Paterson Continues To Falter, This Time With Unions

With a nine percent increase in the state's budget passed in Albany, it is (tragically) amusing to watch Paterson lay union workers off of their state jobs. Paterson demanded that workers relinquish a 3% (cost of living?) raise. While non-union workers agreed, union workers did not and they'll be let go because of it. While it may look good that the governor is making some spending cuts, they are in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons.

From The Times-Union:

As a result of killing the raises to the management/confidential employees, the state will save $32 million over two years, and Paterson won't have to reach the 8,900-layoff target he previously set.

Civil Service Employees Association President Danny Donohue said Paterson's actions are outrageous. "What Governor Paterson is saying is that the highest-paid personnel will not be included as part of his cost-cutting moves. He is also saying that the brunt of his reductions will be on the lower paid employees who actually do the work of the state every day."

As outrageous as it was for Paterson to demand these cuts while dramatically increasing the size of the budget, his response to the controversy was even worse:

Paterson released a letter to all state employees about the situation, emphasizing that unions refused "modest concessions" — giving up the raises and lagging paychecks — to share in sacrifices others are making.

"Regrettably, however, our state's public employee unions refused to consider concessions at all," Paterson wrote. "I was left with no alternative but to implement a work force reduction plan." He said he directed all state agency heads to implement their reductions by July 1.

"We cannot eliminate our state's deficit without layoffs," he said.

The problem is that not everyone has been sacrificing in the manner that Paterson claimed would happen. It was with a great effort against the wishes of the governor that a fair tax is now a part of the equation. The seriousness of his tone about making cuts did not pan out with the reality of the budget and the increases within. Paterson should have made sure state employees, especially union employees were taken care of. The whole matter now stinks of hypocrisy and what's worse, Paterson alienated the public employees union in the process.

I know that the state party is giving Paterson until November to straighten up, but I believe that this is the time for Paterson to realize what he's done to his reelection chances and make the smart decision to bow out early. As long as Cuomo follows some good advice, he can sit in Paterson's chair in less than two years time.

Job Numbers Continue To Get Worse....And Worse

No one has to tell you that things are getting bad out there in our economy, but there is plenty of information to prove it. The Bush Administration and John McCain tried to tell us that the fundamentals of the economy were strong, but thankfully most of us saw beyond their obfuscation of the truth. Now that Wall Street has been erratically swinging (mostly down) for two or three months, we are beginning to see how it affects everyone outside of the Financial District.

From CNBC:

U.S. employers axed payrolls by a shocking 533,000 in November for the weakest performance in 34 years, government data on Friday showed, as the recession inflicted a mounting toll on the U.S. labor market.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent last month in the highest reading since 1993, compared with 6.5 percent in October, after widespread losses across the country's major industry sectors.[...]

That meant 199,000 more jobs were lost in September and October than previously thought and the total reduction in U.S. nonfarm payrolls for last three months was 1.256 million, with almost 2 million shed in the year so far.

Service-providing businesses alone shed 370,000 jobs in November, following a loss of 153,000 jobs the month before.

Yeah you read that right, over 1.25 million jobs lost in three months. Republicans in power avoided these brewing problems for years (as did neo-liberal Democrats) and now it is time to begin to repair the damage. Barack Obama can't possibly take the helm soon enough. The time for change can barely wait for January 20th, if only he could have started on November 5th.

While Congress Cheers The Bailout...

Today the Congress approved one of the biggest blank checks in history. How could the legislature get behind Wall Street and George Bush's proposal to give our money to these crooks and liars? Well it's really easy actually, just add another $110 billion dollars worth of treats and you'll get the extra votes you need.

From Smart Money:

Some relief could be on the horizon for contracted credit markets if the House on Friday votes for the bailout plan approved by the Senate late Wednesday. While most of our pundits concede the necessity of a rescue in some form, the unappetizing aspects of legislative sausage-making that pushed the price tag for taxpayers up to as much as $850 billion could prolong resistance to the bill.

"What started out as a two-and-a-half page proposal is now hundreds of pages and includes 'bells and whistles' (earmarks) such as: tax benefits for film and television productions, stockcar racetrack owners, wooden arrows designed for use by children, six pages worth of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident; and tax earmark extenders for Virgin Island and Puerto Rican rum-makers, American Samoa, mine rescue teams and mine safety equipment," Charles Schwab analyst Liz Ann Sonders wrote Thursday. "No, I'm not kidding about this!"

Washington analysts like Tom Gallagher, who tracks policy for the ISI Group, began handicapping the House vote like horse track habitués, and decided the odds were in favor of passage by the House.

"We believe the GOP leadership has secured enough votes to pass the bill," he wrote in a Thursday policy report. "But the Democrats expect to pick up a few votes as well, which should produce a majority for the TARP. But the package hasn't changed much and we don't expect very many of the 'no' votes to change their votes, so while we think it will pass, the vote will be close."

So the damn thing passed and now Wall Street will have our their filthy money and Congress can say they got us some goodies that will cost us even more. So while Congress cheers, the rest of the nation is left with more sobering news, such as the fact that the economy lost another 159,000 jobs in September alone.

Of course, Mr. Anti-Earmark Money himself voted for this, which is no surprise to anyone because he has the uncanny ability of being for something in one sentence and changing his position in the next. He could care less about what happens to the rest of us as long as he gets to be President and gives large tax breaks to his wife and the wealthy elite like her.

I guess we should be happy with the pork we got, right? I think I'll get into the wooden arrow business or even better, make rum down in Puerto Rico. Heaven knows we needed that garbage! Maybe I'll just say f*&k it and paint, perhaps something like the latest Banksy piece on Broadway and Howard right now.

Of course, there is some good stuff in there I'll admit. Increasing the FDIC limit to $250K is a nice thing. Honestly though, this is akin to letting the water out of a manmade lake in order to save a couple of yachts while the middle class's S.S. Dingy will be sitting stuck in the muck at the bottom of the pit.

Obama Rips McCain Over The Economy

McCain can make up whatever he wants when he's on stage, but the only candidate to speak the truth about what's going on in America is right here: