Battling back against Trump's 'Big Ugly Bill:' State AFL-CIO starts training program for union members who want to run for office

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT-KEA/NEA retiree

Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is “just another example of a system that keeps handing more and more to the richest thousand people in this country, while millions of working people are told to settle for less,” said Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Dustin Reinstedler. “And the most heartbreaking part is that some of the very people who will be hurt the most are still voting these politicians into office.”

To help put more worker-friendly candidates in office, the state AFL-CIO “has launched a new candidate training program to prepare union members—regardless of political party—to run for office as strong pro-worker candidates,” Reinstedler said. “The goal is simple: stop waiting for someone else to fix it.

"We can’t sit around and complain if we aren’t offering a solution. At some point soon, the American working class will wake up and start electing candidates who represent them—not big corporations and the wealthy. And we’re making sure those candidates are ready.”

Historian and author Lawrence Wittner's critique of Trump's budget bill is in line with Reinstedler's. "Of course, this kind of class legislation and the greed that inspires it are nothing new," he wrote. "Throughout history, some people have amassed great fortunes, often with the assistance of governments and other powerful entities.” 

Added Wittner, a professor emeritus at SUNY/Albany, retiree member of the United University Professions union and a UUP member of the Albany County Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Executive Board: “Kings, princes, and their courtiers provided themselves with castles, vast landed estates, and other perquisites of wealth, while millions of their subjects lived in miserable huts and dug a few potatoes out of their fields in a desperate effort to survive. In later years, this situation was replicated to some extent as business titans garnered great wealth by exploiting workers in factories, mines, and fields.”

Trump signed the bill into law on July 4 after it narrowly passed the Senate and House. All Democratic senators and representatives voted against the legislation, with only a handful of Republicans opposing the measure. (They included Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie, both of whom said the bill would balloon the deficit.)

The bill, according to The Guardian’s Steven Greenhouse, “would make significant cuts to Medicaid, Obamacare, and food assistance, and would do the greatest damage to those Americans struggling hardest to make ends meet – the 30% of the US population that lives in households earning under $50,000 a year.” 

He added, “even as Trump and Republican lawmakers are rushing to cut over $1.4tn in health and food assistance for non-affluent Americans, Trump continues to pressure Congress to extend over $3tn in tax cuts that disproportionately help the wealthy and corporations.”

Warned AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: “Senate Republicans claimed to stand with working people, then picked our pockets to deliver a nearly $5 trillion gift to billionaires. Every senator who voted for this budget bill chose to make working families poorer, sicker and less safe. 

“Senators had a chance to correct the damage of the House version of the budget, but they’ve doubled down to make this job-killer even worse. While we are relieved that advocacy from the labor movement and allies pulled a dangerous provision on the regulation of artificial intelligence, the overwhelming harm of this reckless bill for working families cannot be overstated. 

“The value of any policy like a temporary tax break on tips or overtime will be more than wiped out by higher health care and energy costs—or worse, the loss of jobs altogether. There are 17 million Americans who will lose their health care, hospitals and nursing homes will close, millions will lose their jobs, and everyone will be forced to pay higher daily costs—all while driving resources to a nasty mass deportation effort that will disrupt the country’s workforce across industries and lead to more layoffs for everyone.”

Reinstedler agreed: “As a Kentuckian who has studied the recent analysis of this ‘big ugly bill’ pertaining to our commonwealth, I know the loss of hospitals, healthcare, jobs, meals for children, and much more that Kentucky will soon face.”