Whenever the economy is in dire straits, pundits and demagogues start looking for scapegoats. An all-time favorite is the myth of public employees and their allegedly fat – yet underfunded – pensions. The latest wrongheaded piece to promote this story is a USA Today op-ed printed on May 3, 2010 claiming that:

“Many states have lavish programs that allow workers to retire in their 50s with ample pensions — and health insurance to cover them until Medicare kicks in.”

But, as AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee points out in a response published in the same paper:

“The typical public employee represented by AFSCME earns, on average, about $18,500 a year in retirement after a career of public service. For some, this is their only source of retirement income because they do not qualify for Social Security benefits.”

Are these the lavish programs critics are talking about?

USA Today goes on to say that “some states have simply failed to put away adequate funds to cover” these programs’ benefits. While that may be true, how is it the fault of public employees that politicians have ignored pension contributions, or that – thanks to Wall Street’s recklessness – pension funds got smacked around in the last few years?

Moreover, are these problems unsolvable? Not if you look at the facts. As Pres. McEntee states:

“[O]ur public pension plans are designed for long-term stability, and virtually all of them have sufficient resources to weather this financial storm. More to the point, our pension funds can and will be rebuilt as our economy improves.”

This is why proposals such as converting public pension plans to 401(k)-type programs – a position advanced by the USA Today and many right-wing pundits – are so harebrained. Why would we want to put our hard-earned retirement funds in the hands of the same Wall Street investors that gambled away trillions of dollars and generated the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?

It is time to debunk these absurd claims and expose them for what they are: yet another attempt at undermining the hard work of public employees and the vital services they provide.

For more information, check out the Three Myths About State and Local Government Pension Plans and other interesting articles about public employee retirement benefits at afscme.org/pensions.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee’s statement on the final passage of the health care reconciliation bill:

“AFSCME members fought hard to pass President Obama’s health care reform package. We are grateful to President Obama, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi for their leadership and commitment throughout this entire process. Health care reform is a remarkable achievement. This victory will protect and improve good union health care benefits. It stops the worst abuses of the insurance companies. It gives workers and families without coverage on-the-job access to affordable health care. It ends skyrocketing premiums and caps on benefits. It helps seniors by strengthening Medicare and helps preserve employer coverage for early retirees. It provides critical new funding to states.

“But working families need more help from Washington. We still have important work that needs to be done. Too many Americans are struggling to cope in the worst economy since the Great Depression. Millions are out of work. State and local governments are cutting services to the bone. AFSCME is going to continue the fight to create jobs and restore our economy. Working together, we had a great victory on health care reform. Now, let’s put America back to work. Let’s Make America Happen.

“AFSCME spent more than $10 million on the largest mobilization campaign in our history to pass health care reform. More than 300,000 phone calls and letters were sent to Congress. We used texting and new media. We put ads on TV, online and in the papers. We marched, we lobbied and we prevailed.”

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee is cross-posted from Huffington Post and Firedoglake.

Michael Steele, the hapless chairman of the Republican National Committee, was asked a while back by Fox News how he would stop health care reform. “I will be the cow on the track,” he answered. Steele believed that President Obama’s historic effort to end the ongoing abuses of the insurance industry could be stopped even after it had passed both the House and the Senate. As a video posted on the DailyKos website makes clear, cows can’t stop trains. Yet this hasn’t stopped Republican officials all across the country from stepping up to be cows on the track now that health care reform has been signed into law.

Republicans are playing political games as the U.S. Senate considers legislation that would make important fixes in the historic health care reform legislation President Obama signed this week. The reconciliation bill would make health coverage more affordable for seniors and the middle class, and dramatically lessen the burden of an excise tax on working families. Now, Republicans are trying to block passage of those important improvements. They have no shame.

They are introducing amendments that serve no purpose except to derail the fix. Let’s be clear. The Senate should reject every amendment that is introduced to this important corrective legislation. Changes in the proposed law, except those mandated under the rules of the Senate, serve no purpose except to delay the implementation of health care overhaul. Amendments to the reconciliation bill are simply “poison pills,” designed to sabotage health care reform. They are tricks concocted by Republicans. They are cows on the track.

There will be more than enough time in the years ahead to address changes and make improvements in the health care law. This week is not the time to do it. My friend Rich Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, was right when he called on senators to vote no on amendments, even on issues that we would otherwise strongly support. “Republicans are going to use a “kitchen sink” amendment strategy, throwing everything they can at the bill to try to sink reform,” Rich notes. “Working families won’t be fooled by dirty tricks from the opponents of health reform out to do the bidding of the insurance companies. And U.S. senators should not be fooled either.”

