Feb. 1—Working people around the country interviewed after President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address say his plans are unrealistic, don’t address the destruction of good American jobs or the nation’s retirement security disaster—and serve as a stark reminder of the importance of the upcoming 2006 elections to clean house.
“It was more of the same,” says Bob Butero, a national field representative for the Mine Workers who lives in Wheat Ridge, Colo. “He’s trying to get his people elected so he played to their fears and used the war card without really talking about much else.”
Max Sanders, 49, a substitute teacher in Euclid, Ohio, for 13 years, who has been unemployed for more than a year, says Bush didn’t offer a realistic plan to create jobs.
“I had hoped the president would say he is bringing good-paying jobs to Ohio and the rest of the country,” Sanders says, “that he was concerned about the poor and that he is going to help us to be financially able to take care of our families. But instead he talked about tax cuts to create jobs. He said the administration has created 4.6 million jobs. I don’t see where they are. Seems to me that most people are losing their jobs.”
Meanwhile, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Jan. 31—the same day as Bush’s address to the nation—that wages and benefits paid to civilian workers rose last year by the smallest amount in nine years. Employee compensation was up 3.1 percent in 2005, less than the rate of inflation. When inflation is factored in, overall compensation fell by 0.3 percent, the first time there has been a decline since 1996.
Yet corporate profits continue to climb. A new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that, while wages have stagnated or fallen behind inflation, the share of corporate revenue going to profits is way ahead of its historical average.
The president ignored a fact that's understood "by virtually every working American: The playing field is anything but level," says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "And the president’s refusal to take action against currency manipulation by China or submit trade agreements with guarantees for core workers’ rights has only made it more unbalanced."
Bush’s HSA Plan Would Cost Consumers More, Provide Less Health Care
Bush again urged Congress to make permanent an estimated $112 billion in tax cuts for the rich that first went into effect in 2001 and to create Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which health care advocates say will only increase consumer costs and actually reduce the number of workers with health coverage.
Health care savings accounts won’t help workers such as Jane McGovern, a member of the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America and one of 46 million Americans without health insurance. McGovern, 53, says she can’t afford to marry her boyfriend of eight years because the couple does not have the more than $700 it would cost per month for her to be added to his health care plan.
According to a new report by the nonpartisan research group Commonwealth Fund, HSAs will shift more costs onto workers, forcing many to go without needed care because of high out-of-pocket costs. They also would undermine employer-sponsored health plans, which now cover two-thirds of Americans, the report says.
“I don’t understand why someone who purports to believe in family values supports policies that prevent people from getting married,” McGovern says. Because she has no health insurance, McGovern says she doesn’t seek medical attention when she needs it. Her income as a Spanish-language interpreter in Minnesota is well below the federal poverty guidelines of $9,800 for one person, but it is too much to qualify for Minnesota’s public health insurance plan.
“It’s immoral. It’s a sin. The health care system is egregious, catering to big corporations,” she says. McGovern, who grew up in a Republican family in rural Minnesota, says Bush is not a true Republican. True Republicans are fiscally conservative, she says. “They don’t support this deficit spending and total disregard for human beings.”
"Like last year’s proposal for Social Security privatization, health savings accounts do nothing to address the underlying problem they purport to solve," Sweeney says.
"We need universal health care coverage in this country, not stale ideas and savings account schemes."
Where Are the Good Jobs?
Bush’s economic program—centered on tax breaks for the rich and trade deals that export family-supporting manufacturing jobs—will continue to shrink the middle class and destroy families, workers say. The nation has lost 2 million good manufacturing jobs since Bush took office in 2001. In the same period, the rate of new jobs being created is the lowest since World War II—and more than 5 million more Americans live in poverty than did in 2000.
Sanders is one of America’s new poor. A widowed single father of three sons, Sanders is struggling to survive. He has used up all his retirement benefits in the past 18 months supporting his family, including a 16-year-old who has Down syndrome. The Social Security survivor payments for one son stopped when he recently turned 18. His other son is 30 years old.
Now Sanders and his 16-year-old son are trying to make it on $700 a month—$100 from Sanders’ veteran’s disability payment and $600 from his son’s survivor benefits payment. Sanders worries he may have to give up his house. And he worries about paying for his son’s needs that Medicare does not cover, such as speech therapy.
Bush’s address left Sanders little hope for government help in finding work. “I will just have to pray a lot and have faith that God will bring me a good job,” he says. “That’s all I have left.”
For Butero, the big issue Bush ignored in his speech was job safety. He believes the recent coal mine disasters in West Virginia are harbingers of future tragedies. Bush’s energy plan calls for increased dependence on coal-fired plants. While increased jobs are welcome, many of the hundreds hired likely will be inexperienced coal miners, Butero says. “My fear is that with big job growth, we could have new people coming in who are very inexperienced and could get hurt,” he says.
‘Time to Mobilize’
On issues such as jobs, health care and safety, the president’s speech showed a callousness and a lack of reality in the thinking in the White House, Sweeney says. And that should spark millions of working families to mobilize for the elections in November.
Butero says it is more important than ever for working families to vote their interests in November and regain control of Congress and the statehouses. “This is an opportunity where we need to get involved and build coalitions to get our candidates elected,” he says.
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