By LEE SAUNDERS
Administrator, District Council 37, AFSCME

The battleground is Washington, DC, but the outcome of the fights now taking place in the nation’s capital will determine the quality of our life here in New York City for years to come.

After loudly proclaiming support for NYC and its residents — who have suffered the brunt of the terrorist attacks on America — President Bush is reneging on more than half of the $20 billion in emergency relief that he promised in the days immediately following the World Trade Center collapse.

Sisters and Brothers, I was part of a delegation of labor and business leaders who traveled to Washington last month to meet with Senators and members of the House of Representatives. We went with an urgent message: New York needs the promised funds now.

We’re not looking for “handouts.” We’re fighting to keep the city alive.
Fiscal experts currently estimate that between 80,000 and 115,000 New Yorkers will lose their jobs because of the World Trade Center disaster. Not surprisingly, service workers with modest salaries have so far been hit hardest by the city’s economic downturn: waiters, housekeepers, limousine and cab drivers.

With large deficits looming, and the recession deepening, the need to protect vital public services has become crucial. And Washington is a crucial source of relief.

During our meetings with legislators, we provided a detailed package of immediate needs that begins with larger and longer unemployment benefits and extended health coverage to help those who have been displaced by the weak economy and the events of Sept. 11.

A tax giveway scheme or a real stimulus package?
As we fight for the funding we need to get New York back into shape, a larger battle that will define the nation’s priorities in the years ahead is taking place in Congress. It pits the country’s working people against those who would use patriotism as a smokescreen for profiteering. At issue is how best to stimulate the nation’s economy.

On one side are President Bush and his Congressional supporters who propose an absurd “giveaway” plan to cut taxes by $100 billion for profitable corporations and wealthy people who don’t need the help.

According to the New York Times, “just 30 percent of the proposed tax relief would go to individuals, with the rest helping corporations, including large, prosperous ones like IBM and General Electric, which would have done well even in the economic downturn.”

What's even more maddening is that the individuals receiving tax relief under President Bush’s proposal are, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice, the richest one percent of all taxpayers. In contrast, for three out of four taxpayers, the administration’s proposal would provide exactly zero in tax reduction.

On the other side are Congressional leaders who seek to extend much-needed subsidies for those who can’t afford the high cost of health care coverage and face a holiday season with no extension of their unemployment benefits. These lawmakers want to help to get these workers through the worst of the current recession, while providing for new public investment in the nation’s infrastructure and public health system that will generate real job growth.

Stimulate the economy by helping the unemployed
As these lawmakers sit down to debate how best to jumpstart the economy, labor will continue to pressure them to focus on working families and those who have lost jobs.

The question is pretty simple. Do the policy makers respond to the current crisis by taking care of the needs of a few, or do they respond by helping the millions of families who, on a daily basis, provide the energy, ideas and sweat that make ours the greatest country in which to live?