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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=harrykelber@ranknfile.net href="mailto:harrykelber@ranknfile.net">Harry
Kelber</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=laboreducator@ranknfile.net
href="mailto:laboreducator@ranknfile.net">laboreducator@ranknfile.net</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, January 03, 2011 7:55 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> A Pay Cut for Obama</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 77.4pt"><B><I><U><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">LaborTalk</SPAN></U></I></B><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">
(126)
January 3, 2011<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 77.4pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<H1><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt">To Solve Budget Crises, a 10% Pay
Cut<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H1>
<H3><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">For
Obama, Congress and Other Officials<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></H3>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<H2>By Harry Kelber<o:p></o:p></H2>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">While
maintaining their own salaries and benefits intact, President Obama, members of
Congress and state legislatures, governors, and heads of major agencies have
decreed that tens of thousands of working people should be fired or furloughed,
suffer wage cuts and loss of benefits, and a freeze of their wages to solve the
federal and state budget deficits. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">President
Obama joined the attack by ordering some 2 million federal employees to take a
two-year wage freeze, which, with rising food, transportation and housing costs,
amounts to a pay cut. And he did this without prior public discussion
and the disruption of union collective bargaining
contracts.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">Now it’s
time for Obama and all public officials to show their concern about budget
deficits by taking a 10 percent cut in salaries for one year and a wage freeze
for a second one. We propose that Obama show the way by announcing he is cutting
his salary and, for starters, proposing that the 100 Senators and 435 members of
the House do the same. It should include all public officials earning more than
$100,000 a year.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">Now for
the banks, who were largely responsible for creating the crisis. They should be
required to pay a 10 percent tax on their earnings since they were bailed
out by the government. And everyone on Wall Street, earning a million dollars
or more per year, including bonuses, should be asked to give up 10 percent
of their salary. They would still have more than enough to live
on.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">And we
should include CEOs that are reporting company profits, and sports superstars
who are earning multimillions for playing basketball, football and ice hockey.
And let us not forget college presidents, who are earning fabulous
salaries.<BR><BR><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<H4><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Let the Wealthy Share the
Cost of Budget Deficits<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H4>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">There is
no doubt that the country has a pension problem. The total amount
that pensions are underfunded is estimated at $3.5 trillion. The business
media has aggressively tried to shift the blame for the pension crises onto the
nation’s public employees and their unions. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">The fact
is that for decades many unions put a part of the wages they won through
collective bargaining into their retirement plans. Thousands of them have
been fired or furloughed in California, New York, Illinois, Texas and other
states.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">It is
morally proper that the well-to-do should pay a greater share of recovery
costs during a national economic crisis than workers who haven’t had a wage
increase in years. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">* *
* * *<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">This
would be an appropriate time for AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka,
Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice-President Arlene Holt, who
have retained their $200,000 plus salaries throughout the economic crisis,
to show some sensitivity toward the millions of union members, who have lost
their jobs and their homes, by announcing that they too will join
those who are taking a 10 percent salary cut for one year and a pay freeze for
another.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">This pay
cut would be a meaningful and moral step in narrowing the wide gap
between the rich and the poor.—Harry Kelber<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText2><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText2><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">LaborTalk (127) will be posted here on
January 7, 2011 and on our<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> two web
sites:</SPAN></B><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'"> <A
href="http://www.laboredcator.org/">laboreducator.org</A> and <A
href="http://laborsvoiceforchange.org/">laborsvoiceforchange.org</A></SPAN></B><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">If you want
to be removed from this mailing list, send subject " REMOVE" to <A
href="mailto:postmaster@ranknfile.net">postmaster@ranknfile.net</A></SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
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