Gore, friend of labor?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Jul 21 14:32:53 PDT 2000


I just visited Al Gore's website to look for evidence for the great friendliness to labor that Nathan seems to spy. I looked at the "Briefing" page, a collection of recent press releases, and saw nothing; just in case I'd missed something, I searched for a couple of key words, but Explorer reported "the text 'union' was not found" and "the text 'labor' was not found." Hmm, ok, so let's check the economic agenda page. "Labor" showed up as something to be protected in trade agreements - safely aboad, that is, if you believe him; again, "the text 'union' was not found." And what's Al's economic agenda? Fiscal discipline, more free trade agreements, and deregulation!

Doug

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<http://www.algore2000.com/agenda/issue_econ.html>

[Gore's] five-point plan for economic growth in the 21st Century:

1. Maintain fiscal discipline -- to keep interest rates low and investment rates high. Barring an economic reversal, a national emergency, or a foreign crisis, Gore has called for a balanced budget -- or better -- not just this year, but every year.

2. Use good economic times to tackle tough, long-term economic problems -- and that means meeting our promise to an aging society by saving Social Security first and protecting Medicare while we have the means and the will to do it. Al Gore has urged Congress to refrain from risky tax schemes, and instead pass a responsible Social Security and Medicare reform plan -- to ensure the dignity of seniors in retirement, while also raising the national savings rate.

3. Continue cutting regulations and reforming and reinventing government -- so that it costs less, works better, and keeps pace with today's fast-moving economy. Already, the Reinventing Government initiative headed by Al Gore has saved $137 billion, eliminated 16,000 pages of regulations, eliminated 640,000 pages of needless internal rules, and reduced the federal workforce by more than 350,000, to its smallest size since John Kennedy was President.

4. Invest more in education for the Information Age, as well as investing aggressively in research and development and ensuring the protection of our environment. America must continue to stay ahead of a changing economy, and ensure that everyone has a chance to succeed in the highly-skilled workplaces of the 21st Century.

5. America must maintain its role as the world's leader. Al Gore has repeatedly called for the passage of Fast Track trading authority, to allow the President to open more markets for American products while protecting labor and environmental rights. He has worked with the President to ensure a vigorous American role in addressing the world financial crisis. He has fought for a trading system that includes strong safeguards for workers, for health and safety, for children, and for a clean environment. And he has called on other nations -- such as Japan and the nations of Europe -- to jump-start their own economies, and live up to their shared responsibilities for global growth.



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