Due to the importance of job creation in order to lift America out of the ongoing recession, I’ve decided to dedicate a separate page to workers, jobs and unions. Here’s a link to a previous post on the issues page.
Shuler is to the right of many Republicans: This from his official Web page.
“Today U.S. Representative Heath Shuler joined fellow leaders of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition to send a letter to the members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or ‘Super Committee,’ advocating that Republicans and Democrats work together to achieve a balanced, bipartisan solution that cuts the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years.”
Four trillion. And he’s talking about slashing our earned benefit programs, Social Security and Medicare. Heath Shuler is concerned with cutting taxes for the rich, not providing for the good of the working people in the 11th Congressional District.
“You can’t [tackle the deficit] without reforming entitlements,” said Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.). “You’d be lying to the American people if you think you can do it any other way. You can’t do it without putting everything on the table.”
Yes, you can. Raise the cap on Social Security contributions from its current $106,000 (no one pays into the system on wages above that level), and raise taxes on the rich. It’s quite simple if you aren’t protecting your wealthy contributors.
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Labor under attack: Republicans want to gut the National Labor Relations Board: Shuler voted with them.
It took American workers 159 years (1776-1935) to win the right to join a union.
Now the Republicans want to make it illegal.
Here’s the story about Republican efforts to gut the National Labor Relations Board.
Here’s a story about Shuler’s vote on the Republican bill.
“Eight Democratic lawmakers broke ranks and joined 230 Republicans in voting for the bill. All came from right-to-work states like South Carolina that prohibit requiring union membership as a condition of employment, among them Reps. Mike McIntyre and Heath Shuler of North Carolina, John Barrow of Georgia and Henry Cuellar of Texas.”
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Heath Shuler thinks spending cuts are more important than jobs.
Will he vote against the Obama jobs plan?
According to The New York Times:
Representative Heath Shuler, another North Carolina Democrat, said Congress should tame the deficit before approving new spending for job programs. “The most important thing is to get our fiscal house in order,” said Mr. Shuler, a leader of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. “Then we can talk about other aspects of job creation.”
No, we need jobs now. Talking about “getting our fiscal house in order” first is playing to the Republican platform. It is conceding the game before the kick-off. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Meanwhile, from San Antonio:
“DEMOCRATS from across the nation are beginning to line up against the President’s bill proposal including Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania; Rep. Heath Shuler, North Carolina; Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana; Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon; Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia; and even Sen. Kay Hagan, North Carolina.” (Ground control to Hagan: are you listening to your constituents?)
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Shuler believes in the SuperCommittee.
The SuperCommittee created by the recent agreement on the debt limit is either going to reach the same impasse faced in August, or cave in to the Republican majority. Any other outcome involves extremely wishful thinking. And a cave in is going to hammer Social Security and Medicare. But Heath Shuler believes in the SuperCommittee.
“Rep. Heath Shuler (D) – Just like Carper, he prefers that everyone focus on the healing power of the supercommittee.”
Shuler voted for AT&T merger with T-Mobile. AT&T gave him $14,000.
Studies have shown that the merger will eliminate some 20,000 jobs, while further consolidating power within a few surviving cell phone companies, which will easily lead to price increases for service. Shuler is for jobs, except when he’s against them. He’s among 15 Dems pushing Obama to allow this monopoly which will cut American jobs, and he’s accepted lots of money from AT&T.
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AFL-CIO jobs plan Long Version
Issued on Labor Day weekend
America Wants To Work Action Plan
Three decades of Wall Street and corporate-dominated economic policies drove our economy into the ground, and we are still paying a high price for these policy failures. Unemployment and underemployment are projected to remain at crisis levels for years; our trade deficit is growing; the housing market continues its downward slide; millions of Americans are facing foreclosure; and real wages are stagnant. The AFL-CIO calls on Congress and the administration for big, bold, timely action to put America back to work, retain good jobs, and rebuild the U.S. economy.
