This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee was crossposted on The Huffington Post.

For the first time since the Great Depression, America is experiencing a profound and disturbing trifecta: 1) 20,000 lost jobs in April (260,000 total so far in 2008); 2) unprecedented home foreclosure rates along with harsh drops in home values; and 3) skyrocketing retail prices for food, gas and other necessities. All of these add up to a harsh climate for American families.

As the economy started to sputter, the Bush Administration ignored the truth. President Bush, said “The fundamentals of our economy are strong … Job creation is strong. Real after-tax wages are on the rise. Inflation is low.” That willful ignorance of the economy until the 11th hour might be why President Bush and Republican leaders proposed more tax breaks for the wealthy and for business, and more spending on the war in Iraq, but little that would help most Americans. Business tax cuts have little or no effect on investment, while cuts for the rich are slow and have far less impact than those for the rest of the nation. And we have seen all too well over the past few years how dramatic increases in military spending show little return on the home front. Bush and Congress ended up agreeing to a stimulus plan focused on rebates. While we’ll all eagerly cash those checks as they start arriving soon, that’s hardly a robust package of investments designed to turn the economy around.

In this weak economy, many state and local governments are being forced to make painful cuts to health insurance programs, education and other important services to balance their budgets. As a result, millions of aging and disabled individuals and children will have their health care coverage cut or eliminated. Local governments are cutting public safety, education, social services and health care due to budget shortfalls from the precipitous drop in tax revenues.

At least ten states are moving toward cutting support for family access to health care. In Rhode Island, the governor moved to eliminate health care for thousands of low-income parents. In Kentucky, higher education funding has already been sliced by 5%. California is considering drastic cuts to home-based care that helps seniors and individuals with disabilities remain independent and in their own home. Firefighting resources may be cut in places where they are most needed, like San Diego. These are blows to our communities and to the survival of working families; they also combine with lower consumption to drag the economy even further down.

In the last economic downturn states tightened their belts to squeeze out savings from Medicaid. Now states facing at least $40 billion in budget shortfalls will be pressed to cut core programs, which could hurt kids and other vulnerable populations.

As Congress decides how to stimulate our ailing national economy and reinforce the fraying safety net, the first step should be substantial investments in state and local governments in order to infuse our economy with the energy it needs to recover, and to maintain current health care, education and other critical services. Investments produce the best, most immediate results when they go to low- and moderate-income working families for health care and food stamps, and to increasing financial support for state programs. Those investments lead to immediate spending, increasing their value to the economy.

Another important step is temporary relief for states and localities by increasing federal support for the Medicaid program that provides health care to people in need. That spending will be a boon to states’ economies — stimulating the economy and lessening job losses.

While the solution to our economic downturn seems clear to so many, would you be surprised to learn that Senator John McCain continues to focus on tax cuts as a solutionhttp://www.afscme.org? After all, even when pumping himself up for voters he admits that he’s not an expert on the economy.

It’s do or die time for millions who are struggling to get by. We’ve got to focus on health care, education and domestic priorities by investing in state and local government services to stimulate the economy.

That is why we need a new President who will take responsibility for helping working families and fixing the economy.

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee today challenged John McCain on “two “crazy statements” the Senator made this week. McCain blamed the collapse of the Minnesota I-35 bridge last year on congressional earmarks and suggested that the U.S. Congress was similar to the Mafia.

In his latest entry on the Huffington Post, President McEntee points out the need to invest in public services and infrastructure instead of spending our nation’s wealth on tax cuts for the rich or the war in Iraq.

Senator McCain is happy to blame the disastrous results of Republican inaction on earmarks, but that’s not where the responsibility belongs. He is responsible, as are the other politicians who failed to provide crucial funding for infrastructure upkeep and repairs. Earmarks aren’t to blame. It’s irresponsible Republican legislators like Senator McCain.

Read the full post.

During National Library Week (April 13-19), AFSCME recognizes the hard-working and indispensable librarians and library employees who guide our nation’s readers to the wealth of knowledge found in books, the Internet and other resources within their institutions. AFSCME, which represents more than 20,000 library workers nationwide, is using this occasion to call for increased library funding. Notes AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee:

“As the nation feels the pain of the weakening economy, people are turning to their libraries for resources to find employment and public services, to advance their education, and to learn. AFSCME salutes the library workers who make more than 123,000 libraries across the country happen.”

To learn more, check out the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA), a nonprofit professional organization established to promote the mutual professional interests of librarians and other library workers.

Yesterday in Pittsburgh, John McCain responded to calls that he detail how, if elected president, he would address the economic crises facing our nation. What he offered are policies that would line the pockets of the powerful rather than helping America’s working families. Read for yourself.

McCain’s Plan for Working Class Offers Plenty for Corporate World
(Washington Post, April 16, 2008)
Sen. John McCain yesterday offered sweeping rhetoric about the economic plight of working-class Americans, promising immediate assistance even as he spelled out a tax and spending agenda whose benefits are aimed squarely at spurring corporate growth.

McCain Reverses Position to Support Bush Tax Cuts, New Plan Includes Billions in Breaks; Setting Up a Clash
(Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2008)
John McCain famously opposed President Bush’s tax cuts a few years ago, saying they would irresponsibly swell the budget deficit. Now the Arizona senator not only supports extending those cuts indefinitely, he is backing more than $200 billion a year in new breaks.

