In a spot-on column in yesterday’s New York Times [subscription only], columnist Paul Krugman examines George W. Bush’s insidious strategy to prove that government does no good by having it do no good. In discussing Bush’s opposition to increasing funding for SCHIP, a popular and hugely successful program that provides access to health care to children in need, Krugman writes:

Now, why should Mr. Bush fear that insuring uninsured children would lead to a further ‘federalization’ of health care, even though nothing like that is actually in either the Senate plan or the House plan? It’s not because he thinks the plans wouldn’t work. It’s because he’s afraid that they would. That is, he fears that voters, having seen how the government can help children, would ask why it can’t do the same for adults.

In his blog, Matt Yglesias calls this Can’t Do Conservatism, and points out that, “Unfortunately, the public opinion data does tend to suggest that Bush’s staggering achievements in the field of maladministration have, in fact, boosted public skepticism of government capacity to do anything at all to some extent.”

Crooks and Liars adds: “So much for compassionate conservatism.”

Read more on The Carpetbagger Report.

American workers are renowned for working long hours. Unfortunately, we get no guarantee of paid vacation or holidays in return. According to a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, this is the case for one in four American workers. Furthermore, private-sector employees who do get paid time off get a mere nine vacation days on average.

Overall, American workers average only 12 vacation days a year compared to 28 days in Great Britain, 35 days in Germany and 37 days in France.

Why do workers in other countries enjoy more paid time off? Here’s a hint: Widespread unionization. As this article from In These Times magazine states, “unions in Europe and other rich industrialized countries—whose contracts cover up to 90 percent of the workforce—typically negotiate additional time off. Meanwhile, the standard workweek is slightly shorter in many European countries, and workers retire earlier with better public pensions.”

The key word here? Unions. After all, if it weren’t for the labor movement, American workers would not have an eight-hour workday, a 40-hour workweek or a weekend.

Yesterday, on a picture perfect July day in our nation’s capitol, thousands of union members and activists gathered to celebrate something that had not happened in more than a decade — a raise for millions of America’s lowest-paid workers. At a rally near the capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and dozens of congressional leaders declared raising the federal minimum wage merely a down payment on a promise that began with the sweeping elections of November 2006 – the first time Democrats have held power in both houses of Congress since 1994.

After months of roadblocks thrown up by Republican lawmakers, Democrats in Congress are finally able to deliver to working families a jump in pay from $5.15 an hour to $5.85. Today marks the first of three raises Congress approved that will bring the rate to $7.25 an hour in 2009.

A modest step for sure, but the moment was representative of a new day on Capitol Hill and in America for working families. Sen. Ted Kennedy perhaps said it best when referencing the important work AFSCME and organized labor did last election to make this happen. “This is your day, so enjoy it now and then let’s use this momentum to take back the White House in 2008!”

Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog has this to say about Bush’s opposition to health care for our nation’s kids:

George Bush doesn’t take care of wounded soldiers who he sent to war, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s not worried about the health of America’s kids. Okay, it shouldn’t be a surprise, but somehow it is. Bush is even being lobbied by hard core Republican Senators Grassley and Hatch to support the SCHIP bill, but he won’t.

Read the rest of the post at AMERICAblog.

Just when we think a president with 28% approval ratings couldn’t get less support from the public, Bush has found a way to reach new lows. He is threatening to veto reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a program to provide health insurance coverage to low- and middle-income children that enjoys broad bipartisan support. As the New Republic reports, this is not the first time he has short-changed SCHIP.

With 9 million children in the U.S. lacking health insurance, SCHIP reauthorization is a vital step toward closing the coverage gap. But the Bush White House doesn’t like the fact that some governors (both Democrat and Republican) have expanded their programs to cover not just kids at the poverty limit, but their working parents as well. This is merely a reflection of how spiraling health care costs have made insurance coverage unaffordable for millions of working families. And that’s an Inconvenient Truth that this SICKO administration would prefer to ignore.

When we fight, we win. That was the theme of the last International Union convention. It was also a rallying cry for Rhode Island AFSCME members recently when they successfully stopped the privatization of dietary and housekeeping services at the Eleanor Slater Hospital and the Rhode Island Veteran’s Home.

The Rhode Island General Assembly voted to override Governor Donald Carcieri’s veto of a budget amendment to limit the State’s ability to sell off services to the lowest bidder. AFSCME RI Council 94 members led a full-court press of television ads, email, faxes, and face-to-face lobbying to win support for the anti-privatization measure.

While this was an important victory, Council 94’s President J. Michael Downey pointed out that it is part of a longer battle.

As Governor Carcieri picks out his next state service to privatize, one thing is for sure – Rhode Island AFSCME members will be there to stand up and fight back.

Anyone who’s ever wondered how it would feel to go without public services should have awakened Monday morning in Pennsylvania. That’s where Gov. Ed Rendell ordered a partial government shutdown, keeping 24,000 workers off the job. The 24-hour shutdown was the result of a budget stalemate between the authorities and the Legislature that was only resolved by the end of the day.

As AFSCME Council 13 Executive Director Dave Fillman said, the legislators “should be furloughed for not doing their job. The hard-working Commonwealth employees should stay on.”

Authorities said the unpaid furlough would only affect state workers performing “non-critical” jobs. Can they actually define “non-critical”? According to this report from the Associated Press, the effects of the shutdown were anything but non-critical: “Pennsylvanians discovered they couldn’t take driver’s license tests. Highway maintenance and a range of permitting and licensing functions were stopped or severely curtailed.” All this during the height of roadwork season.

From where we sit – and we think the Pennsylvania citizens who didn’t receive services would agree – these jobs are very important. And what about the paychecks that will go to the workers who couldn’t report? Bet those potentially missing dollars aren’t “non-critical” to them.

Although the stalemate is now over, AFSCME members will not take these abuses lying down. State workers shouldn’t be held hostage to political squabbles. Let’s make sure this never happens again.

The 4th of July is a time of gathering with the family and friends but it is also an opportunity to celebrate what makes America great.

The commitment of public service workers like us is one of those distinct things that make our country unique. We drive the buses that get the children to school safely. We staff the public hospitals that provide vital health care. We drive the snow plows in the dead of winter. We are the men and women that put their life on the line in state prisons and county jails. We are AFSCME and, as you can see in this video, we make America happen.

And yet this commitment to America should also entail the desire of making it a better place to live in, a society where everyone has access to health care, enjoys retirement security and workers are free to join a union and bargain for a better future for their families.

As the political landscape shifts and the goal of taking back the White House for working families comes within reach, think about how you can help make this dream reality. Your commitment is the first step so that we can celebrate many more independence days in a country that is more fair and just… for everyone.