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Hernando Today

How Do You Like Our New America?

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By FRANCES EARL, Call to Patriots

Hernando Today

Published: February 5, 2009

Well now, how about the bailout of all these banks, folks? Seems as though the Republicans would like you to blame President Barack Obama for the way the initial monies sent to the banks (under the administration of George W. Bush and controlled, almost exclusively, by former Secretary Treasurer Henry Paulson) were spent.
The previous administration apparently declined to include any rules into the deal for the way these monies were to be used. The result of the continuing ideology of the Republican Party; namely, the belief that corporations will police themselves without regulation of any kind and behave appropriately, was once again rearing its ugly head.
Well, we've seen the results: huge bonuses paid to the very people who caused the impending failures of these banks; huge parties at expensive resorts to honor these same guys and gals; and a total failure to use that money to provide well-researched and sound loans to encourage a recovery to our economy.
In case you might be thinking that the above is the worst you're going to hear, think again. My last employment was at the Department of Environmental Protection in Temple Terrace. When I left work at 4:30 p.m. each day, I was greeted with the sight of workers leaving a nearby office building. Every single one of them was quite obviously from India and all, I learned, were here on temporary work visas. Since these temporary workers would accept a lower pay scale, American workers were fired and replaced, not from jobs "Americans don't want to do," but from higher paying computer jobs.
Well, the Associated Press has requested information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to determine how many temporary work visas were granted to foreign workers who replaced American workers fired to create openings at the very banks receiving the bailout money!
A retired systems manager at Bank of America in Concord, Calif., Jennifer Scott, said in 2004 she oversaw foreign employees from a contractor firm that also sent overnight work to employees in India. She said, "It had nothing to do with a shortage, but they didn't want to pay the U.S. rate. It's all about numbers crunching." She also noted the quality of the work was weak.
What exactly is the definition of "global economy?" Sounds to me like it means putting our citizens on the unemployment line, enriching foreign workers who send a lot of what they earn home to their families and, the ultimate goal, make sure our banks and corporations have the money needed to create the billion dollar bonuses and payoffs to the elite class that Bush guys have worked to create. The dozen banks receiving more than $150 billion in bailout monies, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over a six-year period. Positions offered included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysis specialists and human resources managers.
Who gains from all of the above? It most certainly is not the American worker nor is it the American economy and, since the work done by many of the foreign temps was considered "weak," we apparently do not provide a better product. The beneficiaries are the fat cat CEOs who bankrupt their corporations and walk away with billions of dollars as a thank you. Am I still living in America or, like Dorothy, do I have to say "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore?"
Just so we don't mistakenly think they have stopped ripping us off, some of the dollars given to the banks are being used to lobby against passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. In a conference call on Oct. 17, 2008, three days after being approved for $25 billion in taxpayer money, Bank of America officials organized a conference call (tape of call obtained by The Huffington Post has been verified) where one of the demands was that all should donate to anti-Employee Free Choice Act politicians/groups only. Bernie Marcus, founder and former CEO of Home Depot was heard to say that any corporate honchos who did not donate to anti "Free Choice" groups "should be shot, should be thrown out of their (censored) jobs."
Why are the fat cats so opposed to Free Choice? Because they know that U.S. labor laws are horribly tilted in favor of the bosses. They don't want workers to have any say in their health care, pensions, fair wages or better and safe working conditions. To them, workers are totally dispensable, easily replaced with some other guy out of work or one more foreign temp.
Are you one of the workers recently laid off? My husband, director of information systems for a firm in Tampa, will finish out this week. At that point, he will join the ranks of those on the unemployment line.
How do you like our new America?

Frances Earl, former vice-chairwoman of the Hernando County Democratic Executive Committee, may be contacted at fearl@tampabay.rr.com.

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