Are you better off today than four years ago? Will you be better off in 2008?
By SHERRY HALBROOK
Voters must consider a broad spectrum of issues — from national defense and foreign policy, to jobs, taxes, retirement security, health care, and education — when they go to the polls Tuesday, November 2, to decide who will lead this country for the next four years.

“PEF and most U.S. labor unions have endorsed John Kerry for president and John Edwards for vice president because they offer the best hope for reversing the damage George W. Bush has done to this country, both at home and abroad,” said PEF President Roger Benson.

In voting to endorse Kerry, PEF Executive Board members focused primarily on the things that make the biggest day-to-day differences in the lives of PEF members.

Debates (All debates are 9-10:30 p.m.) Presidential: Fri., Oct. 8 and Wed., Oct. 13 VP: Tuesday, Oct. 5

Here is how the two candidates stack up on some of those issues:

Public Services George W. Bush: • Supports reducing the public workforce and greater privatization of public services. In November 2002, the Bush administration announced a goal of privatizing 850,000 federal jobs, and in 2003 it changed the rules for contracting out federal services to give private companies the advantage over public employees. • Plans to sell the U.S. Postal Service and supports privatization of Amtrak and the air-traffic-control system for the nation’s airports. • His economic, tax and budget policies have plunged state and city governments into the worst budget deficits and fiscal crises in 60 years, resulting in layoffs and slashed services. His tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans account for 37 percent of the state budget deficits, which total $200 billion over the last three years and another $90 billion next year. • Proposes still deeper cuts in federal aid for education, job training, Head Start, nutrition for women and infants, and medical research and science. • Tried to cut $11 billion in 2001 from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and he proposed a 30 percent cut in federal aid for children’s hospitals in 2004. Jobs and the economy George W. Bush: • Adopted policies that have driven the country into its deepest-ever budget deficit, totalling trillions of dollars. • Would continue his tax cuts. Over the next 10 years, 50 percent of the cuts will go to those in the top 1 percent of annual income — $1 million and up.  • Says his tax-cuts are reviving the economy and restoring jobs. However, according to the U.S. Labor Department, unemployment has reached its highest rate in nine years and more than 3 million private-sector jobs have been lost. In fact, Bush has the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Nearly two-thirds of the jobs created since August 2003 are in low- and minimum-wage industries. • New York has lost 139,000 jobs since Bush took office in 2001, and 103,300 New Yorkers’ (among 1.1 million nationwide) have exhausted their unemployment benefits. Bush proposes to spend $1 billion less in fiscal 2005 for job training and employment than was budgeted for 2001, when he took office. • Between 300,000 and 500,000 professional jobs in the U.S. have been shipped offshore  since Bush took office. • Continues to support $60 billion in tax breaks for companies that have laid off American workers and shipped the jobs off shore. In his Economic Report of the President, 2004, Bush states, “When a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than to provide it domestically.” • Changed labor regulations in August to exclude millions of workers from overtime eligibility and allow employers to substitute comp time for overtime pay and exclude certain kinds of pay from inclusion in calculation of overtime pay. • Workers’ wages have risen 0.3 percent under Bush (through March 2004), while corporate profits increased 28.4 percent. Wages fell to a two-year low in May 2004. Workers’ rights George W. Bush: • Appointed the majority of members on the National Labor Relations Board who are consistently hostile to labor, and reversed a 2000 decision that gave collective-bargaining rights to graduate students working at private universities and colleges. These appointees are now targeting card-check and neutrality procedures that allow workers to more easily and quickly organize unions. • Denied the right to union representation for federal employees at the Department of Homeland Security and 60,000 airport screeners, and proposes to gut civil service rules for Defense Department employees. And he proposes to destroy bargaining rights for postal workers. • Opposes the Employee Free Choice Act to protect workers trying to form or join a union from management harassment.   Job safety, health care George W. Bush: • Moved quickly after taking office in 2001 to cancel federal ergonomics standards that PEF members had fought for and which were adopted during the Clinton administration.  • Led repeal of the country’s first standard for repetitive-motion injuries in the workplace.  • Cut funding by 65 percent for worker-safety training in his 2005 budget proposal. • Blocked legislation to prohibit airlines from sending repair work off shore to poorly inspected foreign aircraft-maintenance facilities. • The most recent U.S. Labor Department reports show workplace injuries continue to rise, particularly for groups such as Hispanic workers and miners. • Nearly 44 million Americans have no health insurance, up from 40 million when Bush took office. Employers in growth industries are now less likely to provide health coverage for their employees, than employers in industries that are not growing or are losing ground.  • Proposes to lighten the health care burden on companies by having employees pay for their first $1,000 in annual health care costs. The average annual cost of family health insurance has gone up by $2,700 and the worker’s share of premiums has gone up nearly 50 percent during his presidency. Retirement security George W. Bush: • Supports privatizing at least part of Social Security funds to allow workers to manage their investment. However, administrative costs would rise from the current level of 1 percent to between 12 percent and 14 percent. • Would repeal some protections of workers’ retirement security. He would allow mutual funds and other investment managers to advise workers on their 401k account investments, although these managers are commonly paid to sell specific investment products such as stocks and bonds. • Appointed a Social Security privatization commission that recommends cutting benefits by more than 17 percent for workers who are now age 37 or older. By the time today’s 2-year-olds retired, benefits would have dropped 41 percent. • Led enactment of a Medicare prescription drug law that forces seniors to pay more for their medications and creates a large gap in coverage. The law prohibits Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices and encourages employers to drop retiree health insurance. • According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Bush’s Medicare law will cost $134 billion more over the next decade than Bush’s cost estimates to Congress when it debated the legislation. • Opposes allowing people in the U.S. to buy prescription drugs for 33 percent to 80 percent less in Canada.

