The words Barack Obama uses are deeply meaningful to organized labor. He speaks to union members on a gut level about concepts that define their lives: unity and brotherhood.

Listen to what he says in his closing argument speech:

“Each of us has a responsibility to work hard and look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to our fellow citizens. That’s what’s been lost these last eight years – our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose. And that’s what we need to restore right now.”

That’s the theme of serving as a brother’s keeper that Obama detailed at the Democratic National Convention. Read the rest of this entry »

Selling and servicing any Medicare-related products, if done correctly, is a very labor-intensive process that requires great patience, compassion, specialized training and knowledge of the many facets of the Medicare program.

NAHU has long advocated for improved accountability and oversight in the Medicare marketing area, including the institution of reasonable level commissions over time to eliminate incentives for agents to “churn”—moving customers from plan to plan without regard for the best interests of consumers. Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday’s economic news is not a surprise to working families. We can only hope it will be jarring enough to the White House and Republican leaders in Congress that they will finally agree with Democratic leaders that we need a genuine economic stimulus package now, in the next 30 days, to boost our economy before already struggling, hard working families suffer even more from a downward spiraling economy. We call on Sen. McCain to join Sen. Obama in championing a short-term economic recovery package during the lame duck session of Congress in mid-November. And we call on President Bush to announce that he will, in fact, sign this legislation. Read the rest of this entry »

What was interesting in today’s testimony is that there was a consensus report for an immediate economic stimulus package to get the economy moving. We have taken steps to stabilize our financial markets and with the stock market going up and credit becoming released– not in the way that we’d like– we’ve seen some improvement in that area. We need to improve our overall economy. We need to keep that economic engine going. This hearing was for an economic stimulus package, and in addition there was the report from USA Today, where the overwhelming majority of economists that they interviewed about the need for a stimulus package today called for a quick stimulus immediately, even before the president in sworn in in the new Congress, to act as soon possible to move a stimulus forward. And they called for a number between $300 and $450 billion dollars– larger than the one we had earlier. They feel that you need this type of input into our overall economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s hearing on the Joint Economic Committee was very critical in helping Congress understand what is happening on Main Street and how important it is that we have an economic stimulus package as soon as possible. I live in inner city Baltimore, and I talk to my constituents every day about how they are suffering in the weakening economy. Not all of my colleagues have this opportunity.

Yesterday, we clearly saw the need to act with urgency before problems the bad gets worse. One panel of witnesses gave us the opportunity to see how everyday, hardworking people are suffering. It is important too that in many instances, these families are not suffering by any fault of their own; yet, they find themselves standing in economic quicksand. These men and women are not looking for a handout—they are just looking for a hand to help them get through these difficult moments as they suffer from other people’s recklessness.
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There’s a reason New Hampshire Teamsters are going all out for Carol Shea-Porter’s re-election to the 1st Congressional District: She’s one of them.

She doesn’t wear a $150,000 wardrobe.

Carol came to the UPS terminal in Manchester on Tuesday wearing a windbreaker and slacks. She talked with Teamster drivers before they were dispatched for the day. She told our members that she wants to help the bottom 99 percent of Americans – which includes her. She has a mortgage, kids in college with student loans and a 401(k) that’s tanking like everyone else’s.
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There is a lot of talk about a second economic stimulus package to put our economy back on track. I think the best stimulus would be to find ways to invest more money in infrastructure.  Investing in infrastructure is one of the best ways to create and sustain good paying jobs.  And by focusing on projects that are ready to begin construction, the American economy would receive an immediate boost and the country’s crumbling infrastructure would receive much-needed improvements.

We need to make sure our country’s potential economic growth isn’t choked by aging freeways, 20th century public transportation and telecommunications structures that aren’t ready for the demands of the 21st century economy. Investing in infrastructure projects not only stimulates the economy in the short term, but it puts in place the framework we need to grow the economy and help keep our country safe well into the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Judicial Watch has issued a request to the Illinois State Board of Elections to investigate whether the Obama campaign’s planned Election Day text messages would violate a state law that prevents electioneering in polling places.  Judicial Watch plans to issue similar requests to election officials in other states.

According to media reports, Senator Obama’s campaign sent text messages to voters on primary day in New Hampshire encouraging them to vote for Senator Obama.  The Obama campaign apparently intends to conduct a similar text message campaign on Election Day.  Given that these messages will likely be received and read by voters on their cell phones inside polling places, and perhaps inside voting booths, the messages may violate an Illinois state law against electioneering within polling places. Read the rest of this entry »

I think the people on the panel did an excellent job in preparation. I read through all of the testimony beforehand, and I was particularly interested in the various opinions about infrastructure investment, particularly from the gentleman from American Enterprise.

I’m concerned on two levels: number one, the stimulus package; whether it’s effective and whether it’s timely, because from what I can see as of last night, the president made some statements yesterday and Nancy Pelosi made some statements last week, I’m very concerned that part of that $700 billion dollars which is now in the hands of banks, is simply being used to buy other banks, not to get money out there to stimulate loans to people, lend to people. That is simply not happening. Read the rest of this entry »

More than two-thirds of the GDP are driven by working people. So, if you have deflation, you see demand going down, and you see demand going down because people’s income is going down, and in order to deal with that you’ve got to focus on bringing people’s income up– more jobs, better income, more stability for working people. Read the rest of this entry »