When we started our work on health care reform three years ago, we set our sights high. But we knew that the final legislation would not include everything we wanted. But this is not new. Major social justice reforms are never achieved in one fell swoop. When the 1957 Civil Rights Act was signed into law, it fell short of what was needed to bring about equal rights. It failed to include key protections like voting rights and access to public places. But it was a start. And it laid the groundwork for future laws that made more progress. Originally, both Social Security and Medicare excluded public sector workers. But over time that has been rectified. The same will be true for health care reform. These bills achieve enormous good and they lay a strong foundation for us to build on.

I was pleased to hear that some supporters of changes in health care reform have decided not to push amendments to the reconciliation bill.

Senator Michael Bennet, one of the Senate’s great supporters of the public option, writes that “the bill before the Senate this week is far too important to use as a political football. This bill would close the senior prescription drug coverage loophole that most people know as the ‘donut hole.’ It would remove the special political deals, like the ‘cornhusker kickback.’ It would further reduce the deficit up to $1.2 trillion over the next two decades and cover even more Americans, bringing the total to 32 million Americans.”

Bennet correctly notes: “This will not happen if the political games continue. That is why public option supporters, including many organizations that have been on the frontline of the fight with me, are urging a vote on the reconciliation bill, without any amendments.”

What we have now is a law that does enormous good for millions of American families by making health care a right for the first time in our history. And it turns out Americans like that idea.

Senate Republicans aren’t the only cows moving onto the track. Just yesterday, Republican attorneys general in more than a dozen states announced that they would challenge the constitutionality of the new law’s requirement that Americans have health insurance or pay a little extra on their federal income taxes. These Republican officials are a disgrace. Every citizen of their respective states is required to buy car insurance before they can drive the car out of the lot. Is that unconstitutional? Of course not. I thought the GOP opposed frivolous lawsuits, but apparently they don’t when they are trying to be cows on the track. What they are doing is wasting taxpayer money to score political points with the extreme and irrational voices that now dominate the Republican Party.

Some prominent Republicans understand that those in their party who have taken extreme positions in opposition to health care reform have done a disservice to our country. Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum describes it this way: “It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. We followed the most radical voices in the party, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.” When will others in his party recognize that Americans want Republicans and Democrats to work together with President Obama to lead this country forward? When will they stop acting like cows on the track?

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee released the following statement regarding the historic vote for health care reform in the U.S. House of Representatives:

“Tonight’s historic vote marks a major milestone in the struggle to break the power of the insurance industry and provide quality, affordable health care for millions of American families. Democrats in the House, with the determined leadership of President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, demonstrated the courage that is necessary to defeat the special interests and do what is right for the American people. AFSCME members will remember those who stood with us and those who stood with the insurance industry. I have told Senator Harry Reid that we intend to continue our efforts as the battle moves to the U.S. Senate. Together, we will not fail. Tonight, we celebrate a monumentally important victory for our country. Tomorrow, we get back to work in the fight to make health care reform happen.”

AFSCME’s Make America Happen campaign for health care reform has been the largest issue mobilization campaign in the union’s history, generating more than 400,000 phone calls and letters to Congress. In addition, the 1.6 million member union has invested in an aggressive $10 million television, online and print advertising campaign, along with an unprecedented use of texting and new media.

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee is cross-posted from Huffington Post and Firedoglake.

This is the week we’ve been waiting for.

This is the week when Democrats in Congress can prove that it is still possible for our political institutions to stand with the American people in a time of crisis.

This is the week when we will tell who is looking out for political cover and who is standing with patients, families and doctors who need health care reform.

Let’s be clear about what is at stake when the House votes on health care reform. How you answer these six questions will answer how you stand on health care reform:

1. Should insurance companies be able to deny patients coverage if they have a preexisting condition? This bill will end the ability of insurance companies to abuse Americans who have pre-existing conditions.
2. Should insurance companies be able to end your insurance coverage when you get sick? This bill will end their ability to do that.
3. Should insurance companies be able to double premiums and deductibles whenever they want with no controls on their actions? This bill will regulate the insurance companies and allow the government to prevent massive hikes in premiums and deductibles that individuals and business have to pay.
4. Should insurance companies have to pay for preventive care? This bill will require it.
5. Should parents be able to keep their unemployed children on their policies until the young adult turns 26? That’s in the bill.
6. Should taxpayers be paying more than $500,000 in subsidies to the insurance companies? Those sweetheart deals end when President Obama signs health care reform.

