Folks are up in arms over the plans by George W. Bush’s Texas political heir to privatize the highways, according to the New York Times.

It’s a simple scheme, really. Rather than deal with the state’s transportation challenges, Governor Rick Perry wants to let private companies build roads and then charge Texans and others to use them. While that may lead to profits for the corporate investors, locals like Linda Stall fear they will pay the price:

“The only person who loses is the citizen,” she said. “We’re paying everyone’s profit.” She also said investors would “cherry pick” the most lucrative toll routes, leaving other sections unfinanced.

Driven by wrong-minded public officials and corporate greed, privatization and contracting out all too often fail the tests of cost effectiveness or quality. Time and time again, the public pays more and gets lower quality of services while public workers are laid off and corruption scandals make the news. Perry’s Texas toll-road boondoggle is just the latest – and one of the largest – example of a corporate giveaway. What will they privatize next?

If the Government is a car that gives everyone a ride to work, then for 40 years the Republicans have been puncturing the tires, pouring sand in the gas tank, stealing the distributor cap, and, whenever they can get their hands on the wheel, driving it straight into the nearest ditch. Then they point to the wreckage as the tow truck backs up to it, saying, “See, this proves that people were meant to walk.”

And they do this so that they don’t have to chip in on gas.

Blogger Lance Mannion gives this apt analogy to explain the strategy of conservatives who want to privatize everything from highways to our national defense. (Can you say Blackwater?)

Economist Paul Krugman wrote about how the President and his allies even oppose efforts to fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program because it is making a difference in the lives of children. After all, they don’t want you to realize how cost effective and beneficial publicly provided services can be.

Matt Yglesias aptly named this cynical and insidious strategy “Can’t do conservatism.”

As Sen. John McCain courts his base by embracing Bush’s policies and the can’t-do conservative agenda, the American people look forward to November as our chance to get the car back on the road and drive together toward a better future for working families.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is concerned that the Democratic nominating process is “divisive and delegitimatized.” AFSCME President Gerald McEntee thinks Republicans should focus on coming to terms with their own nominee, and writes on the Huffington Post that Gingrich is the last person Democrats need advice from on integrity, unity and legitimacy.

Democrats are proud of the campaign. We want a competition, not a coronation. Our leading candidates are offering clear choices and strong leadership to reverse the disastrous course that George W. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress have set for our country.

Read the full post.

American Rights at Work launched a groundbreaking campaign this week exposing Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s dismal record through ShameOnElaine.org.

Unlike her cohorts in the Bush administration, Elaine Chao has escaped much-needed public scrutiny of her time on the job. From littering the Labor Department with individuals with blatant corporate agendas to dismantling worker safety protections and collaborating with her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Elaine has disgraced her role as Secretary of Labor.

You’ll be outraged over what Elaine’s been up to instead of serving America’s workers:

• Hired a former colleague from the Heritage Foundation who actually wrote a report titled “How to Close Down the Department of Labor.”
• Cut over 100 inspectors at MSHA and, as a result, hundreds of mines weren’t inspected and tragedies such as Sago and Crandall Canyon might have been prevented.
• Had Chao-themed coins, lanyards, and fleece blankets printed at taxpayer expense.
• Failed to issue a rule requiring employers to pay for their workers’ safety gear — contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
• Had an auditorium named in her honor — thanks to her husband’s $14.2 million earmark to enhance the Mitch McConnell Center at his alma mater, the University of Louisville. Of course, Elaine never attended the university.

As The Nation points out, all of this was paid for by American workers.

Take a look for yourself at ShameOnElaine.org for plenty more examples of Elaine’s failures as Secretary of Labor, and please join the effort to restore the Department of Labor as an agency run on behalf of America’s workers.

Two years ago, members of AFSCME Council 62 vigorously protested state plans to outsource three Indiana state hospitals in Richmond, Evansville and Madison. The jobs of some 750 RNs, psychiatric attendants and behavioral technicians represented by the council were threatened by the scheme.

Family and Social Services Administration Sec. Mitch Roob ignored those protests. But last month, he finally – and formally – acknowledged what AFSCME has maintained all along: Privatization does not save money.

David Warrick, Council 62’s executive director and an International vice president, says Indiana state officials …

“… had to admit they couldn’t privatize the hospital without costing the taxpayers more money than it would take for the state to run it.”

Read more about the decision to drop the privatization scheme in these stories in The Indianapolis Star and the Palladium-Item.

Like David battling Goliath, a handful of city workers have decisively defeated a powerful foe, armed only with a lawsuit as their slingshot.

The “David” in this case: 29 members of Local 2957 (AFSCME Council 38), whose vested retiree health benefits were arbitrarily cut off by city officials in 2004 in a ruling requiring that all city retirees pay the same premiums as if they were active employees.

The employees sought justice in court. Twice they won, twice the city appealed. Now, in a third (and hopefully final) decision (PDF) the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that …

“… correctly determined that the [city council’s] resolutions were unconstitutional under the Contract Clause [of the U.S. Constitution].”

This story in The Benton Courier, and this posting on AFSCME Council 965’s blog, tells the tale.

“If you turned on a TV in the days before the voting began in the Super Tuesday states,” writes AFSCME President Gerald McEntee on the Huffington Post, “you would have thought that Barack Obama was headed for a landslide.”

He continues:

While the media may focus on celebrities and endorsements, the voters on Super Tuesday and in earlier contests this year have focused on issues, substance and solutions. In the states most important for a Democratic victory, they have chosen Hillary Clinton as their candidate.

Read the full post.

In his most recent Huffington Post blog, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee examines the two leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination and how they address the issue of health care.

“On this the experts agree – Obama’s plan leaves 15 million people uninsured while Clinton’s plan leaves no patients behind.”

Read the full post.

In his latest entry on the Huffington Post, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee says John McCain is a reliable conservative no different than George W. Bush, yet many voters think he’s a moderate. The biggest danger we face is that Republicans will unite behind his candidacy.

Read the full post.

AFSCME President McEntee’s latest entry on the Huffington Post warns about Bush’s plans to submit a budget to Congress which will slash funding for hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, emergency medical services and home care providers:

“In all the reckless and misguided actions of this failed presidency, few will have consequences as serious as these massive budget cuts, which will reduce medical services for seriously ill Americans and increase medical costs for America’s working families.”

Read the full post.