Another Labor Day Perspective-- Bill Hedrick Tells Us Where We Go From Here

Bill Hedrick was one of the first candidates Blue America endorsed this cycle. He's running for the southern California seat currently held by serial real estate swindler Ken Calvert. Bill reminds us that Labor Day isn't just about Hot dogs and hamburgers, barbeques, beer, parades and picnics. Since 1894 it's been a day off from work specifically to honor American labor. He writes that "today, working families in California’s 44th District need more than holiday honors. Parades and picnics are not going to change the reality in which we live. Free trade agreements like NAFTA have destroyed jobs and opportunity and gutted our economy. Un-American corporations, quietly working against our national interest, have exported jobs of working families. Manufacturing in the United States is on economic life support, as are our families whose salaries are eroded and benefits battered to swell the corporate 'bottom line'.”

To get us back on track, we need more than Labor Day good wishes-- we need a plan.  The economic agenda for 2010 must be recovery and reinvestment in America. To accomplish this, I propose an aggressive, multifaceted solution:

• Tax credits for private sector job creation

• Tax credits for companies that maintain an American workforce

• Reconstruction of our infrastructure, including roads, bridges, water and sewer systems

• Public/private partnerships to vastly expand and improve efficiency of clean energy technologies

• Mitigate entrepreneurial risk to spur development of the innovation economy


Further reform of the banking/credit system:

• Break up institutions that are “too big to fail”

• Reintroduce firewalls between securities, insurance and lending institutions

• Tax speculative financial transactions

• Pass a 15% cap on credit card interest

Stop bleeding jobs:

• Withdrawal from and/or dramatic renegotiation of trade agreements (NAFTA, WTO, etc.) that favor wealthy and corporate interests at the expense of the middle class and working families

• Create fair trade agreements with partners who support appropriate labor and environmental standards

• Rebuild important manufacturing sectors in America-- stop off-shoring manufacturing that undermines our national security.

A good way to celebrate Labor Day-- above and beyond the picnics and parades... contributing to replacing Ken Calvert with Bill Hedrick. You can do it right here at Blue America.

Maybe President Obama is paying attention to what Bill has been saying-- or maybe someone just stuffed a rag in Tiny Tim Geithner's face-- but according to this morning's NYTimes, the president is about to propose a massive, long-overdue public works program to pump "as much as $50 billion in government spending to start up a long-term public works plan emphasizing transportation projects-- roads, rail and airport runways." This is exactly what hard-pressed areas like the Inland Empire districts need and yet while you have local leaders like Bill Hedrick, Beth Krom, Steve Pougnet and Pat Meagher applauding the effort, Washington political hacks like Ken Calvert, John Campbell, Mary Bono-Mack and Jerry Lewis are reflexively attacking it. Obstructionist orange golfer John Boehner put right-wing opposition into words, posturing: "As the American people, facing near double-digit unemployment, mark Labor Day by asking, where are the jobs, the White House has chosen to double-down on more of the same failed ‘stimulus’ spending... We don’t need more government ‘stimulus’ spending-– we need to end Washington Democrats’ out-of-control spending spree, stop their tax hikes, and create jobs by eliminating the job-killing uncertainty that is hampering our small businesses.”

Mr. Obama’s plan would call for investment over six years, the White House says it would be front-loaded with an initial investment of $50 billion in taxpayer money, to help create jobs in as early as next year. The administration says it would work with Congress to find ways to pay for the plan, so that it would not add to the nation’s rising deficit. One possibility would be to cut existing subsidies for oil and gas exploration and production. Historically, transportation projects have been paid for largely with dedicated taxes such as those on gasoline.

White House officials said Mr. Obama wanted to rebuild 15,000 miles of roads, construct and maintain 4,000 miles of railway – enough track to span the continent-- and rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of airport runways while putting in place a system that would reduce travel time and airport delays.

The president will also call for what the White House is describing as an “infrastructure bank” that would focus on paying for national and regional transportation projects.

The $787 billion economic recovery act passed by Congress at the beginning of Mr. Obama’s presidency already included considerable spending on roads and other transportation infrastructure. But the White House says Mr. Obama’s new plan is different, because it would focus on a “long-term vision” as well as create jobs in the near term.

Since the end of last year, when the long-term surface transportation legislation expired, infrastructure investments have been continued on a temporary basis, even as a trust fund that finances them has fallen into insolvency, the White House said. Mr. Obama’s plan would call on Congress to enact a long-term reauthorization of that bill.

UPDATE: Weekends

God created a day of rest so it was hard for the ruling elite to fight it-- but they certainly did fight against the concept of a 2-day weekend. Labor unions beat them back. Do you like weekends? Vote for union-friendly candidates like Bill Hedrick. Or just give me a sopor: