Gore, friend of labor?

[Doug Henwood]

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.