist is part of the president-elect’s plan: to create “or save” 3 million jobs. “The vast majority of government jobs will be state and local jobs being saved,” said one official, speaking on background. The debate over whether public- or private-sector jobs deserve a bigger backstop in a troubled economy is reviving one of the most enduring fault lines in American politics. Labor Unions' Top Priority Faces Delay (no link) Unions likely won't see action soon on legislation that would make it easier to organize workers, but Democrats are moving to back a pair of less-controversial bills that would facilitate filing discrimination suits against employers. Labor had hoped the Obama administration would take up the Employee Free Choice Act within its first 100 days. The bill would let unions register members by collecting signatures on cards rather than through elections. But itsnactment now appears doubtful. The bill is opposed by business. Mark McKinnon, a spokesman for the Workforce Fairness Institute, a business-backed group that opposes the measure, said support for it is weakening and the business lobby expects to have enough votes to block it with a filibuster, as it did in 2007. William Samuel, director of government affairs for the AFL-CIO, disagreed. "We're very close to having a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate," he said. Congress seems more inclined to pursue less-volatile labor issues, including two this week. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would extend the statute of limitations under civil-rights laws for bringing suits against employers over pay. The Paycheck Fairness Act would strengthen remedies under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 for women. Editorial: Reversing Discrimination President-elect Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are already signaling a welcome new seriousness in Washington about protecting civil rights after eight years of erosion. They are planning swift action on legislation to overturn an unjust 2007 Supreme Court decision that has made it much harder for people to challenge illegal discrimination in employment, education, housing and other fields. The 5-to-4 ruling in 2007 involved Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plant in Alabama. She received much smaller raises over several years than men in comparable positions. Obama Warns Trillion-Dollar Deficit Potential WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday braced Americans for the unparalleled prospect of “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come,” a stark assessment of the budgetary outlook that he said would force his administration to impose tighter fiscal discipline on the government. Mr. Obama sought to distinguish between the need to run what is likely to be record-setting deficits for several years and the necessity to begin bringing them down markedly in subsequent years. Even as he prepares a stimulus plan that is expected to total nearly $800 billion in new spending and tax cuts over the next two years, he said he would make sure the money was wisely spent, and he pledged to work with Congress to enact spending controls and efficiency measures throughout the federal budget. Obama Pushes States to Cover More Unemployed (no link) WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama plans to offer states $7 billion as incentive to permanently change their unemployment-insurance laws to cover part-time workers and prevent other laid-off workers from falling through cracks in the coverage. The proposal, which is set to be included in the president-elect's two-year economic-stimulus plan, will seek to use short-term aid to cash-strapped states to force long-term changes that the Obama team believes are overdue, Obama aides said Tuesday. But the proposal, along with others to subsidize health insurance for the laid-off and expand Medicaid to out-of-work Americans, are sparking bipartisan concern over the potential, long-term impact on a federal budget deficit that is expected to hit $1 trillion this year, even before the stimulus plan. Dr. Obama's Cure: In treating the U.S. economy, the president-elect is wise to be patient. THE U.S. ECONOMY is indeed "very sick," as President-elect Barack Obama put it yesterday. One indicator of its parlous state: Though companies have managed to issue an additional $300 billion worth of short-term debt since mid-October, that pickup in lending is entirely explained by the Federal Reserve's Commercial Paper Funding Facility, which is buying all of it, according to an analysis by J.P. Morgan's private banking unit. In other words, the heart of the credit market still needs government CPR. Small wonder that many economists are forecasting that December unemployment will reach 7 percent. Hence the wide consensus that the economy needs a "jolt" from Congress, soon. Still, it's not the end of the world that a stimulus bill won't be ready for Mr. Obama's signature on Jan. 20, as he had hoped. At $775 billion over two years, the package under discussion would represent a massive and risky expansion of the federal debt even if the government were not already running an annual budget deficit of more than $400 billion. This endeavor is not to be undertaken without due diligence and appropriate debate. As Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), the veteran House Appropriations Committee chairman, told Politico, rather colorfully: "There ain't no friggin' numbers, because dozens of issues haven't been resolved." Guest Post: Obama Plan Is Bold, but Not Bold Enough As details emerge about the incoming Obama administration’s stimulus plans, Peter Boone and Simon Johnson argue that proposals should be even bolder. Boone is chairman of Effective Intervention, a U.K.