Alan Grayson, a real maverick, takes on the lack of vacation time and the Fed
Blue American’s Alan Grayson has been a maverick -- I mean the real kind -- since he was elected to Congress when nobody said he had a chance to win except of course Blue America. And he is becoming a real leader and not a follower. First, he’s trying to get a bill passed that really does help working-class America:
Howie Klein:
Alan is introducing a bill, the first in (American) history, that guarantees paid vacations. (France guarantees a month of paid vacation per year.)
The bill's provisions, which are expected to meet stiff opposition from Republicans and Blue Dogs poll exceedingly well among average Americans. Nearly 70% of Americans support the idea. This is what Grayson's legislation would accomplish: • Requires one week of paid vacation for employees of companies with at least 100 employees. Three years after passage, the bill extends this requirement to companies with at least 50 employees, and requires two weeks for companies with 100 employees.
• Covers workers after one year on the job. Part-timers must work 25 or more hours a week and 1250 hours per year to be covered.
Read on.
You can be sure that the Blue Dogs and Evan Bayh’s garrison of phonies will do everything they can to block it, but at least Americans are seeing what a good and better Democrat can do.
Now he’s trying to audit the Federal Reserve to see exactly where the 2 trillion dollars that they dished out went.
Last month Charles Grassley tried to push a bill through the Senate which called for the Fed to be audited, but Richard Shelby watered it down before it passed. Now there are 165 cosponsors of Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act in the House, but 135 of them are Republicans. (Bernie Sanders stands alone sponsoring the bill in the Senate.)
Alan Grayson is trying to bring Democrats on board: The Federal Reserve has refused multiple inquiries from both the House and the Senate to disclose who is receiving trillions of dollars from the central banking system. The Federal Reserve has redacted the central terms of the no-bid contracts it has issued to Wall Street firms like Blackrock and PIMCO, without disclosure required of the Treasury, and is participating in new and exotic programs like the trillion-dollar TALF to leverage the Treasury’s balance sheet.
With discussions of allocating even more power to the Federal Reserve as the ‘systemic risk regulator’ of the credit markets, more oversight over the central bank’s operations is clearly necessary. Why is the administration fighting this? Well, it's no secret that Larry Summers would very much like to take over as Fed Chair when Ben Bernanke's term is up next year. Why would he want that kind of scrutiny? But what Larry Summers wants and what is good for the country may be two different things. Please join me, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, James K. Galbraith, Dean Baker, Bill Black, Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, Yves Smith of NakedCapitalism, US PIRG, Public Citizen, Mike Farrell, Digby, Rob Kuttner, Ian Welsh, Bill Greider, Stirling Newberry, ANWF, Les Leopold, Mike Lux and others in supporting Alan Grayson and asking Democratic members of Congress to cosponsor the Federal Reserve Transparency Act.
Where does your member of Congress stand? Find out here. And if they aren't one of the
135136 Republicans or3029 Democrats cosponsoring this bill, why not? Sign the statement here that will be circulated to members of Congress as Rep. Grayson tries to get the 53 more cosponsors needed to pass the bill. And be sure to check the box if you'd like to have your name publicly displayed on the page.
I’m not part of the Ron Paul/anti-Fed crowd who want to return to the gold standard, but we do need transparency, and this makes sense.
Please help support Alan Grayson because he's working for us so we should work with him. If we did return to the gold standard, I'm sure we'd see a bunch of fun, new products. Maybe Ron Popeil will come up with a “Gold Shaver “ that allows you to bring a bar of gold into a store and you will be able to shave off any amount which exactly covers the price of goods that you buy at any store. I’m sure his closing line will be, "It’s so accurate that it’ll shave the exact amount that you have spent -- Right down to the penny!"
All kidding aside, the more we know where the money is going, the better we'll all be in the long run.
So you mean to say you guys don't have paid vacations yet?
We have one month minimum here in Belgium, and since I work for a big profitable international (european) group I have about 45 days per year (the profits should not only benefit ou CEO no?). O and I get one day extra per 5 year I work for that company.
Jeez I thought this was a right every worker in the civilized industrial world enjoyed.
small business people in the U.S. these days is something like . . "1 year ago after being in business only after 3 year we were doing 1 million a year in sales and had 5 full time employee's. This year 2009, we have only sold $20,ooo since January 2009."
