Are the pay raises being proposed by the Bush Administration and the Democrats for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan illegal? Arlen Parsa of online news site, The Daily Background, thinks so.

Jesse Russell spoke with Parsa about his findings.

Parsa said according to the Defense Authorization Act of 99 troops are required a raise of 3.8 percent not the 3 percent or 3.5 percent being floated by the President and Congress.

[Parsa1:] Basically the law says it has to be 0.5 percent more than the average increase in civilian wages. So the average increase for civilian wages for 2006 was 3.3 percent.

As organized labor celebrated the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 through the House Education and Labor Committee yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney was busy preparing the President’s veto pen. Jesse Russell has more:

On Wednesday morning Vice President Dick Cheney took some time to speak before a business lobby group and used that opportunity to express the administration’s opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

[Cheney]: Our Administration rejects any attempt to short-circuit the rights of workers. We will defend their right to vote yes or no by secret ballot and their right to fair bargaining. H.R. 800 violates these principles, and if it is sent to the President, he will veto the bill.

By Doug Cunningham

The AFL-CIO is leading a protest against high gasoline prices today at the White House today. Jos Williams, President of the Washington D.C. area AFL-CIO, says working families are being hit hard by the high prices as oil companies gouge record profits.

[Jos Williams] : “What we are sayin’ to the Bush administration is that those people who put them in office – big oil barons – their day should come to an end. And this administration should be about people and not about profits.”

By Doug Cunningham

Air traffic controllers are confronting a Bush administration push to lower the wages of newly hired controllers. Ronald Reagan fired all 11,350 controllers when they went on strike in 1981. The union isn't likely to strike this time, but the Federal Aviation Administration does have the legal power to impose its last, best offer over union objections. And the two sides so far can't agree on a pay structure.

By Jesse Russell

In a report released by the Government Accountability Office, the Bush administration has been implicated in disseminating "covert propaganda" in violation of a United States statutory ban. The report is the result of an investigation into contracts between commentator Armstrong Williams and the education department where Williams was paid to write newspaper columns and make television appearances promoting the No Child Left Behind Act. Also, the auditors called illegal the administrations use of government funds to hire a public relations firm for the purpose of analyzing news articles for the message "The Bush administration or the GOP is committed to education." The report says there is "no use for such information except for partisan political purposes." The Accountability Office report comes with no penalty, but federal law mandates that the violations be reported to Congress.

Labor leaders from the Gulf States of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana will be holding a joint conference tomorrow to demand that President George W. Bush reinstate the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage Act. The law required that federal contractors’ not lower community construction wages less than $20,000 a year for skilled full-time work. In that region during clean-up government contractors have also received a pass on applying affirmative action standards for hiring and rules that stipulate the number of hours a truck driver can work have been lifted.

By Doug Cunningham

Katrina has taken everything from them and the Bush administration is now taking away the promise of jobs with good wages for workers who will rebuild the devastated gulf region. An executive order from Bush September 8th waives the Davis-Bacon Act - a law that guarantees the prevailing wage rate for construction jobs contracted by the federal government. The AFL-CIO wants Congress to reverse the Bush order. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says taking advantage of a national tragedy to get rid of wage protection for workers is nothing less than profiteering.
The AFL-CIO says this amounts to legalized looting of worker wages as they struggle to clean up toxic waste and rebuild their communities across the gulf region.

By Doug Cunningham

Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed in Iraq. She wants U.S. troops home now. She's outraged that George W. Bush is calling the war a "noble cause". So outraged that she went to Crawford Texas and is camped there to interrupt Bush's vacation and confront him about his statement.

[Cindy Sheehan 1] : "I don't want him to use my son's name to continue the killing. I don't want him to use my family's sacrifice to continue the killing."

Sheehan says the war is immoral, based on horrendous lies and deceptions. And she knows Bush doesn't really care about those killed in Iraq based on her own meeting with him after her son Casey's death.

On the heels of making a major announcement that US Forests could be opened to roads and logging, the U.S. Forest Service says it may start privatizing its public information staff. One hundred positions could be farmed out to private public relations firms pending a June 30th review. It's a sign of things to come as the Bush administration has began pushing it's Competitive Sourcing initiative. The program would make hundreds of jobs in the agency available for contract bidding. According to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility the Forest Service spent $113,000 on a campaign to convince the public to accept plans for increased logging in California's Sierra Nevada's.

A new report released this morning by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that economic policy has created the Social Security shortfall, not changing demographics.

[Josh Bivens]: Inequality, high wage earners seeing much bigger raises than everyone else is leading to this erosion in the tax base of social security.

Bush administration officials have pounced on a recent report from the Social Security trustees that predicts problems in the program starting in 2017. But according to Max Sawicky, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute, the supposed problem with Social Security pales when compared budget deficit created by the administration's tax cuts.

[Sawicky1]: The overwhelmingly major factor in deficits currently and in the long-term is the tax cuts enacted since 2000.

While the country debates whether or not Congress overstepped it's boundaries by taking on the Terry Schiavo case, some organizations are saying it highlights a deeper problem with the state of healthcare for working people and the hypocrisy of the current administration. Dr. Quentin Young is the national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program,

[Young1]: This woman is alive because of Medicaid, which the Administration - which convenes the Congress - is trying to reduce sharply and Congress - happily - overruled this cut. But if the administration had it's way, the money that is keeping her alive would disappear and make all of this activity moot.

