This is big news from huffpo. Labor is meeting right now on possibly formally opposing the senate healthcare bill. Trumka from AFLCIO, SEIU and the Steelworkers appear fed up. They have poured lots of resources into Democratic campaigns and have worked hard to get a public option and h care reform. Now they are finding Lieberman and corporate crats, not progressive democrats, are being treated with the high respect and given what they want. Labor and progressives feel shunned and simply asked to swallow whatever Lieberman and Lincoln and Neslon want.
Should labor come out today and formally oppose the bill or declare they wont spend a dime to fight for something that isn’t reform then the WH and party have a crisis. This action would certainly bolster progressives and others. The dems need labor behind them for the 2010 elections. Labor has spent a near billion getting dems control of the govt. Should these openly oppose and organize against this sham of a bill it who be a major deal.
Maybe the WH needs to pay attention labor and liberals also. Not all concessions should go to Lieberman. I for one hope labor fights for the working folks of America for the best bill we can get and kill anything that is a mandate to buy private insurance unregulated in cost.
Labor Holds Emergency Meetings To Discuss Senate Bill, May Formally Oppose
...The AFL-CIO, likewise, is hosting an executive council meeting to discuss the legislation. Richard Trumka, the president of the union conglomerate, has been one of the foremost champions of a public plan. And on Tuesday, one of his close allies, Leo Gerard, the president United Steelworkers Union, hinted that opposition to the bill is in the offing.
"I believe that the House [of Representatives] has got a good bill," Gerard told MSNBC's Ed Schultz. "Hopefully it is going to have to go to committee, we're going to fight like crazy to make sure that we get a good bill. I'm not prepared to give up. I want to fight and get a good bill out of this. ...."
Labor's stance could have big ramifications. ....The labor community has already poured massive resources into the health care debate. Now there is a growing concern that the money and time may have not been well spent. As one high-ranking labor official emailed the Huffington Post:
"What is really frustrating folks here is that it's impossible to make and implement plans to pressure senators when the White House and Reid keep undermining the efforts no one from the outside can put any credible pressure on Senators because they know the White House will back that Senator up whatever they do. If the White House is going to cave to a Senator who spent the entire election campaigning with McCain and calling Obama a traitor how are we supposed to have any leverage over anyone?
"If Lieberman -- who has done so many horrible things directly to Obama -- can get away with this on Obama's signature issue it makes it infinitely harder for us to pressure senators, on issues in the future, because there is no fear of retribution or coercion from the White House. They only pressure progressives, not anyone in the middle."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...