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Making Government Work for Workers

By TChris, Section Other Politics
Posted on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 03:27:59 PM EST
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by TChris

As fall political campaigns begin to capture the attention of voters, the days after Labor Day will give Democrats the opportunity to discuss the many ways in which life for workers can improve if Republicans are reduced to a minority status in the federal legislature. (Some changes would likely encounter a presidential veto, but that problem can be remedied in another two years.)

  • Democrats can resist the appointment of federal judges who are hostile to laws that protect the rights of employees.

Democrats can give workers something more to celebrate in Labor Days to come. Feel free to add to this list in the comments.

< Labor Day Open Thread | NYT: Republicans to Abandon Immigration Reform >

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    • Making Government Work for Workers | 3 comments (3 topical)
    Re: Making Government Work for Workers (none / 0) (#1)
    by terryhallinan on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 05:45:08 PM EST
    by eliminating the $90,000 income cap on social security payroll taxes, Democrats can make the Social Security Trust Fund solvent while assuring that high income wage earners pay the same percentage of their earnings to FICA as does the average worker.
    Surely that much should have been done long ago but punishing wages while excusing capital is an obvious problem. "The power to tax is the power to destroy," the Supreme Court said long ago. Liberals especially should heed that. It is a farce in the first place to talk of keeping the Social Security Trust Fund solvent. That has allowed the government to tax workers to pay for everything else while pretending money is being saved for their retirement by putting IOU's in the fund. Best, Terry

    Re: Making Government Work for Workers (none / 0) (#3)
    by bernarda on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 02:11:26 AM EST
    "The fact that high income workers don't get the same percentage of their incomes as benefits as do lower income workers isn't pertinent here?" Not really. Another measure of the personal economic situation is wealth, not just income. By that measure, we see that inequalities are much greater than imagined. Now Bush wants to eliminate the estate tax which will benefit the one percent of the richest people. http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/stratification/income&wealth.htm "These data suggest that wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small number of families. The wealthiest 1 percent of households owns roughly 33.4% of the nation's net worth, the top 10% of households owns over 71%, and the bottom 40% of households owns less than 1%."

    Re: Making Government Work for Workers (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 03:07:02 PM EST
    "The fact that high income workers don't get the same percentage of their incomes as benefits as do lower income workers isn't pertinent here?" I always thought of SS as a govt. run insurance program. It is to provide a minimum level of lifestyle, only. Relatively speaking, the premium is capped at around $90,000 per year salary. Higher income people pay less, percentage-wise, than lower income people. The abuse spoken of by Terry is not in the "taxation" (which is better thought of as premiums) but the ability for Congress to "borrow" from the "fund". Only if one intends to never honor the IOUs, would one try to get the fund "amended".

    Making Government Work for Workers | 3 comments (3 topical)