Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2015)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | April 3 , 2015 | PAGE 9 Budget ‘vote-o-rama’ forces senators to take a stance on retirement security WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mem- bers of the U.S. Senate on March 25 voted on dozens of amend- ments to the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget. The marathon session dubbed “vote-o-rama” forced many senators, including 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls, to take definitive positions on issues such as raising the minimum wage, preserving Medicare and Social Security earned benefits, and protecting against Medicaid cuts. Democratic Senators Patty Murray (WA), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Joe Manchin (WV), Sher- rod Brown (OH), and Brian Schatz (HI) offered an amend- ment to expand Social Security. The amendment lost on almost a completely straight party-line vote: every Democrat but Heidi Heitkamp (ND) and Tom Carper (DE) voted for it, with Dianne Feinstein (D) and Barbara Mikulski (D) not voting. Every Republican voted against it. Another amendment, this one by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), bans federal consideration of construction contracts with proj- ect labor agreements. It passed 51-49, with all Democrats and independents voting against it, along with three Republicans. Project labor agreements are used to set standards on govern- ment-funded projects to estab- lish workforce standards that all contractors and subcontractors must meet. President Barack Obama issued an executive or- der six years ago “to encourage agencies to consider requiring the use of project labor agree- ments in connection with large- scale construction projects” over $25 million. Flake’s amendment bans that. The Senate passed the full budget, 52-46. It would slash $5.1 trillion in spending over 10 years. The proposal slashes $431 billion from Medicare over a decade but does not pro- vide many specifics on how those savings would be achieved. Instead, the plan tasks individual Senate committees with jurisdiction over Medicare to find such savings. A tally of the full budget vote is at http://tinyurl.com/q3blcqj. “This budget works for the best off, but it sure doesn’t work for working Americans,” Ore- gon Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a press release. “You would think that with such tremendous sacrifice being asked of ordinary Americans, this budget would also ask for some sacrifices from the wealthy and well-connected — but you would be wrong. This budget preserves every egre- gious special-interest tax loop- hole on the books, down to the one that actually subsidizes the cost of shipping American jobs overseas. And it fails to do any- thing about a tax code in which the very wealthiest Americans pay a lower tax rate than many middle-class families,” he said. The House budget would pare $148 billion from Medicare and convert it into a voucher- like program for future benefi- ciaries, a step the Senate shunned. Passed by a vote of 228-199 , the House budget cuts $5.5 trillion overall, drastically reducing funding for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) while increasing defense spend- ing. The chambers will start hammering out a final budget deal in the coming weeks. “Make no mistake, these budgets are radically anti-re- tiree,” said Richard Fiesta, exec- utive director of the Alliance. “The Alliance fiercely opposes both budgets and will work vig- orously to prevent them from becoming law.” (Editor’s Note: the Alliance for Retired Americans con- tributed to this report.)
