For Labor Day, Trump Attacks Workers And Social Security

Labor Day is a holiday designed to honor America’s workers. Instead, Donald Trump continues to attack them. Indeed, his administration is in the midst of a stealth effort that not only attacks workers but also our earned Social Security benefits and our federal government. The long-term goals of Trump and his Congressional allies are to destroy the labor movement, wreck the federal government, and end Social Security.

That may sound hyperbolic, but it is not. Trump’s latest stealth attack is not only anti-union, it will eventually make it so difficult to access Social Security benefits that some beneficiaries (particularly those attempting to qualify for their earned Social Security disability benefits) never receive them at all. Others will eventually claim their benefits, but only after an unnecessarily burdensome process of visiting field offices that are rarely open and have hours-long lines when they are.

For Republicans, that’s all according to plan. Trump and his Congressional allies are intentionally breaking our government so they can turn around and say that it doesn’t work.

View the complete August 31 article by Nancy Altman from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Trump’s awful Labor Day trifecta: Attacking workers, Social Security, and government itself

AlterNet logoLabor Day is a holiday designed to honor America’s workers. Instead, Donald Trump continues to attack them. Indeed, his administration is in the midst of a stealth effort that not only attacks workers but also our earned Social Security benefits and our federal government. The long-term goals of Trump and his Congressional allies are to destroy the labor movement, wreck the federal government, and end Social Security.

That may sound hyperbolic, but it is not. Trump’s latest stealth attack is not only anti-union, it will eventually make it so difficult to access Social Security benefits that some beneficiaries (particularly those attempting to qualify for their earned Social Security disability benefits) never receive them at all. Others will eventually claim their benefits, but only after an unnecessarily burdensome process of visiting field offices that are rarely open and have hours-long lines when they are.

For Republicans, that’s all according to plan. Trump and his Congressional allies are intentionally breaking our government so they can turn around and say that it doesn’t work.

View the complete August 30 article from The Washington Monthly on the AlterNet website here.

On Labor Day, More Than 60 Ways Trump Has Hurt Workers

As we honor the American labor movement, here is a look at some of the many ways Trump has hurt workers since becoming president:

  1. CEOs and wealthy shareholders continue to collect billions in profits from the Trump tax law, while real wages for workers have continued to decline.
  2. Workers are shouldering a rising share of federal tax revenue, while corporate tax payments are plunging toward record lows.
  3. Instead of using Trump’s tax cuts to benefit their workers, many corporations have actually laid off their workers.
  4. Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Kavanaugh, has often sided with corporations and powerful interests over workers.
  5. Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch to the the Supreme Court in order to strip rights away from workers and organized labor through the Janus decision.
  6. The Trump administration released new rules expanding short-term junk insurance plans, which have a long history of fraud and abuse that have left employers and employees with hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid medical bills.
  7. Trump signed executive orders to weaken federal unions by limiting time spent on union duties and charging unions rent, as well as to hurt unions’ ability to negotiate on workers’ behalf and deprive workers of their right to due process in the workplace.

Continue reading “On Labor Day, More Than 60 Ways Trump Has Hurt Workers”