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From the AFL-CIO blog--Trumka: Senate Health Care Bill Must Change to Be Real Reform:

The health care bill being considered by the U.S. Senate is inadequate and too tilted toward the insurance industry, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.

In recent days, as the Senate has debated health care reform, small numbers of senators have held health care hostage by threatening to block a vote. The new proposal by the Senate puts the interests of insurance companies—and senators who would rather look out for the insurance companies—ahead of real reform.

Trumka said the top priority now is to fight over the rest of the legislative process to fix the bill and make sure we can pass real health care reform:

The labor movement has been fighting for health care for nearly 100 years and we are not about to stop fighting now, when it really matters. But for this health care bill to be worthy of the support of working men and women, substantial changes must be made. The AFL-CIO intends to fight on behalf of all working families to make those changes and win health care reform that is deserving of the name.

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Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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From the AFL-CIO Blog--Trumka on MSNBC: Jobs Summit a Good Step:

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said tonight on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” he was encouraged by the White House Jobs Summit earlier today and that he’s looking forward to working on the urgent goal of job creation.

Trumka told host Ed Schultz that in the discussions among President Obama, administration officials, economists and business leaders, there was a broad consensus that we need to fix an economy that has shed millions of jobs. Trumka said of the jobs summit:

I think it worked really well. The president really does understand the urgency of job creation. He said it on numerous occasions: jobs, jobs, jobs. I think his staff and Cabinet understand the importance of job creation. A lot of good ideas came out today that are usable. If we turn them around real quick, we can start putting Americans back to work in weeks.

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The AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka talks to Alison Stewart about their new ad on health care reform. Trumka was asked if the rumors were true that Raum Emanuel put pressure the union not to run the ad. He said they were not true and that is not the way the Obama administration operates.

From the AFL-CIO Blog-Real Health Care Reform or Bust:

The health care reform legislation approved yesterday by the Senate Finance Committee is “deeply flawed.” In full-page ads in the Washington Post, Politico and other dailies, union leaders say that comprehensive health care reform that brings down costs, improves quality and guarantees coverage for all “is closer than ever.”

But we aren’t there yet. The Senate Finance Committee bill is deeply flawed.

Not only does the Finance Committee’s bill tax workers’ health care benefits, it does not include a public health insurance option. This summer, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) approved health care reform legislation that includes a public option and does not tax workers’ health care benefits. Senate negotiators are now trying to merge the two bills into a finished product for a vote by the full Senate.

The ad spells out the unions’ “bottom line” for a final health care reform bill.

•A public health plan is essential for reform.

•Health care reform has to ease cost burden on individuals and families, not worsen it.

•Employers have to pay a fair share of costs.

•Health care can’t be paid for by a new tax on middle-class benefits.

As the ad points out, a public option would lower premiums for everyone, reduce the cost of health care reform by $100 billion and set up competition to break the stranglehold of a handful of big insurance companies that have made 96 percent of metropolitan markets uncompetitive.

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Chris Matthews talks to the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka about the need for at minimum to have a public option in the health care bill. Trumka does a great job despite Matthews' badgering and taking a shot at union members by asking him if they're going to "pummel" (Democratic Senators who won't go along) during the interview. Way to advance that "union thugs" meme there Chris.

Matthews: Can you pass a bill like that?

Trumka: Absolutely.

Matthews: How?

Trumka: We’re working on it.

Matthews: Where are you going to get the votes in the Senate?

Trumka: Well I think the President coming out helps us.

Matthews: You think you can get sixty votes in the Senate?

Trumka: I do.

Matthews: Where? Name the Republicans. Name one Republican.

Trumka: Snowe.

Matthews: Okay, name another one.

Trumka: Well, we don’t need another one do we?

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President Obama speaking before the AFL-CIO Labor Day gathering in Cincinnati, OH reminded us that all Americans have benefited from the labor movement and unions.

But today we also pause, we pause to remember, and to reflect, and to reaffirm. We remember that the rights and benefits we enjoy today weren't simply handed to America's working men and women. They had to be won. They had to be fought for by men and women of courage and conviction, from the factory floors in the industrial revolution to the shopping aisles at super stores, they stood up and they spoke up to demand a fair shake and an honest day's pay for and honest day's work.

Many risked their lives. Some gave their lives. Some made it the cause of their lives like Senator Ted Kennedy, who we remember today. So let us never forget… much of what we take for granted, the forty hour work week, the minimum wage, health insurance, paid leave, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, they all bear the union label.

It was the American worker, men and women just like you who returned from World War II to make our economy the envy of the world. It was labor that helped build the largest middle class in history. Even if you’re not a union member, every American owes something to America’s labor movement.

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I would like to see more stories like this please.

Maddow: But, first, it‘s time for a couple of holy mackerel stories in the news today.

If there is a benefit to the maddening Democratic Party failure on the issue of the public health insurance option, it could be the revival of the once believed to be extinct hard line liberal base. The AFL-CIO yesterday drew its own line in the sand by saying it would not support Democratic candidates who do not support the public option in health reform. And as David Sirota notes at “Huffington Post” today, threats from the left have shifted the rhetoric of incumbent Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Here‘s where Senator Bennet started. At a town hall meeting in Pueblo on Saturday, Senator Bennet gave flimsy support to the idea of the public option. He said then that he favored the option, but, quote, “As I stand here today, I think it‘s very unlikely that the public option part of this will pass.” In other words, he was saying he would probably vote for health reform without the public option.

Then, reports circulated that Senator Bennet will likely face a primary challenge from Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. And now, look at what Senator Bennet has posted at his Web site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D), COLORADO: I do support a public option as part of this.

(APPLAUSE)

BENNET: I have said I support a public option. I‘ve supported a public option. I support a public option. I‘ve supported a public option. Why? I also support having a public plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: So, the senator supports the public option after all. Yes.

You know, having been taken for granted and triangulated and on occasion just stomped on during decades of Democratic Party policy decisions, the left may be learning its lesson. If you don‘t lie down in front of the door, you‘re less likely to get used as a door mat.

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The AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka reminds Norah O'Donnell that without at least a public option there is no reform because the insurance companies have a strangle hold on the market.

From CBS News- Labor Draws a Line in the Sand On Public Option:

Labor leaders drew a line in the sand today, saying a health care reform bill must include three specific elements -- including a government-sponsored health insurance plan, or "public option" -- in order to win their support.

The AFL-CIO outlined its demands for both health care and labor law reforms at a meeting today at which it released a new survey of young workers. The data backs up its progressive agenda and attempts to give it a sense of urgency.

The "Young Workers: A Lost Decade" poll, conducted in July of this year, found that 31 percent of workers under 35 report being uninsured, up from 24 percent 10 years ago. Counter to arguments that young people do not want to pay for insurance, 79 percent of the uninsured said they do not have coverage because they cannot afford it or their employer does not offer it.

"Every day people are drowning from the cost of health care," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.

Richard Trumka, who will replace Sweeney as president in a couple of weeks, said there are "three absolute musts" for health care: the public option, an employer mandate, and no taxes on employer-provided health care.

"That means we won't support the bill if it doesn't have the public option in it," Trumka said.

The AFL-CIO went to bat for President Obama during the 2008 election and now they are standing their ground when it comes to one of his biggest campaign promises -- health care reform that includes a public insurance option:

WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO, a key ally of the White House on healthcare reform, won't support legislation unless it includes a public insurance option.

"Let me be as clear as I can be -- it's an absolute must," Rich Trumka, the labor group's secretary-treasurer, and its next president, told reporters at a briefing Tuesday morning. "We won't support the bill if it doesn't have a public option."

That could add to the pressure on the White House and Senate Democrats to pull the plug on bipartisan talks aimed at bringing Republicans along with the plan. The GOP has more or less indicated opposition to just about everything Obama wants to do with healthcare, but especially the public option. Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, the lead negotiator for his party, wrote a fundraising letter to his constituents this week that asks for their "immediate support in helping me defeat 'Obama-care.'" His office later clarified -- Grassley only meant he was trying to defeat the public option. Read on...

