GOP Candidates a ‘Fraternity of the 1 Percent’
As the Republican primary season unfolds it’s clear that the big losers in the contests occurring nationwide are working families. Leading GOP candidates have demonstrated that they will work to undermine workers’ rights, retirement security, and affordable health care and reverse Pres. Barack Obama’s successful efforts to jump-start the economy.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
“This year’s GOP field is the fraternity of the 1 percent,” said AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee. “Once voters get a good look at the candidates it becomes crystal clear that they are desperately out of touch with the real world concerns of America’s working families. How else can you explain Mitt ‘corporations are people too’ Romney’s $10,000 bet, or Newt’s shopping sprees at Tiffany?”
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has vowed to overturn the historic health care reform law that President Obama signed in 2010, despite the fact that it was modeled on Romney’s own health care plan for his state. He also wants to convert Medicaid into a federal block grant administered by states – a suggestion that would exacerbate state budget woes by reducing funding for states. And, he proposes to raise the retirement age to receive full Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Romney’s anti-labor positions also offer a chilling prospect for America’s working families. He supported Ohio’s anti-worker law, Senate Bill 5, which would have deprived public service workers of their right to have a voice on the job through collective bargaining. He even went to Ohio and visited a pro-Senate Bill 5 phonebank. By an overwhelming margin, voters last November sided with workers and repealed the law.
Romney also backed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign last year to deprive public service workers of their collective bargaining rights. His political action committee donated $5,000 to that effort.
Give to the Rich, Take from the Poor
Or take Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, who said he “would actually support a bill that says that we should not have public employee unions for the purposes of wages and benefits to be negotiated.” Moreover, he wants to cut $5 trillion in federal investment within five years and cut the corporate tax in half, a plan that will put even more people out of work and devastate America’s fragile economic recovery. He also supports passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would be an economic disaster, favors repeal of Obama’s health care reform law, and wants to roll back Dodd-Frank consumer protections intended to prevent another Wall Street meltdown.
“The GOP candidates do not have a single proposal that will help middle-class Americans struggling to get ahead,” adds President McEntee. “We need to create jobs, not tax cuts for millionaires. Americans are looking for leaders like Barack Obama who will pull this nation together to solve the jobs crisis.”