-based charity, and a research associate at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, and Johnson is a former IMF chief economist, and is currently a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. They run the economic crisis Web site http://baselinescenario.com/. There has been very little pushback against the Obama administration’s plans to put the U.S. economy on the road to recovery. To the extent there are reservations, these come from people worried about the size of the U.S. deficit and the implications of a higher national debt down the road. These concerns are likely to keep the total fiscal stimulus package (over two years) under $800 billion, but that is still large — around 5% of GDP and the biggest boost ever given to the U.S. economy in peacetime. Are Obama’s stimulus plans ambitious enough? The problem is not that this stimulus is too large, but rather that the entire Obama strategy now seems to be insufficiently bold. New Voices in Congress Will Change the Tone of the Democratic Majority WASHINGTON -- From a former Nixon aide to a former head of Common Cause, a liberal government watchdog organization, the freshman House class of the 111th Congress represents a diverse but decidedly moderate group. At age 66, the oldest two — Walt Minnick of Idaho, the Nixon aide who is now a Democrat, and Parker Griffith of Alabama – have birthdays about a month apart; the youngest, Aaron Schock of Illinois, is 27. Some have no government experience at all; others like Pete Olson – who returned Tom DeLay’s congressional seat to the Republicans this cycle – worked for the veteran Senator John Cornyn of Texas. Economists Warm to Government Spending but Debate Its Form SAN FRANCISCO — Frightened by the recession and the credit crisis that produced it, the nation’s mainstream economists are embracing public spending to repair the damage — even those who have long resisted a significant government role in a market system. But there is not much agreement yet on what type of spending would produce the best results, or what mix of spending and tax cuts. “We have spent so many years thinking that discretionary fiscal policy was a bad idea, that we have not figured out the right things to do to cure a recession that is scaring all of us,” said Alan J. Auerbach, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, referring to the mix of public spending and tax cuts known as fiscal policy. Hundreds of economists who gathered here for the annual meeting of the American Economic Association seemed to acknowledge that a profound shift had occurred. Health care could nab $100B payday The $775 billion economic stimulus plan being cobbled together by President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats could pump more than $100 billion into the health care sector, modernizing its delivery system and providing care to those who lost their health insurance along with their jobs, according to sources close to the planning. The bulk of the money, about $80 billion, would go to state Medicaid programs that are expected to grow with rising unemployment. Officials worry that without a cash infusion, state lawmakers facing already strained budgets would be forced to cut the safety-net health care program just as the need swells. TV's Gupta Chosen for Medical Post America's most famous television surgeon, Sanjay Gupta, is poised to take his black bag and microphone to the White House as President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. surgeon general. A neurosurgeon who is also a correspondent for CNN and CBS, Gupta was chosen as much for his broadcasting skills as for his medical résumé, suggesting that the incoming administration values visible advisers who can drive a public message. He has also been offered a top post in the new White House Office of Health Reform, twin duties that could make him the most influential surgeon general in history. The GOP Should Fight Health-Care Rationing (no link) Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of the past eight years was the chance for Republicans to fundamentally reform the terribly broken American health-care system. Access to quality health care has long been a professed priority, yet Republicans have been reluctant to tackle the issue. As a physician, this is deeply disappointing to me because patient-centered health care is, at its core, conservative. Health care is fundamentally a personal relationship between patients and doctors. To honor this relationship -- consistent with Republican ideals -- our goal should be to provide a system that allows access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans, in a way that ensures medical decisions are made in doctors' offices, not Washington. Republican unwillingness to address the issue, however, has left us facing an emboldened Democratic Party well equipped to push a government-centered health-care agenda. While Democrats are still dangerously misguided in their policies, this time they are prepared to avoid the political mistakes of the Clinton administration. For a preview, look no further than "What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," a book published this year by former Sen. Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for secretary of Health and Human Services. Atop the list of worrisome ideas proposed by Mr. Daschle is the creation of an innocently termed "Federal Health Advisory Board." Editorial: America’s Colonial Capital Like millions of other people around the world, the citizens of Washington are eagerly awaiting President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony later this month. The ceremony carries extra meaning in the nation’s capital, where voters are counting on Mr. Obama to end the humiliating second-class citizenship that Congress has inflicted on the city for more than 200 years. Washingtonians sometimes refer to their city as “the last colony.” Congress has refused to give their Congressional representative full voting rights. Congress also wields great power over the city’s legislative and budgetary affairs — even dictating how local tax revenues are spent — denying its citizens the rights to self-government that the rest of Americans take for granted. A Plan to Turn the Lowly Bureaucrat Into a Cherished Public Servant WASHINGTON — There is West Point for soldiers, and Annapolis for sailors, but no parallel place of grit and glory for that maligned tribe of government workers known as bureaucrats. Chris Myers Asch is trying to change that. With no money, contacts or obvious qualifications, Mr. Asch quit his job three years ago at a Mississippi after-school program and started a campaign to create a civilian service academy — a West Point for bureaucrats. What began on the back of an envelope found a champion in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, legislative allies in the House and Senate, and a glimmer of plausibility in an age where President-elect Barack Obama pledges to “make government cool again” — the very words Mr. Asch has long used to sell his plan. “The Public Service Academy can be Barack Obama’s Peace Corps,” Mr. Asch said. “He needs to take advantage of this moment when people are recognizing the importance of government and build institutions that will last.” An Unrepentant New Dealer Runs for Congress / Thomas Geoghegan never bought the 'new economy' hype. (no link) Thanks to the media circus swirling around the governor of Illinois and his schemes to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, little attention is being paid to the race to succeed Rahm Emanuel as he moves from the House of Representatives to White House chief of staff. That's a shame, because voters in Mr. Emanuel's district, largely composed of Chicago's North Side, will have the chance to redeem their state's reputation. They will likely have the chance to elect, out of a crowded race, a true reformer in Thomas Geoghegan. Ignoring Murders of Colombian Unionists, Bush Set to Honor Uribe President Bush couldn’t reward murder with a trade deal. Now he’s rewarding Colombian President Uribe with a medal. In a final flip-off to human rights activists, international trade unionists and Colombian workers, President Bush will award the United States’ highest civilian honor—the Presidential Medal of Freedom—to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Colombia is the deadliest nation in the world for trade unionists. Inside the Burke Group / Union-Busting is Alive and Well Established in 1982, with headquarters in tony Malibu, California, The Burke Group (after president and CEO David Burke) advertises itself as the world’s largest management consulting firm specializing in “union avoidance and preventative industrial labor relations.” Which is more or less a euphemism for “union busting.” The Burke Group (TBG, for short) earns its keep by defeating union organizing efforts. Torpedoing membership drives is their self-declared “specialty.” When hired by a company to dissuade employees from joining a labor union, TBG representatives swing into action, utilizing every manner of high-powered, negative propaganda to make sure the referendum fails. State/LocalL.A. Unified may lay off almost 2,300 teachers, officials say As many as 2,300 teachers could face midyear layoffs because of the state budget crisis, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said Tuesday. The state deficit has created a shortfall of at least $250 million in the school district's nearly $6-billion budget, prompting officials to propose sending the layoff notices to 1,690 elementary school teachers and 600 math and English teachers in middle and high schools. The teachers at risk would be those with less than two years of service, who lack the greater job protection afforded tenured instructors. "We are now anticipating layoffs. We hope to do these unavoidable reductions in force with as little disruption as possible," Supt. Ramon C. Cortines wrote in a letter this week to district employees. Cortines said he hoped to limit the number of layoffs that might be required but also emphasized the severity of the crisis in a Tuesday news conference. "We will be bankrupt if I do not do this," he said. Bridgeport police contract wins final OK BRIDGEPORT -- A new police contract that defers raises for two years and contributes $824,000 toward reducing this year's $20 million deficit has won final approval from the City Council. While the wage pact for the Police Department's 434 officers passed