AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka congratulated
President Obama and the rest of the Democratic leadership Thursday on
ending the government shutdown and lifting the debt ceiling. He called
the Republicans' demands "extortion" and said the Democrats were right
to resist them.
"Finally — after more than two weeks of government shutdown, with
hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work and billions of dollars
in avoidable losses — Republican leaders have stood down. While it is
good news that we have avoided a crisis, we all know that it should
never have happened. No party or faction inside a party should hold our
economy hostage to extract political gains. We commend President Obama,
Majority Leader Reid, and the leadership of the Democratic party for
standing firm and resisting extortion," Trumka said.
The Big Labor leader said Congress should now return to "urgent
national priorities" such as immigration reform (which unions believe
will expand their membership), new federal infrastructure spending
(which will benefit building and construction trade unions) and ending
outsourcing (which lowers labor costs by moving business activity
abroad).
Trumka's comments are somewhat ironic given that the original goal of
the shutdown was to defund the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, or
at least wring significant concessions to the law from Obama. (The final
congressional deal included only a minor amendment firming up the law's
income verification provision.)
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Friday, October 18, 2013
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