1. Rebuild America’s schools and transportation and energy systems. If we have the will to tackle the jobs crisis, there is no mystery about how to go about doing it. We need to invest at least $2.2 trillion in repairing our crumbling 20th century infrastructure and another $2 trillion building a modern clean energy infrastructure for the 21st century. These investments would put millions of people to work while laying the foundation for long-term economic growth and competitiveness. Congress should fund the Surface Transportation Act at $556 billion over six years, as proposed by President Obama; identify revenues to fund enhanced investment in highways, transit, rail, and ports; allow transit agencies to flexibly use federal funds to save and create jobs; fully fund Amtrak and make it the centerpiece of our high-speed rail program; pass a robust reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would sustain or create 300,000 jobs; adopt a national policy to get truly high-speed broadband to every individual, family, business, and community in America; create a government-backed bond program to help state and local governments finance the maintenance and repair of infrastructure, as well as new construction projects; reauthorize and expand the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund; fund port dredging and maritime investment projects; renew the Building Star program to create jobs through the installation of energy-saving technology; create an adequately financed infrastructure bank to fund good jobs; and ensure that U.S. tax dollars are used to create U.S. jobs by insisting on Buy America safeguards. Sen. Boxer’s shorter-term reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Act, which would sustain or create 1.9 million jobs, awaits immediate action by Congress when it returns from the August recess, and Congress must not put thousands of FAA employees and construction workers out of work by allowing the FAA reauthorization to expire yet again.
2. Revive U.S. manufacturing and stop exporting good jobs overseas. We cannot hope to restore our economy to health unless we revive American manufacturing. This will require action on many fronts, including ending currency manipulation, reforming tax policy, enforcing and reforming our trade policies, strengthening government procurement policies, and increasing investment in job training. Congress should take concrete action to stem currency manipulation by passing the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act. It should also renew tax incentives for investments in advanced energy (Section 48C); expand Title 17 loan guarantees to include investments in energy efficiency; end tax incentives that encourage the offshoring of good manufacturing jobs; enhance Buy America safeguards; reform our trade agreements to raise global labor and environmental standards and support good jobs at home; enforce our trade laws; reauthorize a robust Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for workers who lose their jobs due to trade; and oppose free trade deals with Korea, Colombia, and Panama.
3. Put people to work doing work that needs to be done. There are 25 million people in America who need full-time work, and there is plenty of work to be done. Congress should pass legislation to provide for the direct creation of millions of jobs in local communities, such as Rep. Miller’s “Local Jobs for America Act” or Rep. Schakowsky’s “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act.” These jobs must pay competitive wages and target distressed communities and must not replace existing jobs.
4. Help federal, state, and local governments avoid more layoffs and cutbacks of public services. Layoffs by federal, state and local government are dragging down the economy and making a double dip recession more likely. Congress should make a commitment not to lay off any more federal employees and prevent additional state and local layoffs by providing for increased federal funding of Medicaid when unemployment is high and by providing additional federal investment directly to local communities to save and create jobs and protect and restore public services.
5. Help fill the massive shortfall of consumer demand by extending unemployment benefits and keeping homeowners in their homes. Over $12 trillion of wealth was destroyed in 2008 when the housing bubble and stock market collapsed, and our economy continues to suffer from a massive shortfall of consumer demand. This is the primary reason why businesses are not hiring. Extending unemployment benefits for jobless workers and providing relief for homeowners facing foreclosure can help reduce this drag on the economy. If banks lowered the principal balance on all underwater mortgages to their current market value, over $70 billion per year would be pumped back into the economy, millions of families would be able to stay in their homes, and over one million jobs would be created. Congress and the administration should provide for mandatory reduction of principal for homeowners facing foreclosure—through bankruptcy reform, mandatory mediation, or other means. Congress should also extend the federal unemployment benefits program for another year.
6. Reform Wall Street so that it helps Main Street create jobs. The financial sector should channel capital to productive sectors of the economy, but the financial sector now diverts far too many resources from the productive economy, fails to finance productive investment, and endangers the global economy with its reckless gambling. Congress and the administration should pass legislation to encourage more lending to small businesses; enact a Financial Speculation Tax to discourage harmful speculation and make Wall Street pay to rebuild the economy it helped destroy; and enforce tough safeguards to stop the kind of cheating and massive fraud on Wall Street that precipitated the crisis of 2008.
The solutions we propose must be on the same scale as the problems we face. Half measures will not put America back to work. Nor will the same old Wall Street economic policies that drove our economy into the ground in the first place.
