Fighting Back: “Democrats are fighting to make your hard work pay off once again”

The weekly Fighting Back post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

Found on the Internets …

The Weekly Democratic Party Address was delivered by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

“Hard work isn’t paying off the way it used to. . . . People earn less, people can’t save for retirement, and people feel less stable – all while working harder and producing more than ever before. . . . Democrats are fighting to make your hard work pay off once again. We have proposals to raise wages and benefits, to make it easier for workers to save for retirement, to give workers more power in the workplace, and to encourage companies to invest in their greatest asset – you, the American worker.” -Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

(CSPAN link to Weekly Democratic Address: here)

(Link to Nancy Pelosi Newsroom here)

Transcript will be added when it becomes available.

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Congress was in recess (they will be back September 5th) so there was no weekly news conference.

Nancy Pelosi issued this Labor Day statement:

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released this statement to mark Labor Day, which falls on Monday, September 4th:

“On Labor Day, we pay tribute to the hard-working men and women who are the backbone of our country and the foundation of our strength. We proudly remember that the middle class in America has a union label on it, and celebrate the ground-breaking, life-changing progress driven by organized labor, from the forty-hour workweek to the fight for fair pay, from OSHA to overtime and from collective bargaining to family leave.

“America needs an economy that lifts up working families, not empty words and false promises from the White House. This week, the President announced his latest scheme to devastate families’ pocketbooks: a billionaires-first, trickle-down tax scheme that hands out massive tax cuts to the wealthiest, paid for by American families.

“Democrats know that the American people deserve A Better Deal, with better jobs, better wages and a better future. We are committed to tilting the playing field back on the side of American workers by creating good-paying, full-time jobs for ten million more Americans in the next five years, breaking the grip of special interests and reducing the soaring everyday costs facing families, and giving every American the tools to succeed in the 21st century with work-based learning, including apprenticeships and on-the-job training. We will fight every day to put economic power back into the hands of the people and will stand firm in demanding ‘Not One Penny’ in tax cuts for the 1 percent.”

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Denver Post on “A Better Deal” following an interview with Nancy Pelosi:

By: The Denver Post Editorial Board

Democrats have a clear vision for how they’d lead the country if in power, and the Republican president has been in office for less than eight months.

A Better Deal — the Democrats’ new economic development and job creation manifesto — was presented to us Wednesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a meeting at The Denver Post. It was developed with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The platform is a sharp contrast to Republicans’ plan to jump start our slow-growing economy with individual and corporate tax cuts.

Pelosi, a brilliant politician who has held command of Democrats in the House for 14 years and has historically produced unity in votes that the GOP must envy, makes a compelling argument for her plan.

But it’s important to note neither approach to job creation has a proven track record: tax cuts don’t always stimulate hiring; and subsidies for employers can be astronomically expensive per job and short lived.

Both will be an experiment.

Both have their merits.

The details of A Better Deal are hazy, but the crux appears to be tax credits for employers who engage in job training and create new long-lasting positions. Pelosi said it would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars to encourage businesses to invest in people the way the current tax code encourages businesses to invest in capital projects.

Other portions of the plan call for building public and private partnerships that create apprenticeship, career and technical programs in community colleges and public schools.

“There’s about 6 million jobs in the country that cannot be filled. Half of them could be filled by people without a college degree. The void that we see is one that is corrected by the tax credits we are talking about for training, and the additional investments in education,” Pelosi said. “Nothing brings more money to the treasury than investing in education.”

Democrats seem to be on the cusp of making promises that could excite those who have felt unmotivated to vote by a liberal agenda focused on other priorities. President Donald Trump has given Democrats a chance to turn the tide.

Pelosi is saying the right things at the moment to sound bipartisan, indicating she could get on board with Republican-proposed tax cuts under the right circumstances.

“We’ve always said we’re willing to lower the corporate tax rate, but you can’t take it down to a place where you don’t come close to having enough revenue,” Pelosi said. “What we’ve said is we want to work with you on this. Let’s do this in a bipartisan way — let’s do it in a way that is revenue neutral. You cannot increase the deficit with your tax cut.”

That’s a very reasonable position and we hope Republicans’ tax plan includes modest reductions in personal and corporate taxes that are paid for in large part by the elimination of loopholes, deductions, credits and other tax expenditures. Not to be hypocritical, we’d also hope that the Democrats’ Better Deal wouldn’t add to the deficit.

Pelosi also condemned in strong words those in her party who aren’t handling Trump’s off-color presidency with grace, showing her willingness to call out despicable behavior.

Pelosi said members of the anti-fascist movement — known as Antifa — are not Democrats, but are largely socialists and Marxists, and that their violence at rallies in California was unacceptable.

Democrats must take the high ground as they respond to Trump, stick to the facts and not fall into the minority-party trap of all criticism and no plan. A Better Deal is a step in that direction.

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