Health care reform will lay the groundwork for covering an additional 31 million uninsured Americans. A family of three earning $37,000 a year would pay less than $200 per month for good health insurance for the entire family. The family’s out-of-pocket costs would be limited too, so even if someone in the family faced a serious illness, they would not have to pay more than $4,000 in out-of-pocket expenses.

Don’t believe the corporate flacks and Republican talking heads who tell you this is a complicated issue. There is nothing complicated about it. The only people on Capitol Hill who are confused about health care reform are the people in the pockets of insurance company executives. The folks you see on cable TV, who say we need to start over and spend another year — or another decade — before we pass the reform Americans need, are folks who are reading talking points written by insurance company lobbyists and Republican party pollsters. They say that the public opposes reform, but what the public really opposes are the Republican attempts to water down reform and keep the insurance companies happy.

Now, the top Republicans in Congress are spreading the lie that President Obama’s reforms will hurt Medicare recipients. They are making this up, just as they made up the charges about socialized medicine, government control of health care and death panels. These frauds — and that’s what these politicians are — claim that Medicare will be threatened by President Obama’s reforms. These are the same characters who have tried for years to cut Medicare funding and privatize Social Security. Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor can run from their records, but they can’t hide. Seniors are not going to buy their new found love of Medicare.

These are the same people claiming we can’t afford health care reform. They ignore the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office, which concluded that health care reform actually cuts the federal deficit. That’s because President Obama is cutting the waste and fraud that Republicans and the insurance companies allowed to spread in the health care system. He’s asking wealthy Americans to pay a bit more so that Medicare will be more solvent and the federal government’s health care costs will decline in the years ahead. Seniors will be happy to know that these reforms will end the donut hole they face on their prescription drug benefit, so they won’t have to worry about losing their savings to prescription bills.

If you care about regulating the insurance companies, cutting the deficit, strengthening Medicare and helping working families, you need to take action today. Call your member of Congress and tell them to support health care reform. You can call your U.S. representative now toll free at 888-460-0813. Tell them the time has come to stand up to the insurance companies. The time has come to pass health care reform.

AFSCME members are doing their part. We will make tens of thousands of calls and write letters. We will spend $1 million on television ads this week to let members of Congress know that working families will not let the insurance industry and their front groups dominate the television airways as this historic opportunity to end insurance company abuses comes to a vote.

Don’t be fooled by the insurance companies, the Chamber of Commerce and the GOP operatives. If we fail to defeat the insurance companies, Americans will look back at this week as the one when we lost the best chance in generations to pass a bill to help working families deal with health care. Call your representative and tell them to support health care reform. It’s time to rein in the abuses. It’s time to control skyrocketing costs. It’s time for an up-or-down Congressional vote . It’s time to tell the insurance companies: Your time is up.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee released the following statement regarding President Obama’s efforts to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy:

“We are encouraged by the steps begun today by President Obama and the Pentagon to end the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. More than 13,000 American troops have been discharged under this unjust policy that forces gay and lesbian Americans in our armed forces to serve in silence. Discrimination has no place in any American institution. It undermines our national security and the effectiveness of our military by discharging trained individuals who are essential members of military units. It undermines our values by requiring dishonesty and promoting a misguided notion that some Americans are not entitled to full equality.

“Our allies across the globe, including Britain, Canada, France and Israel, have many years of experience demonstrating that the service of openly gay and lesbian personnel does not impact the fighting effectiveness of their armed forces. America’s military will be stronger when we stop a policy that denies talented men and women the opportunity to serve our country with honesty. Discrimination against gay and lesbian service personnel undermines the spirit of equality that has shaped our country throughout our history. It offends our deepest values. It is time for Congress to act quickly to bring this relic of bigotry to an end.

“AFSCME is proud of the role we have played in working to end discrimination on the basis of race, religion, disability and sexual orientation. For thirty years, we have led the fight to eliminate the discrimination too many gay, lesbians, bisexual and transgender Americans face every day in our nation. We support President Obama’s effort to change this destructive and unnecessary policy. It is time to end ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”

Conservative columnist George F. Will never misses an opportunity to distort the facts in an effort to spread untruths about issues of importance to working Americans.

In a January 29, 2010 Washington Post column, Will takes President Obama to task for not mentioning the Employee Free Choice Act in his State of the Union Address. “Unmentioned was organized labor’s “card check” legislation to abolish workers’ rights to secret ballots in unionization elections,” Will wrote. This is a calculated effort to mislead readers about the legislation.