What is this thing you call vacation?
I have vacation days saved up, but can't afford to go anywhere, and this being a small family business, they can't really afford to pay me when I'm not there for a week...I can sneak a day off here and there, but I haven't had a real vacation in 10 years at least.
Been there, done that. The longest vacation I've ever had was 2 weeks.
According to my teevee...Americans work harder than any other country and take less vacation time.
Somehow, that doesn't seem right to me.
Still know where to find that girl who whipped up on you from second through fourth grade?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Most large companies in the US have vacation plans. It's not the third world, where the lords and ladies in government can go around telling people how to run their businesses.
and the company is small and struggling just to make payroll (that happens in some small start-ups), that might just crush it out of existence. Then you might be looking for a job after that vacation.
Someone please, please tell me the bill takes things like that into consideration. :|
I am very glad to see he is endorsing Ron Paul's audit the FED bill.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
I had to laugh as I read this as Monday the 25th is my first paid holiday since January 1st of this year and I got what one would prob consider a 'good job' here in the States (decent healthcare, make good money, bosses are cool, etc). Does anyone remember the old dolly parton song '9 to 5'? People use to work 9am to 5pm in the States and you had a PAID lunch hour in there as well. Alot of younger people aren't even aware the '40 hour workweek' in the States used to be actually 35 hours since the employer considered your one hour lunch as part of your work hours and picked up the tab. when did that end? i'm lucky and can only 'take' half an hour lunch and leave half an hour earlier (8.5 hour day) but i know people who work for large companies and they are forced to 'take' an hour lunch break (even if they are stuck at their desks eating and working at the same time) which makes work an actual 9 hour day, 45 hours a week. add long commuting times due to alot of folks not being able to afford to live where they work and alot of americans prob spend at least 11 hours day involved with work between commuting, etc. and no wonder i had to tell my parents I can't make it home for labor day as it's my only day off and i got shit to do. go U.S.A. Corporate tax breaks for all companies! the working class doesn't mind picking up the slack for our whitebread overlords!!
to be a millionaire the highest goal of life here in the land of billionaires?
important if we can't schmooze with Jacqueline Mars?
would not be an example of lofty goals but a demonstration of laziness encouraged by our liberal public schools.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
i mean, other than your 6th grade "graduation"?
You know shit about schools if you can say they're "liberal."
would sit on a whoopee cushion and start sniffing.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
with everything that Ron Paul has stood for, but his bill on auditing the Federal Reserve is a home run hit out of the park and hopefully Grayson can get enough Blue Dogs to jump on, but it will take a big push from all of us to make it known to our elected officials that this move is long over do.
If any organization ( quasi governmental or not ) is going to get to spend trillions of our tax dollars, then they must be required to be audited. We've seen how well the Fed works behind closed doors, we've seen how their banking regulators looked the other way when these exotic financial instruments were let loose in the world markets and other than the Federal Reserve printing monopoly money like there is no tomorrow with nothing of value to back our dollars, this move is nearly 100 years too late in coming.
If there isn't any collusion between those lobbying for the banks and our elected officials, then there is nothing to hide. Audit the Fed and tell the American people where all of their future earnings are going and to whom. Sign the petition and send a clear message to Congress. Enough is enough!
long-term UNpaid vacations - and many millions more are now expereinceing the wonders of not having a job. I certainly agree that paid vacation is something folks should have, but why waste time now on legislation for vacations????
Why not work on ways to develop new employment opportunities so people would have a reason to need a vacation?
Why not work on fixing the financial mess caused by the criminal cabal that controls all the banks?? Why not get rid of the Fed and let the US Treasury create our money out of thin air?? At least we wouldn't have to pay interest on it as soon as it rolls off the presses.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
This bill seems to me a pretty good and necessary bill if we are to ever get a handle on what is being done with taxpayer dollars. I have never trusted the FED since the FED was given the authority to print money.
Not knowing much about what goes into the audit process, what kind of strains would this put on the current workings of government institutions? Why are so few Democrats not supporting this bill so far? Is it a timing issue?
perhaps he can throw some light on it.
I don't have the time to listen to a long convoluted grumbling that ultimately will not answer the question.
boycott completely those people who own piles of money and who coldly pass by their brother even when they see that he is scorched with poverty and dying of hunger.
