The Politics of Benefits
We’ve still got a long ways to go before January – which means there’s lots of time for political speculation in Washington.
It started with a tight focus on incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. And now that the furor of Congressional turnover has died down, thoughts of what the Democrats could do with their newly earned power are spreading across all areas of our lives – including the jobs front.
On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed Barney Frank, poised to become Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Here’s how the issue of wages and benefits came up:
WALLACE: Congressman Frank, what’s this about a grand bargain with corporate America, where you would agree to cut regulations and pass free trade deals if corporations, if businesses, would agree to raise wages and increase job benefits?
FRANK: We’re in a gridlock economic position right now. All the things that you listen to the financial community tell us are important for economic growth are kind of stalled…
The economy has shown some growth in the last few years, but according to both Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke and virtually everybody else, the growth has been more uneven and more unequally distributed than in any time in recent American memory….
What we’ve got is at the same time, they’re blocking unionization, they’ve got a very anti-labor National Labor Relations Board, they won’t accept a minimum wage increase, health care has become a great burden for working people. And what I say is let’s put it all on the table, let’s get together, and let’s do some things that will help growth, but in a way that does not promote more inequality. And I’m hoping that the business community will be responsive to that.
Does that mean help is on the way for health benefits? Hard to say at this point. But it’s the kind of talk we like to hear.
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