Public Employee Press

Political Action 2005
BushWatch:
More cuts for workers, students

It’s a new year, but for the Bush administration the agenda is the same as he prepares another attack against the American workers’ paychecks and aid for low-income student.

• Longer hours, less cash: With the support of Republican congressional leaders and corporate allies, the administration will push for legislation to strip employees of their overtime pay. The plan would let employers substitute compensatory time off for time-and-a-half overtime pay.
  “It’s nothing more than a scheme to let employers avoid paying for overtime, a scheme that will result in longer hours, lower incomes and less predictable workweeks,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, in an analysis of such “comp time” legislation.
  
  
• Tax fraud, job fraud: According to the Bush administration, the recent tax cuts, which benefited mainly the wealthy, would stimulate the economy and generate 5.5 million new jobs by the end of 2004. But according to a new EPI study, the administration’s claims were extremely exaggerated. For many unemployed Americans, the jobs were as elusive as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
  
  In reality, the creation of new jobs fell short by 3 million. “The economy remains unbalanced and unsettled, giving working families plenty of reason to worry about what may lie ahead,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
  
  
• College aid flunks math: High school students planning to enroll in college with the help of federal aid should start worrying. In December, the Bush administration placed a bigger economic burden on their young shoulders by revising eligibility rules for Pell grants to low- and middle-income students. The change took hundreds of dollars a year from about 1.3 million students and cut another 90,000 off the rolls entirely.
  
  In his new budget, Bush will trumpet increases in the grants — but the raises will be smaller than the cuts!