Friday, May 8, 2009

The Audacity of Hope

U.S. threatens to rescind stimulus money over wage cuts

The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.

The news comes as state lawmakers are already facing a severe cash crisis, with the state at risk of running out of money in July.

The wages at issue involve workers who care for some 440,000 low-income disabled and elderly Californians. The workers, who collectively contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to the influential Service Employees International Union and the United Domestic Workers, will see the state's contribution to their wages cut from a maximum of $12.10 per hour to a maximum of $10.10.

The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.


Nothing like the letting the Unions have their say. More evidence of Obama's "new" type of politics that will bring us all together. In his world we actually are "All Socialists Now".

On tax day this year (April 15, 2009), Barack Obama gave a speech where "he pledged to stop giving tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs overseas". It echoed a theme that he had repeatedly pledged during his campaign.

Today this hit the news:

Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas

The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company’s new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.

According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double.


So Obama doesn't actually want tax breakes for companies to outsource jobs. No, no, apparently he is more in favor of direct subsidies instead!

We are giving GM 16 billion to outsource jobs. Wonder what would happen if Bush had done that. And we just gave Chrysler 10 billion so we could give the company to the Italians. It is all making sense now. Obama can't give our money or our jobs away fast enough. Sphere: Related Content

1 comment:

Captain Jack said...

We give them billions to ship jobs overseas. I don't see the point in that.