The Wedge

Hello brothers, and thank you for taking the time to visit our little blog. I've noticed that more fans have discovered us recently, some from as far away as Europe! Alright, Blamers nation. Keep on truckin.

Today saw the much anticipated meeting between President Obama and leaders of organized labor over the placement of taxes in the new health care bill. The current bill employs the so-called "Cadillac tax" to help pay for the coverage of millions of Americans who currently have none. Unions, progressives, and many House Democrats oppose these taxes because of the heavy burden placed on the middle class.

I wanted to bring to your attention a snippet from a speech given earlier today by Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

The tax on benefits in the Senate bill pits working Americans who need health care for their families against working Americans struggling to keep health care for their families. This is a policy designed to benefit elites—in this case, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and irresponsible employers, at the expense of the broader public. It’s the same tragic pattern that got us where we are today, and I can assure you the labor movement is fighting with everything we’ve got to win health care reform that is worthy of the support of working men and women.

[snip]

Let me be even blunter. In 1992, workers voted for Democrats who promised action on jobs, who talked about reining in corporate greed and who promised health care reform. Instead, we got NAFTA, an emboldened Wall Street – and not much more. We swallowed our disappointment and worked to preserve a Democratic majority in 1994 because we knew what the alternative was. But there was no way to persuade enough working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn’t tell the difference between the two parties. Politicians who think that working people have it too good – too much health care, too much Social Security and Medicare, too much power on the job – are inviting a repeat of 1994.

These new taxes are already firmly established in the Senate bill and it is very unlikely that they will change. Trumka - and progressives around the nation - know this; the speech serves, however, as a fierce rebuke and warning to the Democratic Party that it cannot continue to ally itself with big business without alienating large swaths of its base. In nine months a tiny fraction of Americans will vote for all 435 House Representatives and 36 Senators. Trumka's speech today may prove to be yet another harbinger of this year's upcoming election.