unanimously Monday night, several council members worried the city will face millions in expenses in year three and four of the contract. The police union narrowly approved the contract last month. The contract, which avoids threatened police layoffs, calls for no raises in the first two years and 6 and 5 percent raises in the last two years. Those raises add up to $2.5 million over the two-year period. … The Finch administration has sought to convince municipal unions to give back $4.5 million in scheduled raises or other benefits this year to help close the deficit, and the mayor is about halfway toward meeting his goal. Negotiations are under way with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the city's biggest union, which is being asked for $1.2 million in givebacks. La. gov's plan to fix $341M budget gap has layoffs Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's plan to close a $341 million budget gap will cost at least 335 state employees their jobs - largely in the Department of Corrections - but many could simply be reshuffled to other state employment. Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc said he believes many laid off employees could be rehired for other positions, particularly guard jobs at state prisons, where openings are frequent because turnover is high. NBCI prisoner assaults female officers on duty in kitchen area CRESAPTOWN — Two female correctional officers at North Branch Correctional Institution who were allegedly assaulted early Sunday by a broom-wielding inmate apparently did not suffer life-threatening injuries. … The assault marked the second time in just over a month that correctional officers have been allegedly assaulted by inmates at NBCI. The incident prompted a statement Monday afternoon from Patrick Moran, director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland, who said “enough is enough.” “Two female officers at Cumberland’s NBCI sustained serious injuries when they were brutally attacked by an inmate at the facility. This comes little more than a month after four NBCI corrections officers were injured in a similar attack on Nov. 29, 2008. “Enough is enough. While AFSCME Maryland commends these officers for their bravery and dedication to public safety, this type of violence is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. “Again, we call on the state to take immediate, decisive actions to address the dangerously low staffing levels at state corrections facilities. “(Sunday’s) events highlight the severity of the danger our corrections officers face every day. “These dedicated officers put their lives on the line daily — to do their job and to keep Marylanders safe. We hold our corrections officers to the highest standards — and we expect the state to do its part in protecting their safety — by providing adequate staff,” said Moran. Caring for young adults ALBANY — Gov. David Paterson's first State of the State address will unveil a plan to expand health insurance to 31 percent of New York's uninsured: young adults who are too old for their parents' health policies. In his speech from the state Assembly chamber at 1 p.m. today, Paterson will propose legislation that would allow parents to extend their employer-based insurance to their children ages 19 to 29. The cost of the premium would be shouldered by parents, not employers, state health officials said. Paterson's speech — an annual report required by the state constitution — comes at a delicate time for his nine-month-old administration, as the Legislature and special-interest groups line up for or against his proposed budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year beginning in April. The speech also has unusual timing: The State of the State commonly serves as a preview of an upcoming budget proposal and a corresponding legislative agenda. This year, politicians and the public have had three weeks to chew over Paterson's proposed budget, which the governor released early in hopes of speeding up its path through the Legislature. … Another sort of grim forecast — today's predicted winter storm — will challenge the consortium of powerful labor unions behind the "March for Main Street" slated to take place about an hour before the governor's address. More than 100 buses carrying members of unions representing state and local workers as well as health care employees will drop off participants at the Times Union Center this morning before marchers head uphill to the capitol. "We've been telling people that if the governor cancels the State of the State, we'll cancel the march," CSEA spokesman Steven Madarasz said. Unions optimistic about rally tomorrow Several thousand people from the Civil Service Employee Association, Public Employees Federation, Service Employees International Union, District Council 37 and the New York State Nurses Association are expected to rally in downtown Albany tomorrow to dispute Gov. David A. Paterson’s budget proposal. This rally will take place before and during the governor’s State of the State address. Starting at 11 am, the goal of tomorrow’s rally is to “get the governor to realize that instituting budget cuts in the middle of an economic crisis is not the best thing to do right now,” according to Dawn Curry-Clarry of the Local 200 United. The weather could have some impact on tomorrow’s events, but Stephen Madarasz of CSEA is still expecting over 100 buses from across the state. State