Organized labor supporting Bush? On Bush's air-pollution legislation that unlikely occurrence is happening. Bill Cunningham of Unions for Jobs and The Environment says a group of union presidents from the United Mine Workers, Teamsters, Boilermakers, Electrical Workers, Utility Workers and the Transportation/Communications International Union among others are calling on Democrats on the Senate Environment Committee to back the Bush plan because it¹s a reasonable reduction of air pollution while still protecting jobs.

[Bill Cunningham]: "We're supporting the bill because it calls for rather dramatic reductions in pollutants and creates jobs at the some time. I don't know if you could say that's in support of the Bush administration - well, you might say that. But basically we're calling for rather dramatic reductions and we think that's the responsible thing to do."

In his new budget proposal, President George W. Bush has completely eliminated funding for Amtrak.

[Buckley]: The Bush administration has long been out to dismantle Amtrak. But this is really a new low where they have come right out and zeroed out it’s budget.

Michael Buckley is Communications Director for the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department. He says the TTD believes privatizing the railway is a bad decision.

[Buckley2]: It’s very reckless and irresponsible policy choice. It would put 22,000 workers out of jobs, it would strand millions of passengers across the country, it would send many more cars to already congested highways.

As President Bush brings his social security privatization pitch to midwest states today - including North and South Dakota and Nebraska - the AFL-CIO is joining other progressive groups to rally against it. AFL-CIO midwest representative Shelley Seeberg says that draining money from social security into private accounts undermines social security while creating as much as $2 trillion more in federal debt. Seeberg says that not only does
Bush's irresponsible scheme not strengthen social security, but it undermines it.

[Shelley Seeberg]: "Well the truth of the matter is under the Bush plan social security would run out of money fourteen years sooner than is now expected. So essentially, this makes social security funding problems worse, not better."

A new report says that the Bush administration's "Job and Growth Plan" tax cut, failed to meet it's prediction of 5.5 million jobs. Presented by the Economic Policy Institute the report shows a growth of only 2.4 million.

[Bernstein1]: "You can see the magnitude of the deficit there. I mean, there was a shortfall of 1.7 million jobs, from the perspective of job creation there's simply no way you can argue that these job cuts were successful."

[Bush]: We will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.

While President George W. Bush gave his inauguration speech and laid out his hopes for the next four years, protestors who disagree with his policies and plans held a counterinauguration nearby. The main protest was hosted by ANSWER a national organization that is demanding a end to war and racism. Brian Becker, National Coordinator for the organization, highlighted a recent coordination between UNITE-Here and ANSWER. They helped hotel workers in Washington, D.C. who had been without a contract for more than two years, get the hotels to the bargaining table and sign off on a contract that met the workers standards. Becker said it was an important moment because it shows how organizations working together can define the direction for the Bush mandate.

[Becker]: Forty-six or forty-seven million people in can't go to a doctor when they are sick because healthcare in America is for profit. Rather than to cure the sick. The mandate must be not just some healthcare, but healthcare for all.

George W. Bush is using the Social Security Administration ­ including Social Security associate commissioner Andrew Biggs - to push privatization of social security. Biggs was the Cato Institute's assistant director on the Project on Social Security Privatization. Social Security Employees, represented by the National Treasury Employees Union, resent the use of the Social Security Administration to push privatization propaganda. NTEU President Colleen Kelly says her members will join workers nationwide to oppose the undermining of social security. Kelly says defending social security will be a priority for Social Security Administration workers.

The national union for boxers is asking President George W. Bush to grant a full pardon to the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World, Jack Johnson. The Joint Association of Boxers is asking for the pardon in recognition of both Martin Luther King Day and out of respect for the first African American athlete to break through the color barrier. Johnson, who passed away in 1946, held the title from 1908-1915. During his time defending his title, he battled many "great white hopes." One such victory over James J. Jefferies sparked race riots and led to some states banning the filming of his victories over white fighters. In 1912, Johnson was arrested for transporting his white fiancé across state lines under a law originally intended to combat prostitution. He was eventually sentenced to a year in prison, but fled the United States and continued fighting in other parts of the world. Eventually he returned to the United States and served out his sentence. Many feel Johnson was convicted solely on prejudice and the Boxer's union is seeking exoneration of the charges.

As the AARP gears up to spend more than $5 million to oppose plans by the Bush administration to begin privatizing Social Security, Karl Rove is stepping up to shape the President's public relations campaign. According to the Washington Post, Rove, with the help of White House official Charles P. Blahous plan to raise anywhere from $50 million to $100 million to convince the American people that the President's Social Security initiative needs to be enacted. The new plan would allow younger workers to invest part of their Social Security contribution into the stock market. The NAACP, AFL-CIO and National Organization of Women have all said they oppose plans to privatize Social Security and are coordinating with Democratic leaders in Congress. On the other side of the aisle, conservative groups like Club for Growth and Progress for America are raising funds alongside corporate trade associations like the National Association of Manufacturers. Many corporations that support privatization have already begun sending money to a group called the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security. Bush is expected to go public with his plans for Social Security later this month. The coming Social Security fight is expected to be the biggest public policy battle in years.