In mid-August a group of 60 progressive Democrats stood their ground, collectively stating that they would not sign a health care reform bill that doesn't include a public option -- the chorus of support for the public option is getting louder and and louder and any Democrat who votes against their party and their constituents on this issue had better plan on a fight come reelection time.

The phrase gets used a lot, but it bears repeating: Elections have consequences, and the American people kicked the GOP to the curb in '06 and '08, choosing Democratic politicians and their platform. It's time for President Obama to follow suit, tell the Republicans to pound sand and give the American people what they want and more importantly, what they need.

Affordable, quality health care coverage for all Americans isn't just a Democratic talking point, it's an essential part of their official party platform.

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From GoLeftTV:

Thanks to an almost complete lack of regulation, the executives on Wall Street were able to gamble our economy for their own personal gain, ignoring ethics and in some cases the rule of law along the way. And while Congress is still trying to figure out whether or not to take action, the labor movement in America has decided to take matters into their own hands. Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire talks with Richard Trumka, the secretary treasurer of the AFL-CIO, who has some big ideas on how to reign in the corruption and greed that has become too commonplace among Wall Street insiders.

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You have to wonder if Neil Cavuto is going to stop having Stuart Acuff of the AFL-CIO on anymore. Every time Acuff appears on his show, Cavuto's prefab talking points get blown to smithereens, and Cavuto winds up with egg on his face.

Yesterday Cavuto, trying to pitch the angle that the AFL-CIO's gathering in Miami is a big costly shindig for the wealthy, wound up looking like Elmer Fudd after Bugs has finished him off with a nice little exploding-cigar finale:

Cavuto: All I'm saying, Stuart, is the mixed message part. Right? You're at a great locale, I know that hotel very well, I know that beach very well. And I'm just wondering whether the appearance which you guys knocked, rightly so, when the financial guys were tripping over themselves having massages at a lagoon, to say, look, enough is enough, appearance matters, this matters.

Acuff: Appearance does matter. That's right, Neil. And that's why I'm on the program with you today. And that's why I'm explaining that we got a room rate for less than $200 a room, and that our staying here is the result of negotiations that happened three years ago that promotes an awful lot of good union jobs.

Cavuto: Wait a minute, wait a minute. The most expensive room is $200?

Acuff: Excuse me?

Cavuto: The most expensive room for your members attending is $200?

Acuff: Under $200.

Cavuto: Really. [Pause] All right, then everything's off. You did OK.

All right -- ah. Stuart, seriously. Very good having you. You did a good job.

Acuff: Thank you so much.

Cavuto: If I could get one of those deals -- that's not bad!

Obviously, the word that this had blown up in Cavuto's face evidently didn't make it over to the neighboring studio where Glenn Beck's program was about to get under way. Because in the very next hour, Beck also trotted out this storyline, inviting right-wing shill Mark McKinnon on to bash the union shindig:

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McKinnon: Well, the irony is, yeah, those rooms go from $400 to $1400. This is the hotel that recently sponsored the Victoria's Secrets fashion show, which is ironic, because now they're planning to take away the secret ballot from American employees when they're being organized by union -- by union folks trying to organize the workplace.

See? Being Right means never having to say you're sorry.

  Hi folks, sorry to be a bother, but just wanted to invite you intrepid C&Lers who live in the DC area to join me Friday night at a book event for The Real McCain at the AFL-CIO. Below are all the details, and I look forward to meeting you!

Join author/blogger Cliff Schecter in a book discussion about

THE REAL McCAIN: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn’t

Sen. John McCain opposed making President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.
Now he supports this boondoggle for the rich.

McCain, a POW, stood against torture.
This year, he voted to allow water boarding.

McCain once was a campaign finance reformer.
Now, he’s a candidate whose campaign is run by lobbyists.

Please join Cliff, Jane Hamsher and others on Friday, May 30, 2008 from 6–8 p.m. at AFL-CIO Building, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

Please R.S.V.P. by calling John Goltz at 202-508-6938.