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Seek the Truth

The first hundred days of George Bushs second term are in full swing and working Americans are getting clobbered. We said that Bushs re-election would reconstruct our nations political, economic and social landscape. The White House bulldozers are at work.

Even some leading Republicans in Congress are publicly differing with the presidents expensive and risky plans for Social Security. Are they thinking about Medicare and Medicaid? The White House now admits that the Medicare prescription drug bill Bush bullied through Congress last year will cost $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, far exceeding his original projection of $534 million. With health care and prescription costs climbing, how will our elderly and disabled citizens survive?

If the answer is Medicaid, which covers impoverished citizens and children, think again. Bushs 2006 proposed Federal budget would cut Medicaids funding by up to $60 billion over ten years, shifting the tax burden onto states that are already suffering from the effects of trade policies that encourage employers to move jobs and plants overseas. Even here, the Bush budget is callous. It cuts funding for the enforcement of U.S. trade laws with all nations, especially China.

In the name of "tort reform," the president and his party have passed legislation that will make if more difficult for average citizens to sue companies who break laws that protect our environment, and our health and safety.

If I said that this administration was selling our country out to the moneyed elite and foreign investors, no doubt, letters would come in from members who credit President Bush with keeping us safe from terrorism.

Tell me how safe you really feel when we give the administration a blank check to spend in Iraq, but leave our ports, waterways and rail and public transit systems vulnerable to nuclear smugglers.

I have never taken pleasure in questioning the motives and the sincerity of President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the leaders of their party in the pages of the Journal, nor have I taken solace in the deep divisions among Americans.

There are few things more abhorrent and none more dangerous than leaders who exploit those divisions, even claiming to be carrying out the will of the Almighty. I dont know about their scriptures, but mine devote far more pages to the need to overcome want, disease and poverty than to some of the social and religious issues that divide us. The truth must be told.

If there is one institution in society that stands to gain nothing from lies and divisiveness, it is the labor movement. Hardworking Americans do not organize unions, go on strike or exert their union rights based upon slick talk and lies, but from a keen understanding of reality.

The potential power of labor still stirs our enemies. None are more treacherous than those political leaders who brand union members at the Department of Defense and other federal workers unpatriotic for holding to their union principles. If we let them succeed in silencing and weakening our unions, our democracy itself will be injured. Defending our unions is not a Democratic or Republican responsibility. It is an urgent human necessity.

Ed Hill and Jon Walters are two men who are not afraid to speak plain truth to the powerful, and, just as importantly, to the members of our union. It has been my deep honor to work at Eds side. I cherish his friendship. I have full confidence that Jon Walters will be a worthy, forward-looking International Secretary-Treasurer.

If you are as sick as I am of the lies and contempt for working families in the halls of power, I urge you to join me in rallying behind Ed and Jon and their leadership team.

May God bless you all.

Jeremiah J. OConnor

International Secretary-Treasurer