This is really the only way this will happen.
...before everybody finally gets that they serve only themselves? What we really need, is a bill to abolish the Fed and the whole idea of a fractional reserve, central bank-based monetary system. Return all those power back to the government (People) where they belong.
can get us back on our feet at this point. Until then we'll keep the Corpse'orations on life support until we finally wake up and realize the way things wuz is is not the way things iz.
Bank On It: How Cash-Starved States Can Create Their Own Credit
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
would install Summers in the Fed?
I mean, other than the fact that they're both totally sold-out, co-opted sycophants to the Banksters?
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/03/...
Didn't we elect any more overacheivers who will champion gthe leisure time of the underacheivers?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Another *plus* of the guaranteed vacations in Europe is that whole nations tend to take their vacations at more or less the same time.
Everyone chills out together - except of course the people who work at the resorts, the beaches, etc.
Result?
More cohesion among the workers!!
btw .. latest statistics I've seen show that Americans work approx 2000 hours per year. French? 1600.
400 fewer hours. TEN fewer weeks per year.
Productivity? Slightly higher in France!!!
And, similarly, everyone takes a full lunch hour in France. None of this stuffing your mouth with one hand while you're ringing out customers at the cash register with the other hand as in the US.
OF COURSE we're supposed to hate the French!! If we knew how good they have life WE would want it too!!
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
was the cohesive French airline workers rolling burning tires down the runways at Orly and DeGaulle. We landed in Brussels and got taken to Paris by bus. The bus driver dropped us off at DeGaulle.
By then the cohesive train and local bus workers had joined their airline brothers and sisters on strike. Nothing like a Paris vacation in an airline terminal. Of course it was long ago and conditioned me for the post 9/11 world.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
This is dumb, if you work at a place that doesn't offer vacation time and that annoys you...go work somewhere else. I think it's called freedom. Here's a better idea, get an education and make something of yourself and I'll just bet the place you end up working at will have a nice benefits and vacation package. Ah personal responsibility, what a concept.
Dear Dems in Congress,
The REAL Dems...
If your weedy asses have grown so accustomed to regular sodomizing by republicans that you can't even stand up when you have a majority in both the House and the Senate and a Democrat in the White House to boot, then, all of you should resign first thing in the morning. I'd rather have a minority of sharp, courageous, fighters representing me in Congress than a majority of milquetoast pantywaists any day of the week. So lively up yourself or fuck off.
Dear Harry Reid,
Sir, as far as anyone can tell, you quit a long time ago, so why do you keep hanging around? If all you know how to do is roll over, then, my dog who can also sit, fetch, and lie down on command has a greater repertoire than you. Let's put him in your seat.
Oh yeah...not only do people expect to get paid for doing nothing, now they want a LAW FORCING companies to pay people for doing nothing. Hey, when you get hired you are informed about all the benefits, pay, etc....If you don't like them, don't take the job. There are a lot of us small businesses who are just having trouble paying the bills and surviving without the government, who are already taxing us to death on the erroneous assupption that we are all rich, sticking their snouts into every aspect of our businesses. Of COURSE 70% of people "support" it...they are on the receiving end...and they'll be the first to start whining when their companies go bankrupt and they lose their jobs altogether.
Usual Libertarian corporation-loving bullshit.
Every goddamn thing you OWN is made by a corporation. I am a small business owner---REAL small...and I haven't taken a paycheck in 4 years...we wouldn't be surviving if it weren't for my Social Security...so you can take your communist bullshit and shove it...This is the REAL world. You have no "right" to paid vacations, medical insurance, holidays, child care, weekends off, or anything else...These are not "rights", they are negotiated settlements when you apply for a job. You want socialism, go to Venezuela...Just stay off the streets and toe the party line.
Most of the 30 nations of the European Union are run by conservative governments; socialists are a minority and there are NO communist rulers. Still, the EU requires its members to set a minimum standard of four weeks (some get 6) paid vacation per year.
Also, this prosperous body of 400 million people is considering increasing the minimum period of maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks and paying women 100% of their salary beyond the current minimum of paying at least equivalent to sick pay.
