Workers, Seniors Protest Bush’s Skewed Tax Plan

The National Day of Action on April 11, called to protest President George W. Bush’s budget priorities, included demonstrations in Detroit (above), Indianapolis (photo below), and other cities.

“We are ready to fight for working families, the poor, the handicapped, and the disadvantaged,” UAW International Secretary-Treasurer Ruben Burks told a rally in Detroit April 11.

The rally, which drew over 500, was one of scores of demonstrations, press conferences, and public forums held across the country to protest the “millionaires’ tax cut” advocated by President George W. Bush.

Speaker after speaker pointed out that over 40 percent of the tax cuts in the Bush plan will go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers.

“Bush’s tax plan is both dishonest and inequitable,” said UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker. He said the plan would rob billions from Social Security, Medicare, and other vital programs.

“Bush was not the choice of the majority of American workers, and he has no mandate for his agenda,” Shoemaker declared.

David Bonior, D-Mich., one of the top Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives, said the Bush proposals were just like the Republican formula in the 1980s--tax breaks to the rich.

UAW union leaders, who attended the rally, were just as angry at Bush as the speakers who stood in front of Detroit’s Herman Kiefer Hospital.

George Ferdinand, alternate shop chairperson of UAW Local 1248 in Region l, said that while many Americans support a tax cut, Bush is cutting the wrong way.
Shelly Hampton, trustee of UAW Local 594 in Pontiac, Mich., said the Bush plan would not help regular working people enough.

“We’re not millionaires, and we need a break,” she said.

Tony Feyers, president of UAW Local 771 in Madison Heights, Mich., said we need to keep up the pressure so our voi-ces will be heard in the debate about taxes and the surplus.

Feyers also commented that Bush’s repeal of the ergonomics standard has greatly angered his members who had worked hard to put the standard in place.

Many people in his plants--his amalgamated local includes many independents and parts suppliers--have scars from surgery for repetitive motion injuries.

In other parts of the country, speakers carried the same message of protest.
UAW Region 3 Director Terry Thurman, speaking at a rally in the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center in Indianapolis, said that the average Indiana worker, who makes $44,000 a year, will only get a tax break of $318 while an Indiana millionaire will get over $46,000.

In Delaware, a heavy rainstorm drove a couple hundred demonstrators into UAW Local 435’s hall where they heard Delaware Lt. Gov. John Carney urge citizens to work together for a fair tax cut.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney blasted Bush’s proposed cuts in critical programs.

“The reductions are the price tag for the president’s millionaire tax cut--an irresponsible and unfair plan that will eventually cost more than $2 trillion and will prevent us from meeting urgent national health care, education, and retirement security needs. That could trigger huge deficits in the future,” said Sweeney.

Sweeney listed several programs that Bush proposes to cut or squeeze:

• Over $1 billion cut from the Child Health Insurance Program.

• A 60-percent cut in training for health professionals.

• A freeze on AIDS treatment grants.

• A 13-percent cut in dislocated worker programs.

• A 9.5-percent cut in training and employment services.

• A freeze on the budgets of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Wage and Hour Administration.

“The president’s proposed tradeoff is a bad idea and a bad deal for American workers and their families,” said Sweeney.

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