Minutes ago, Senate conservatives filibustered progress and stifled the voice of the majority once again.
They killed the Employee Free Choice Act [1], which would have minimized employer interference in the choice of workers to unionize.
As the Institute for America's Future found, taking away the obstacles to unionization would strengthen the middle-class by giving more Americans better wages and benefits. [2]
51 Senators -- including all Democrats, both independents and a lone Republican (Sen. Arlen Specter) -- sided with working Americans, while 48 conservatives chose to keep the squeeze on the middle-class.
This adds to the growing list of attempts at progress from the new Congress stifled by the conservative minority:
* Empowering Medicare [3] to negotiate for lower drug prices
* Long-term tax credits to expand renewable energy [4], paid for with tax revenue from fossil fuel production
* Requiring 15 percent of our nation's electricity [5] to come from renewable energy
* Lifting the effective ban [6] on federal funding for stem cell research
All of the above have the support of the majority of the public and Congress, yet were blocked by Senate filibuster or presidential veto.
While I have recommended that congressional leaders force conservatives to sustain filibusters [7] of such popular items for several days -- to spotlight their obstruction and galvanize the public -- make no mistake who is fundamentally responsible for the failure of Congress to carry out the public will.
It is the conservative minority that is repeatedly and deliberately ignoring the concerns and desires of the broad progressive majority [8].
More on the Employee Free Choice Act from the AFL-CIO Blog [1], DMIBlog [9] and Huffington Post's Alex Keyssar [10]
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Links:
[1] http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/06/26/handful-of-senators-deny-employee-free-choice—for-now/
[2] http://home.ourfuture.org/economy/20070423_efca_report/the-employee-free-choice-act.html
[3] http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/senate_minority_drug_lobby_obstruct_peoples_will
[4] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aGIeurMWuxuo&refer=news
[5] http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/filibuster_threat_stalls_renewable_energy_mandate
[6] http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/20/snow-veto-ii/
[7] http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/renewable_energy_make_conservatives_filibuster
[8] http://home.ourfuture.org/reports/20070612_theprogressivemajority/
[9] http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/2007/06/the_rebuilding_the_middle_clas.html
[10] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-keyssar/unions-the-secret-ballot_b_53714.html