The Employee Free Choice act would not “abolish workers’ rights to secret ballots.” What it would do is eliminate the ability of employers – not employees – to demand a National Labor Relations Board election. Workers would have a choice of “majority sign-up” or an election.

On January 10, Will wrote another Washington Post column that was filled with distortions and misinformation. In that column, he argued that unnamed liberals and AFSCME members were somehow responsible for the budget crisis facing California, ignoring the fact that conservative policies had led the state to the brink of disaster. AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee wrote to the paper to set the record straight:

Dear Editor:

George W. Will must think that his readers have amnesia. How else to explain his muddled effort to blame liberals for California’s budget crisis (“Fiscal liberalism has tarnished California gold,” Sunday, January 10), while making no mention of Proposition 13 and its impact on the states’ fiscal fortunes? That measure, passed with the enthusiastic support of Mr. Will and his conservative allies, cut property taxes by 57 percent and forced the state to rely heavily on income taxes to fund vital public services. When combined with the California constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority vote in the state’s Legislature for all major tax and budget proposals, Prop 13 set the Golden State on the course toward disaster. How strange, too, that Mr. Will targets American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) workers at the University of California at Berkeley who participated in a September protest against budget cuts at the university. Our members who participated are janitors and service workers. Rather than blame these low-paid employees for California’s budget problems, Mr. Will should look in the mirror.

Sincerely,

Gerald W. McEntee

This message regarding President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address comes from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee.

President Obama made it clear last night that he will fight for jobs. He knows that we cannot lose sight of the millions of working families who are still suffering from the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. Too many Americans are out of work and too many jobs are at risk.

The President and Congress must act now or millions of Americans could lose their jobs in the months ahead. To this point, the President reminded the Democrats of their obligation to lead and served notice to Republicans that ‘just say no’ is not an option.

AFSCME agrees with the President that America needs to lay a foundation for long-term economic growth, and we continue to believe that providing affordable, quality health care for millions of additional Americans is not only the right thing to do, but is also a key to economic recovery.

We also agree that federal action is needed to keep our economy from slipping back into the ditch. Too many services in communities across the country are being cut to the bone. AFSCME members understand this first hand. Members like you are on the front lines of this crisis, trying to do more and more with less and less. State and local governments need help and they need it now.

AFSCME will fight for robust investment in vital public services. Indeed, investment in public services must be a part of federal jobs legislation. In the coming weeks and months, we will call you, our 1.6 million members, to lend your voice to our efforts to make this happen.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee released the following statement regarding President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, which is expected to focus on saving and creating jobs as our nation struggles to climb out of the economic crisis:

“President Obama addresses the nation tonight after pulling the American economy back from the brink of a second Depression. Unfortunately, we have learned in the past year that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was not big enough to stimulate a full-scale recovery. Unless we act now, more Americans –- including nearly a million public employees –- could lose their jobs as current federal investments run out and the vital services Americans need during tough times are cut to the bone. There simply won’t be an economic recovery if Washington turns its back on Main Street USA.

“Economists from all sides of the political spectrum agree that one of the best ways to save and create American jobs is through vigorous investments in public services. For example, respected economist Mark Zandi, a former advisor to Sen. John McCain, estimates that every dollar invested in public services yields $1.38 in economic growth.

“Investing in public sector jobs creates jobs in the private sector. Federal funding is needed to keep our streets safe, our children educated and our families in good health. As living, breathing engines of economic development, AFSCME members urge President Obama and members of Congress to focus like a laser beam on saving and creating American jobs by including robust investments in public services in any upcoming jobs legislation.”

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee issued the following statement regarding the election results in Massachusetts:

“Martha Coakley’s defeat last night was a reminder that Americans are still struggling and sent a wake up call that our elected leaders need to deliver on job creation and on saving jobs. The simplistic analysis, pumped up by Republican and insurance company rhetoric, is to blame health care reform for Coakley’s defeat. But in fact, Americans continue to support the key components of health care reform, such as assuring affordability and prohibiting denials for pre-existing conditions. And we must fix health care now if our economy is to improve.

“As we head into 2010, we must heed the lessons of last night. We must show bold action and determination by passing real health care reform now. And we must pass a jobs bill that saves existing jobs and creates new American jobs. Accomplishing these goals will inspire confidence that Democrats know how to govern by fulfilling their promises, rather than abandoning their principles when the going gets tough.”