retirements dropping ALBANY — Seeing their savings and investments battered by the crash on Wall Street and facing dim prospects of finding new jobs, state workers are increasingly holding off on retirement plans. While the numbers aren't vast, data from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli shows a clear drop since May in the number of public employees who have put in for retirements. "Because of what's happening, people are delaying (retirement)," DiNapoli said Tuesday. State’s Unemployment System Buckles Under Surging Demand Swamped by a post-holiday surge of claims from laid-off workers, New York State’s computerized unemployment insurance system shut down briefly Monday afternoon and then again for several hours on Tuesday, according to the state Department of Labor. The system, which serves as the gateway to unemployment benefits for New York residents, could not handle the volume of calls and online inquiries it was receiving, said Leo Rosales, a spokesman for the department. As many as 10,000 people an hour tried to log into the system to file new unemployment claims or to check on existing claims, Mr. Rosales said. “It is really unprecedented, the number of calls we’re getting per hour,” Mr. Rosales said. He attributed the unusually heavy volume to the confluence of “the high unemployment rate, the time of the week, the time of the year and the high number of new claims.” County nurses pact seen as symbolic Huge costs for retiree health insurance are expected to threaten Erie County finances in the future, but the recent contract agreement with county nurses may be the first signs of progress toward lowering those expenses, according to details released Tuesday. The county sees the nurses agreement reached Dec. 23 as both financially and symbolically important, with county officials describing it as “setting the table” for negotiations with the bulk of its public employee work force. … Provisions of the new contract include: M.T.A. and Workers Shun Confrontation Is another transit strike in store? Not likely. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s labor agreement with its largest union, Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union of America, is set to expire on Jan. 15. In December 2005, the union went on strike for 60 hours — its first strike since 1980 — and both sides now seem determined to avoid a devastating repeat. The authority and the union announced on Tuesday that they had not been able to complete a new contract at the negotiating table and had agreed instead to go to binding arbitration — a clear signal that they wished to avoid an all-out labor battle. The union represents more than 30,000 subway and bus workers at New York City Transit, the authority’s largest division. The decision to go to arbitration could give both sides much-needed cover. If the contract contains givebacks desired by the authority, the local president, Roger Toussaint, could blame the arbitration process. And it could protect the authority from criticism that it allowed wage increases while it is facing its worst financial crisis in two decades. Budget plan gets mixed review from the Conneaut unions CONNEAUT — Conneaut’s municipal employee unions are giving mixed reviews to concessions sought by administrators in order to make the 2009 budget work. The city’s police officers have accepted the one-year wage freeze sought by City Manager Robert Schaumleffel Jr. However, workers in the service departments reportedly rejected the idea Monday night. Full-time firefighters are also on board with the wage freeze but want to give more thought to other aspects of the concession plan. A wage freeze and alternate health plan are important components to the balanced budget Schaumleffel devised, and City Council approved, last week. Schaumleffel has urged workers to cooperate with the administration to help put the city on a more solid financial footing. … According to reports, members of Local 2182 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the city’s service department workers and some clerical staff, rejected the wage freeze after a meeting Monday night. Michael Dalrymple, local president, could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. Gregoire's decision not to increase worker pay draws another suit A third labor union has filed a court claim against Gov. Chris Gregoire over failing to fund a pay contract in her 2009-11 budget proposal. The Service Employees International Union Local 925, which represents childcare workers, filed its suit today at the state Supreme Court, seeking a court order requiring the governor to include the contract in her budget request to lawmakers. Arbitrator had awarded 1.6 percent pay increases in 2009 and 2 percent in 2010. SEIU 775 NW, which represents long-term care workers, filed suit previously over similar concerns that Gregoire left out a pay increase that resulted from negotiation and eventually arbitration. Those raises were worth 25 cents an hour in 2009 and 22 cents in 2010 for workers who earn less than $11 an hour, according to the union. The Washington Federation of State Employees filed suit first in county court, a few days before Christmas, arguing that Gregoire should have included their contract calling for 2 percent yearly pay raises in 2009 and 2010 for tens of thousands of state employees. Previous Daily Newswires |
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