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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>Boy oh boy ! </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>These Union leaders are some real " tough "
negotiators !</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>One " friendly " meeting with Obama and they
are already resigned to the idea of backing down.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>With friends like this ( Obama ), who needs enemies and
with " representation " ( AFL-CIO ) like this, who needs company " unions "
?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>David Johnson</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:undisclosed-recipients:">undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:29 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Obama meets with AFL-CIO to push for cost-cutting health
care overhaul</DIV></DIV>
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<H2>Obama meets with AFL-CIO to push for cost-cutting health care overhaul</H2>
<H5>By Jerry White <BR>13 January 2010</H5>With popular opposition to the
administration’s health care plan growing, President Obama held a private White
House meeting with leaders of the US trade unions Monday to shore up support for
corporate-backed measure, which will roll back health care for tens of millions
of working and retired people.<BR>A new CBS poll released Tuesday showed support
for the bill has fallen to an all-time low of 35 percent. Nearly half the
respondents criticized the legislation for failing to “regulate the insurance
industry.”<BR>Among those attending the meeting with Obama was the new AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, and Gerald McEntee
of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Trumka
described the event as a “meeting of friends trying to solve problems.”<BR>The
union executives reportedly urged Obama to trim back the unpopular proposal to
tax the health care plans of millions of workers with employer-paid benefits.
Obama shrugged off their pleadings and told the officials he continued to
support the tax, which is included in the Senate version of the health care
bill.<BR>Speaking about the meeting, a senior administration official told the
<EM>New York Times</EM>, “The president was very clear that he thinks this [tax]
is a critical part of bringing down costs in the long term and bending the
curve.”<BR>The premise of the tax is that large numbers of workers and their
families are enjoying outrageously luxurious “Cadillac” benefits that must be
slashed in order to reduce the costs of health care for everyone. While the tax
will be levied on insurance companies, it is understood by everyone involved
that the cost will be passed on to ordinary workers, in the form of higher
premiums and co-pays, while encouraging employers to sharply reduce their
coverage or drop it altogether.<BR>The tax underscores the real meaning of
“health care overhaul.” It is not aimed at expanding medical coverage but
cutting costs for the government and corporate America. This is exactly what the
administration did to auto workers and their families at GM and Chrysler,
including retirees who lost dental and optical coverage as part of the forced
bankruptcy and restructuring of the two companies.<BR>The plan will impose a 40
percent excise tax on any health care plans that exceed $8,500 a year for
individuals and $23,000 for families. This would tax the benefits of 31 million
people—most of whom are not union members. At the same time, it would affect one
quarter of all union members with employer-paid medical benefits.<BR>The
imposition of the tax is a reversal of Obama’s campaign pledges. During the 2008
campaign, Obama denounced Republican opponent John McCain for his plan to tax
health care benefits as income. The Democratic president also pledged not to
support any new taxes on the “middle class.”<BR>According to the <EM>Times</EM>,
“Some union officials, resigned to the likelihood that a final measure would
include the tax, are pressing the White House to raise the threshold at which it
would kick in.”<BR>An analyst cited by the newspaper pointed to the fact the
under the Senate bill thresholds will rise anyway, in line with the Consumer
Price Index. However, health care costs and premiums are rising at a much faster
rate than the CPI, meaning the plans of many more ordinary workers would quickly
fall under the category of “high cost” and be subjected to the excise
tax.<BR>Prior to the meeting, Trumka addressed a gathering of the National Press
Club, where he made certain criticisms of the plan, but made it clear that the
AFL-CIO would continue to support the bill regardless.<BR>In his remarks, Trumka
indicated that workers on picket lines and workplaces around the country
expressed their anger, not only with the health care plan—which many saw as a
“benefit to insurers, pharmaceutical giants and irresponsible employers”—but the
indifference of the government to the impact of rising unemployment and home
foreclosures.<BR>Workers, Trumka said, believed the government was only looking
after the “wealthy elites” and Wall Street speculators. His primary concern was
that this growing opposition might hurt the Democratic Party by reducing turnout
in the 2010 elections.<BR>He warned the Democrats that it was “political
suicide” not to address double-digit unemployment, and that despite the best
efforts of the AFL-CIO, the indifference of the Democrats to the plight of
workers would subject them to the “scorn of the people” and open the door to an
electoral defeat on the scale of the 1994 Republican sweep of
Congress.<BR>Referring to that period, Trumka said, “there was no way to
persuade enough working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn’t tell the
difference between the two parties. Politicians who think that working people
have it too good—too much health care, too much Social Security and Medicare,
too much power on the job—are inviting a repeat of 1994.”<BR>Despite his
criticisms, Trumka reasserted the total support of the trade union apparatus for
the Democratic Party. He made the absurd claim that the Obama administration, an
instrument of the financial elite, could be “encouraged” to create jobs,
challenge Wall Street speculators and lessen social inequality.<BR>Trumka also
praised Obama as the first president in a long time who “sees the positive role
of unions,” a reference to the administration’s use of the AFL-CIO to batter
down the resistance of workers to mass unemployment, wage cuts and other
concessions.<BR>Asked by a reporter if his criticisms of the excise tax meant
the union federation would oppose the bill, Trumka made it clear the AFL-CIO
would support the measure anyway. “Bringing health care to everyone is too
important to get this far and then say we are going to quit.”<BR><BR>
<HR>
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