It's time to remember

By Norwood Jewell, Region 1-C Director
It was just three years ago that GM almost liquidated. If John McCain had been elected president, GM would have liquidated. That is not a prediction, it’s a fact. If Mitt Romney had been president in 2009, GM would have gone under. That too is a fact. President Obama made the unpopular but righteous decision to loan GM the money they needed to survive, betting that they would do just that. He bet on the American worker. He bet on us. Where would we be now if President Obama had listened to the nay-sayers?
No Obama = no GM, Chrysler or Ford = no pensions & no health care!
The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), which insures our pensions, is funded through the companies that have pension plans. The PBGC is and has been underfunded due to a large number of companies closing their doors and dumping their pension obligations on the PBGC. GM is the largest contributor to the PBGC. If GM had gone under, the PBGC would have gone with it. No PBGC, no pension.
And the first thing that retirees would have lost if GM had gone bankrupt is their health insurance. I know that the changes to retiree health care have been painful, but there would have been no retiree health care if GM had liquidated.
We need to show President Obama how much we appreciate what he did. Every autoworker, retired and active, should think about how he saved the American automobile industry when they vote for President in November. President Obama deserves our vote.
And it isn’t just that he made the decision to save the American automobile industry that we should remember. The Affordable Care Act (National Health Care) was the right thing for our country. All of us pay more for insurance because of those who don’t have insurance. It only makes sense to insure the uninsured. And how can we consider ourselves a first-class country if we don’t even insure our nation’s children?
Walter Reuther believed in National Health Care. He believed that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and an injustice to one is an injustice to all. We need to remember our great leader, his words and his actions. Walter would have worked tirelessly to re-elect President Obama because President Obama believes as we do, that we need to fight for working families, our children and our seniors.
Please vote like Walter Reuther would have voted ...
Vote to re-elect President Obama.
And let us not forget where the stock market was when President Obama took office. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has more than doubled since 2009, from a low of 6,547 to over 13,250 as of this writing.
Romney and Ryan want to go backwards to the terrible economy of George Bush. They believe in trickle-down economics, “give all the tax breaks to the rich and hopefully they will trickle some of their wealth down on us.” Do you like being trickled on?
They will increase taxes on middle-class working families. They will end Medicare as we know it. Without Medicare, our Retiree Trust Fund would be decimated. They believe in privatizing Social Security, are they crazy? Their budget would eliminate veterans’ programs, medical and scientific research, highway improvements, decimate our national parks, reduce education for our children, and eliminate protection of food safety and the water supply.
At the same time, their budget would give millionaires and corporations more tax cuts. They will represent the richest Americans well. So if you earn more than $250,000 per year, vote for them. If not, remember this:
R stands for Republican and Republican stands for Robin Hood in
Reverse
Vote for working families – vote for President Obama.
We need to remember all of the gifts that our Republican-led Michigan legislature has given us. A lot has happened since the 2010 state elections. All of us are paying more in state taxes than we were before the current Republican-led Michigan legislature took office. The Republicans are hoping that we will not figure out how bad they lied to us until after the November elections. We need to send them a message. We are paying attention and we will vote our conscience.
The so-called Tea Party members, the worst of the worst Republicans, pledged not to raise taxes. They figured if they eliminated tax deductions, we would not think of it as a tax increase. Brothers and Sisters, if you pay more taxes next year than you did this year and you had the same income, your taxes were raised. What I am referring to is the elimination of your homestead tax credit, elimination of your per child tax credit, and the 80% reduction of the earned income tax credit.
A recent retiree will pay approximately $1,000 more in state taxes than they did under Governor Granholm, and that is not including those of you that are paying Michigan income tax on your pension. Some of you are paying approximately $1,670 in state income tax thanks to the Michigan Republicans. So now is your chance to thank them for all of their wonderful tax increases. VOTE! Take someone with you. Make sure your whole family is registered to vote and get them to the polls.
There is nothing more important to working families than re-electing President Obama. If you want the rich to get richer at your expense, vote Republican. If you want an economy like we had under President Clinton, vote for President Obama. And at the state level, nothing is more important than electing working-family-friendly members to the Michigan Supreme Court. We have three candidates that fit that bill.
They will make our Supreme Court one to be proud of. If you want a
Supreme Court that will look out for the middle class, vote for Johnson, Kelley, and McCormack.
I know that all Democrats are not created equal. We need to hold them accountable, too. But if you look at the voting records, you will see that overwhelmingly, Democrats vote to protect the middle class and the poor, our children, and our seniors. The Republicans overwhelmingly vote to protect the wealthy, corporations, and CEO’s.
I don’t begrudge someone being wealthy; I just want them to pay more taxes than I do. They make more, they should pay more. How can someone that makes the kind of money that Mitt Romney makes understand what and how we feel? He is forever indebted to the wealthiest Americans because that is who finances his campaign. On the other hand, President Obama is indebted to regular folks like you and me because we finance his campaign.
It’s really that simple, Democrats for the middle class and poor and Republicans for the rich. Republicans get a lot of regular folks to vote for them based on lies and single issues. The one that bothers me most is the gun issue. Republicans want you to believe that Democrats want to take your guns. That is simply hogwash. Democrats do not want to take your guns! I believe in the Second Amendment, I have a CPL, and I own a handgun and a rifle. I would not support a candidate that wanted to take away my guns and I am very much a proud member of the Democratic Party.
Please consider what I have stated. Vote for working and family friendly candidates, those that support our seniors and our children. And most of all, please vote for President Obama. He has earned our vote more than any other President in my lifetime.
Thank you and God Bless.