It's on to the next bipartisan disaster

By Chris Townsend , your Capitol Hill Shop Steward

Washington, D.C. -- It may seem hard to believe, but you do have some friends on Capitol Hill. My job as Political Action Director for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) keeps me on top of Congressional happenings, sort of a "shop steward" on Capitol Hill. And in the opinion of this shop steward, and probably as you expected, it's not a pretty sight up there on the Hill.

As I write, we are on the eve of Clinton's inauguration here in Washington. The November election noise has died down, and it's time for both big parties to kiss and wash off after the mudslinging barrage of the campaign trail. In the wake of the election, a bunch of inside-the-beltway political consultants are now a little richer. Everyone outside the beltway is relieved that the TV ads are over. And although less than half of us bothered to vote, both sides declared victory.

Photo by © Jerome Friar, Impact Visuals

What's always amazing to me -- but shouldn't be -- is just how quickly the campaigning ends and the bipartisan love-fest begins. The sun was barely up the morning after the election when Republicans, Democrats, and the White House began grinding out press releases claiming that they were looking forward to the new Congressional session with a "bipartisan" spirit.

The leaders of both big parties made a real show out of first phoning each other, and then, less than a week after the election, having a White House lunch of soup, fancy entree, dessert, coffee, and chit-chat, all staged for the news media. Republican Majority leader Dick Armey emerged with Senate anti-labor leader Trent Lott and House leader Newt Gingrich to proclaim, "We all agreed that we have ...at least a year when we can turn our attention away from politics to policy." After all, it's important to show the little people like us -- and the stock market -- that both big parties believe that what's good for business is good for America.

Since then, the political spinmasters have been working overtime, announcing that Republicans and Democrats both want to solve the Medicare problem with a "bipartisan" approach. Republicans have already cheered Clinton's plans for Medicaid -- he wants to put a cap on how much poor people in need of medical help can get.

Then there's the search for a bipartisan way to cut Social Security. Just let the politicians get their hands on it during one of their bipartisan orgies, and you'll be 70 years old before you can retire. Will your boss keep you around till you're 70? Hell no! And sorry, under pending bipartisan plans, don't expect a guaranteed income out of Social Security even after you're 70, because SSI will be transformed into a private investment program.

We've all heard about the effort to pass a "balanced" budget through bipartisan consensus... Now there's even a bipartisan move to repeal overtime pay, which the two big parties plan to present as a bit of bipartisan family friendly legislation! Just pick up your daily newspaper for the latest "bipartisan" outbreak.

My dictionary says that "bipartisan" is a fancy word for a committee with members from two parties. As your shop steward on Capitol Hill, however, I can tell you what it really means: Trouble just ahead for you, me, and everyone else who works for a living. More precisely, "bipartisan" can be described as a tendency of Republicans to make outrageous demands, and for a growing number of Democrats to make outrageous concessions. Sort of a political version of negotiating against yourself. Being bipartisan means that the two big parties have done the "responsible" thing -- they have stood up to the "special interests," like working people, and have broken through the political gridlock with a bipartisan punch. Watch out!

The classic bipartisan move in the last Congress was the so-called welfare "reform" bill, which, in case you didn't notice, was boldly titled the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act." Ask any member of Congress just how many "work opportunities" this law will really supply to jobless people who've been kicked off public assistance, and they'll tell you to call your state governor. Call up the governor, and you'll get a busy signal, because 101 companies are looking to get a piece of the multi-billion dollar gold brick just delivered to the Governor's mansion from Washington D.C. in the form of a block grant -- Clinton's substitute for what used to be a safety net for the poor.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, private charities and food banks are being warned to get ready for a mob scene as poor people get axed from the welfare rolls. Bosses from coast to coast, public and private, are laying awake at night trying to figure out how to fire their employees and replace them with paupers, ordered to work or starve. The scene is already unfolding in New York City, where welfare recipients have supplanted civil service employees in city park and sanitation jobs. This isn't reform -- it's just a way to dump poor people into an already overloaded low-wage job market, further reducing the price of unskilled labor. But as the newspapers say, it's a success because it's bipartisan!

So here we sit, facing a solidly anti-labor Congress. The President is unpredictable and flimsy at best, a man who thinks that working people are thrilled at the prospect of repealing overtime pay. (This scheme, which is supported by Clinton, most Republicans, and big business, would allow the boss to work you more than 40 hours a week, then promise to let you take an hour and a half off for every hour of "overtime" that you worked. The boss will "allow" you to use your time as long as you give him "reasonable" notice, and so long as it doesn't "unduly disrupt operations." Anyone trust their boss enough to try this one?)

Hey! Don't expect good news from Capitol Hill -- that comes from outside the beltway. Who have you recruited to the Labor Party today?

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