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.

In his latest entry on the Huffington Post, AFSCME President McEntee urges the Democratic National Committee to seat the delegates selected by the voters in Florida and Michigan:

I have a simple reason for wanting the delegates elected from Florida and Michigan to be seated in Denver: I want the Democratic candidate to carry those states in November. Florida and Michigan are two states whose Electoral College votes will be critically important in the fall. We should win them both.

Read the full post.

AFSCME President McEntee comments on New Hampshire election results on the Huffington Post:

But Tuesday’s stunning win is about more than election results. This isn’t a horse race. This is a fight for a better America, an America that lives up to its ideals, an America where the basic promise of our country will ring true again – that if you work hard and play by the rules you can get ahead and give your children the opportunity to live a better life. This is a fight to end the war in Iraq, give every man, woman and child the medical care they need, and revive America’s middle class.

Read the full post.

In his most recent entry on the Huffington Post, President Gerald W. McEntee sets the record straight on Sen. Barack Obama’s health care plan, AFSCME’s critique of it, and the labeling of labor unions as “special interests.”

When it comes to health care, our union and the labor movement in general are not a “special interest.” We fight for the general interest. Our campaign for health care for all is about our commitment to a better America, and no one in America should go without the medical care they need as so many in our country do now.

Read the full post.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee reacts to efforts by Bush supporters to discredit 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his family.

The allies of President Bush who back his veto of bipartisan legislation to provide health coverage to children in low-income families took the politics of personal destruction to a new low this week. Front page stories in the Baltimore Sun and New York Times tell the story. They reveal the behind-the-scenes wheels of a smear campaign, based entirely on falsehoods, to destroy the credibility of a Baltimore family that stepped forward to speak out in opposition to the President’s veto.

The parents of 12-year-old Graeme Frost, and his younger sister Gemma, used the Maryland State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) after their children were seriously injured in an automobile accident. After the accident, Graeme lay comatose, with severe brain trauma. His younger sister was in even worse shape. Both parents in the Frost family work, making a combined income of less than $50,000 a year. On that income, they raise four children. But they could not afford private health insurance.

Thanks to SCHIP, Graeme and Gemma got the emergency medical care they needed. They, and their parents, know the SCHIP program works. Graeme said so publicly, at a press conference with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and in a front page Baltimore Sun story. Later, Senator Harry Reid selected him to give the weekly Democratic Radio Address, and he told a national radio audience about the medical care he received:

Three years ago, my family was in a really bad car accident. I was in a coma for a week and couldn’t eat or stand up or even talk at first. My sister was even worse. I was in the hospital for five-and-a-half months and I needed a big surgery. For a long time after that, I had to go to physical therapy after school to get stronger. But even though I was hurt badly, I was really lucky.

Graeme and his family made a powerful case that SCHIP funding saves lives. So, the President’s allies set out to destroy them. Right wing blogs went into overdrive, questioning the cost of the family’s home, the family income and even the cost of the private school the children attend. Now it turns out, these smears were all unfounded. Yes, Graeme goes to a private school, but his tuition is largely paid through a scholarship.

By targeting a family for speaking the truth about a program the President wants to dismantle, the Bush’s allies crossed the line. Instead of debating this vital program on the merits, they thought they could win by Swift-boating a working-class American family. By mounting a disgusting campaign to smear the Frost family, the President’s backers have gone too far. Their efforts should and will backfire.

President Bush should call this smear campaign off. He should tell Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and Senator Mitch McConnell to call off their dogs and leave this family alone. The brave Frost family has been through enough and doesn’t deserve this for speaking out about a vital program that helped them. The President’s allies have brought Bush-era gutter politics to a new low.

George Bush and the Republican leadership, in the twilight of a failed presidency, are blocking funding for domestic priorities like cancer research, infrastructure improvements and veterans programs. Now Bush is threatening to veto SCHIP, the health care program for low-income children, while at the same time asking for billions more to fund his mismanaged war in Iraq.

In his latest entry on Huffington Post, President Gerald W. McEntee announces that AFSCME, along with Americans United for Change, USAction and a consortium of concerned groups, are launching a campaign to demand that Congress override the expected SCHIP veto.

We are locked in an epic battle with President Bush. A battle to preserve the role of the public services that keep our families safe and our communities strong. A battle over what kind of America we want to be.

Read the full post.

All of us at AFSCME paused today to remember the victims of the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001.

On the Huffington Post blog, President Gerald W. McEntee shares his thoughts about the innocent victims and those who gave their lives in service to others on that fateful morning six years ago.

Firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, 911 operators, transit workers, nurses, hospital and health care workers, city engineers and air traffic controllers sprang into action on September 11, and in the days and months that followed. Many were AFSCME members. They did what AFSCME members always do. They are always there when tragedy strikes or disaster threatens. They make America happen. We will always be proud of them.

Read the full post.

Labor Day is a time to reflect upon the enormous contributions working people have made to our nation. But Labor Day should also be an occasion for progressive activists across the country to call attention to the egregious assault that the Bush administration has waged against the very people that helped to make our nation strong.

Every vital statistic concerning the health of our country’s middle-class is headed in the wrong direction. Since President Bush took office, the cost of college tuition, the incidence of home foreclosures and the number of uninsured Americans have all increased — while corporate profits have skyrocketed and median income has tumbled.

As AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee details in his latest contribution to the Huffington Post, this is not mere coincidence but rather a direct result of President Bush’s failed policies and misguided priorities.

Says McEntee of Bush’s hollow rhetoric:

Last Labor Day, President Bush proclaimed that the working people of America “build better lives for themselves and their families and make America stronger.” In 2008, when we elect a President who stands with working families instead of against them, we will make those words ring true.

Read the full post.

President George W. Bush came to office promising to privatize more than 450,000 federal jobs. For more than six years, he has tried to implement his radical agenda to cut vital public services. In his most recent blog on the Huffington Post, President McEntee takes aim at a cynical letter President Bush issued to commemorate Public Service Recognition Week.

President McEntee writes: “Never has the White House had an occupant more opposed to public service and more intent on destroying the institutions of government that people rely on for security, safety and support. He’s filled the federal government with political appointees of low character and even lower competence, driving outstanding career employees away from their jobs.”

History was made this week in Maryland, where Governor Martin O’Malley became the first governor in the United States to sign living-wage legislation. The new law requires state contractors to pay at least $8.50 an hour to workers in most of Maryland, while contractors in the more expensive Baltimore-Washington area must pay $11.30 an hour.

President McEntee notes in his most recent blog on the Huffington Post that “Maryland’s new law is an important victory not just for underpaid workers in that state, but for workers across the country.” He also highlights recent developments in the battle custodians are waging for fair pay in the University of California system (AFSCME Local 3299).

This week, the custodians received some great support from students at UC-Berkeley who took over the business school. These young people are doing their part to support the cause of working people, not just on their campus, but throughout the country.