While Ron Paul and his friends think that gold is the bestest stuff on earth, what Paul really would like to see is a free market of competing currencies. He happens to believe that gold-backed currencies would win out, but I don't think so. I'm not sure exactly which one would have the most users, but I think only rich investors would be using gold.
.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
but both gold and silver are moving higher into historic prices. The reason the gold standard works is because it has been the only honest money that mankind has known for over five thousand years. Today, for every Fed owned bank that takes in one dollar, they lend nine. This is nothing other than a gigantic ponzi scam. Our Constitution never called for a central bank, but rather a US Treasury with dollars backed by gold and silver. in 1913, Congress sold their own people out to the bankers and to this day many continue to accept handouts from the most powerful lobby in D.C.
Gold and silver backing of our dollars worked for over 170 years until the Fed was created in 1913 and as President Wilson had said, it was the greatest mistake of his tenure in office.
The rest of the worlds players know the value of honest, real money which is why the dollar is dropping like a rock as I write this. Kennedy know what had to be done and brought us back to the silver standard, yet after his death, those notes were taken out of circulation. Why? Because real money was infringing on monopoly money which the Fed creates out of thin air.
Hopefully many more Blue Dog Dem's will jump on board, but we have to make our voices heard. Sign the petition and write to your elected officials. It is way past time for the "Creature From Jekyll Island" to be slain.
What we have now is "fiat" currency...it isn't worth anything. The only "value" it has is peoples' "faith" in it (and remember that "F-I-A-T" stands for "Fix it again, Tony!"...) Our currency needs to be pegged to something that does not change. Here's an idea...how about pegging the dollar to labor. Labor, after all, is that activity which adds value to any product. You could start with "simple labor"...the simplest kind...moving rocks from one place to another by hand without tools...that'd be worth, say, $5 an hour...or whatever...using a simple tool, a shovel, increases the value, and so on...granted it would take a lot of analysis to come up with a reasonably comprehensive list of activities and their values, but they wouldn't be subject to inflation, change, or whatever...just an idea...
Alan Grayson makes Central FL Progressives proud!
We have done a VERY POOR JOB in explaining to everyone that the FED is a PRIVATE BANK.
Tell me why the new President wants to take our financial power AWAY from our government (Treasury) and give it to the PRIVATE BANKSTERS WHO RUN WALL STREET (FED)?
WHY?
Why has nobody discussed this. Why is it? Because no one realizes the FED is not a government agency. They have just co opted the name of a government agency for their bank NAME. But they are no different than Bank of America or Bank of New York, etc. They're BIGGER yes, but they are NOT American. They are a trans national private bank.
and if only 50% of the population knew that you would surely see a revolt.... I know the FED is keeping a close eye on that possibility since they recently hired Linda Robertson, who currently heads up public relations for Johns Hopkins University to boost their image.
In history I think that two other Presidents took them on and lost. Jackson was one I forgot the other one both of course lost. It would be great to see them taken on and humbled because they are a bank, but a bank that lends to the Federal Gov. That is what makes them scary.
Jackson actually won, in the end. Lincoln was patriotic enough to tell the "fed" to stuff their 15% interest and created a currency based on GDP. These were "greenbacks". Presidents were weaker after that, and eventually we had both greenbacks and gold reserve notes, and then final capitulation under Wilson and a bribed Congress. Our currency is based on how much gov't debt we borrow from the Fed bank and is valued internationally by something nebulous, called "confidence". Our currency is not based on our GDP.
As someone who would not be covered under this vacation bill because I work part time, I want to mention that there are lots of people who work part time BECAUSE it gets the business out of their obligation to give benefits. Part time workers should get pro-rated benefits at exactly the same rate as full-time workers to close that loophole.
by the way, Could we pass a law saying that any corporation that has a lobbyist must make their tax returns public?
Very disappointing to hear Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act just failed in the Senate. And even more disappointing was the virtual blackout of media (including the dismal account here at CAL - besides the Matt Taibbi and RFK jr video which was posted)pertaining to the new bill in the first place. I know if other people like my old conservative family back home heard about the pending legislation they would've made the calls.
Waiting to see if the bill can at least cast more light on the 'black box' which is the Federal Reserve now.
Does seem quite odd and hypocritical for Obama to have a seemingly transparent account for his federal offices except for FED, which is probably the most important as of lately.
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