‘Restore America’s Place in the World and Restore the Middle Class’

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/14/restore-americas-place-in-the-world-and-restore-the-middle-class/

‘Restore America’s Place in the World and Restore the Middle Class’

by Mike Hall, Mar 14, 2007

The Fire Fighters (IAFF) union is hosting the nation’s first bipartisan presidential debate of the 2008 election season, and Mike Hall is live-blogging today from the meeting in Washington, D.C. Each candidate will speak for 15 minutes.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D)and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) wound up the Fire Fighters’ bipartisan presidential forum this afternoon at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C.

Brownback brought a message to the more than 900 delegates that he says centers on hope, growth and family.

He touched on the war on terror, border security, energy independence, a cure for cancer in the next 10 years and family values. The highpoint of his time on stage came when he wheeled a cart stacked four-feet high with big binders—the Internal Revenue Service Tax code, and suggested

We take this behind the barn and kill it with a dull axe.

Living up to his reputation as an extreme conservative, Brownback suggested implementing a federal flat tax that, unlike the current progressive tax rate, would chew up a far larger parentage of income for those barely making ends meet than for the very wealthy.

Up next, Richardson says he was told he had 10 minutes to tell nearly 1,000 Fire Fighters how to save Social Security, build a universal health care system, restore collective bargaining rights and end the war in Iraq.

I can tell you how to do that in four words—elect a Democrat.

He cited his track record on union issues:

Two weeks after I took office, I signed and enacted collective bargaining for all public employees—and I will do so as president. We need a national law that allows you to organize. I made our prevailing wage a union wage—we passed “fair share” that says if you benefit from union representation, you ought to share some of the cost…and I hope in my desk when I get home tonight there will be legislation to increase the minimum wage to $7.50 an hour.

As did nearly every candidate who took to the podium, Richardson cited his support for full funding of vital firefighter and first-responder programs, including putting some 75,000 new firefighters on the job.

He also touched on job creation, saying he supports tax credits for companies that create rural jobs and keep jobs in America. Richardson also called for penalties for corporations that export manufacturing jobs and called for trade agreements that guarantee workers’ rights and address wage disparity.

Biden closed out the day telling the Fire Fighters that without them, his narrow 4,000 vote election in 1972 to the U.S. House wouldn’t have happened.

There are three political parties in Delaware, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Fire Fighters. You’re why I am here.

FULL story at link.