Johnny-Come-Lately
(New Republic, April 15, 2008)
There’s no way John McCain will succeed in selling his atrociously conceived, wildly irresponsible tax plan to the American people. So he’ll probably change course — again.

McCain ‘gas-tax holiday’ is a campaign retread
(MSNBC, April 15, 2008)

McCain Offers Populist Message, Corporate Tax Cuts
(washingtonpost.com The Trail blog, April 15, 2008)
Sen. John McCain today offered sweeping rhetoric about the economic plight of working-class America, even as he spelled out a tax and spending agenda whose benefits are aimed squarely at spurring business and corporate growth.

We are public service workers who provide the services that make America happen. We are taxpayers, too. So we work to improve the public’s understanding that there is a cost to the public services that all of us depend on and that everyone should pay their fair share. We are constantly on the alert for wasteful contracts, special-interest tax breaks and corporate subsidies that weaken government’s ability to provide quality public education, access to health care, decent transportation systems, and safe and healthy families and communities.

Sadly, there is vast inequality in our tax system that favors corporations over working people and the rich over the middle class. According to the Economic Policy Institute:

“Over the last 60 years, the U.S. tax code has dramatically shifted away from corporate taxes and toward taxes on individuals… The shrinking share of corporate taxes combined with an increase in payroll taxes has helped widen income inequality.”

That’s why at AFSCME we fight against corporate welfare and unfair and irresponsible tax cuts that benefit the wealthy few at the expense of working families.

(Compiled by the Office of the Speaker)

• U.S. troops killed: 4,017
  [Defense Department, 4/8/08]
• U.S. troops wounded: 29,676
  [Defense Department, 4/8/08]
• U.S. troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since September 2001: Nearly 1.7 million
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• U.S. troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan more than once: More than 599,000
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• U.S. servicemembers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan who have children: 782,000
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• Percentage of these troops who have been deployed more than once: 40
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• Percent of current and former military officers who believe the Iraq war has “stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin:” 88%
  [Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, 2/19/08]
• Percent of these officers who say the U.S. military is weaker than it was five years ago: 60%
  [Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, 2/19/08]
• Percent of U.S. troops that have served in Iraq or Afghanistan at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.): 20%
  [USA Today, 3/6/08]
• Amount the United States is spending on the war in Iraq every month: $10.3 billion
  [Congressional Research Service, 2/22/08]

The Cost of Iraq War Broken Down

Second: $3,919
Minute: $235,160
Hour: $14.1 million
Day: $338.6 million
Week: $2.4 billion
Month: $10.3 billion
Year: $123.6 billion

[Congressional Research Service, 2/22/08]

From Thursday’s New York Times:

The first hint that President Bush might be detached from the nation’s economic woes was in February, when he conceded that he had not heard about predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline… For a man who came into office as the nation’s first M.B.A. president, Mr. Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch. As the economy eclipses Iraq as the top issue on voters’ minds, even some Republican allies of the president say Mr. Bush is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.

Read the full story, “In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage”.

The Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report on the program’s financial status. According to Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson, its findings confirm “that the Social Security program is financially unstable and requires reform.”

Really?

While doomsayers are already claiming the sky is falling, a close look at the numbers tells a different story.

According to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the trustees’ report actually

“reaffirms that Social Security does not face a near-term crisis and can continue to pay full benefits for more than three decades.”

According to the CBPP, there are far more troubling threats when it comes to the country’s financial well-being:

Anyone concerned about Social Security’s long-term shortfall ought to be equally (if not more) concerned about the long-term fiscal impact of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Making the tax cuts permanent will cost more than three times as much, over the next 75 years, as the 75-year shortfall in Social Security.

In other words, Bush’s tax cuts for the rich are much more damaging for the economy than any alleged Social Security crisis. As the AFL-CIO blog points out, this is a thinly-veiled scheme to once again push for privatizing the most successful program in America’s history:

Bush and his cohorts in 2005 failed miserably to convince the American public that Social Security privatization was the holy grail of retirement security. But still, they persist in trying to sell this snake oil.

Indeed they do. Witness Sen. John McCain’s plan to divert American’s retirement money into risky private accounts, almost a carbon copy of Bush’s failed initiative.

Paulson, Bush, McCain & company might have a short-term memory when it comes to playing with people’s retirement security. Working families don’t.

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.

Just like his previous State of the Union speeches, Pres. Bush’s address last night was nothing but a rosy painted picture of what’s going on in our country, all references to reality removed to protect the not-so-innocent.

The bottom line is that our nation is in considerably worse shape than it was when Bush took office. Do you want to know how bad? Check out this chart on “The Legacy of George W. Bush’s Presidency” prepared by the House Democratic Caucus.

Dan Brown at The Huffington Post showcases some of its lowlights:

• The number of Americans living in poverty has jumped from 31.6 million to 36.5 million.
• The uninsured population has grown from 38 million to 47 million.
• The annual total premium cost has nearly doubled from $6,230 per family to $12,106 per family.

What we saw last night was an address filtered through “BushVision®”, lacking any meaningful references to the mortgage and credit crisis, the trade deficit, or the rising cost of gasoline. Bush chose instead to trumpet his proposed economic stimulus package, the same deal that AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee has called “a band-aid, half-hearted solution to the economic crisis we’re facing.”

We don’t need more empty rhetoric. What we need is concrete measures like state fiscal relief to help states and local governments maintain health care and other vital public services.