Public Services John Kerry: • Says Bush’s policies that have forced states to cut spending for essential programs and services and raise taxes are exactly what should not be done in an economic downturn. He supported the fiscal-relief package recently sent to states by Congress, and says, “We must do more.” • Would direct more federal aid to states and proposes new aid to help states overcome fiscal deficits and maintain public services. He would invest $25 billion annually in education, public safety and health services. And he supports rebuilding schools and highways and greater support for health care and education, including full funding for Head Start. • Voted to restore $31 billion in cuts Bush made to highway aid last year. • Says improvements in infrastructure, such as highways, bridges and high-speed rail, are long overdue, because they help create jobs, move products and strengthen communities. He also would invest in improvements for local water and sewer systems. • Would boost aid to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and expand Medicaid coverage to ensure every child in the U.S. has health coverage. Jobs and the economy John Kerry: • Announced a plan to restore and add a total of 649,000 jobs in New York state over the next four years and to replace every job lost during the Bush administration. • Would roll back the tax cut for people in the top 1 percent income bracket, lower taxes on the middle class and create tax incentives for companies to keep and create jobs in the U.S.  • Would ban federal contracts with companies that move off shore. • Would reduce the federal deficit and improve confidence and investment in U.S. companies. And he would boost federal aid to states for rebuilding infrastructure that supports and stimulates economic growth. • Would focus on containing health care costs.  • Would leverage federal resources through state-federal partnerships and guaranteed financing and bonding, and would reinvigorate federal investment in housing construction and financing with a federal Housing Trust Fund.  • Would establish programs to put U.S. know-how at the forefront on environmental cleanup and new energy sources to lay the groundwork for a generation or more of high paying jobs. • Would develop a coordinated strategy to keep the industrial sector strong.  • Would double funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and create a new Manufacturing Business Investment Corp. to provide venture capital for new manufacturers.  • Would require the inclusion and stronger enforcement of “core environmental and labor standards” in all trade agreements with other countries to end child labor, improve standards for all workers and address global environmental problems. • Proposes legislation to automatically raise the minimum wage as the cost-of-living increases. And he would expand eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit to help more families with full-time workers escape poverty. • Would fight to expand eligibility for unemployment benefits, to increase the benefits and to subsidize 75 percent of health insurance premiums under COBRA for workers who lose their jobs. • Opposes Bush administration rules that let employers substitute comp time for paid overtime and exclude certain forms of compensation from the calculation of overtime pay. Workers’ rights John Kerry: • Has a strong record of support for workers’ rights, including bargaining rights for federal employees at the Department of Homeland Security. • Would roll back the anti-labor policies of the Bush Administration and support the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better pay, working conditions and benefits. • Supports the Employee Free Choice Act, and he supported a bill that would have given union rights to firefighters, police and other public-safety officers in 18 states that currently deny them that right. Job safety, health care John Kerry: • Would boost health and safety protections for workers, step up OSHA inspections, order the Justice Department to vigorously prosecute the worst violators and reinstate the standards for ergonomics. • Voted to preserve the federal standard for workplace repetitive-motion injuries.  • Wrote a federal whistleblower-protection law for workers who report or provide information on possible airline safety violations to the federal government. • Would extend affordable health care coverage to 95 percent of Americans, while lowering private health insurance costs.   Retirement security John Kerry: • Would strengthen and enforce rules to guard pension funds from raids by employers. • Proposes new protections for pension funds invested in the mutual funds market. • Supports strengthening Social Security. • Opposes any privatization of Social Security. • Calls for legislation to revamp the new Medicare prescription drug law to allow the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. • Would also amend the Medicare law to encourage employers to maintain health care benefits for retirees, rather than ending these benefits. • Supports amending the Medicare law to forbid measures that force seniors into HMOs. • Supports legislation to allow people in the U.S. to buy prescription drugs in Canada, where they can save up to 80 percent on some medications. Want more info? Check out these Web sites: www.votenov2.com www.georgebush.com www.johnkerry.com www.fightingforthefuture.org www.aft.org/legislation/votenet www.vote-smart.org

This message was paid for by the PEF Committee on Political Education (COPE) and was not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. You may reach PEF COPE at PO Box 12414, Albany, NY 12212

The Communicator October 2004

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