economy

On November 5, 2008, President-Elect Obama needs to turn his full attention to the study of the lessons of Roosevelt’s New Deal.  It was the only other time in U.S history when America was called upon to pull itself out of a major depression. 

The 76 days between Election Day and the inauguration need to be used to call upon Americans from all walks of life to contribute to a pool of ideas to try to solve the nearly insurmountable problems facing the United States.  The whole nation will need to pull together if we are to recover from the ills that have been thrust on the country by the less-than-benign neglect of the Bush administration.

The promotion of failure apparently knows no bounds.

Where else can you receive welfare from the working class, more than $1 trillion worth, give a big assist in bankrupting the global economy, and still get bonuses to the tune of $70 billion in the same year?

WTF is going on? Seriously!

The Wall Street bailout legislation passed by the Senate has $1.7 billion in tax breaks for shit like this:

• Manufacturers of kids' wooden arrows - $6 million.
• Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum producers - $192 million.
• Wool research.
• Auto-racing tracks - $128 million.
• Corporations operating in American Samoa - $33 million.
• Small- to medium-budget film and television productions - $10 million.

NASCAR is being subsidized in this taxpayer bailout of Wall Street? Do the people who represent us know what's going on in this country? Do they know healthcare and education systems are broken? Do they know bridges are collapsing? Do they know unemployment is at its highest levels in years?

WTF alternate universe are these people living in? Does anyone know?

Cross-posted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Sue Ledbetter, Labor 2008 state director for Wisconsin, reports on a labor council meeting inMilwaukee.

This month, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council’s monthly delegate meeting featured a special economic forum panel discussion introduced by council Secretary-Treasurer Sheila Cochran: “Wrong Directions for the Economy.”

The nasty news no one's talking about regarding this insane gas tax holiday supported by McCain and Clinton, is that more than 300,000 transportation workers will lose their jobs due to lack of funds.

300,000 mostly white men will lose their jobs. Got that? Paying attention now?

The association also estimates that suspending the tax would divert about $8.5 billion from the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for road and bridge repairs and already faces a shortfall of $3.2 billion. Taking that tax money from the trust fund could endanger hundreds of thousands of jobs — every $1 billion in highway money supports 33,000 jobs, by one estimate — and would push more maintenance and construction costs onto the states.

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