For Immediate Release
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
AFSCME Calls on Bush to Put America First
Nation's Largest Public Service Employees Union Says it is Not Too Late For President Bush to Do the Right Thing
Statement from Gerald W. McEntee, President, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
As President Bush delivers his State of the Union address tonight, he should not tell us that the state of the union is strong. Over the last two years the country President Bush has led has been in crisis.
Our nation has 1.7 million more Americans out of work. We've lost trillions in our retirement savings because of plummeting stock prices and corporate scandals. Health insurance costs are skyrocketing at nearly six times the rate of inflation. States are facing the worst financial crisis since World War II, threatening education, health care and public safety.
The President's recent economic stimulus plan doesn't provide assistance to the states, which are collectively facing a $189 billion deficit for fiscal years 2002-2004. President Bush must ensure that the budget he's releasing next week also doesn't forget states and local communities.
And the president should not continue to mislead the American people tonight by claiming that he has improved homeland security. The Bush record shows that he has abandoned America's first responders. Bush's much talked about $3.5 billion in funding for first responders is actually a bookkeeping trick that looks a lot like something from the Arthur Anderson playbook. The numbers change in the ledger, but in actuality there is no net increase in the amount of federal funding for cities, counties and states.
The state of the union can be strong, but we must put politics aside and put America first. We must provide aid to states to help them balance their budgets and avoid cuts in children's health care and unemployment insurance. We must invest in job creation, roads and bridges; fund schools and improve health care, education and job training. And we must put resources into the hands of our firefighters, EMTs and other first responders working to secure our homeland.
The President should not use his State of the Union address to promote his "leave no millionaire behind" economic program, but should make it clear that he is going to take the necessary steps to pull America out of the current Bush Recession and finally put America first.
AFSCME is the nation's largest public service employees and health care workers union with more than 1.3 million members.
