Gov't Workers Demand Pay As Clinton, Congress Prepare To Slash Social Wage
BY MARTÍN KOPPEL
As 1996 began, the Clinton administration and leaders of both parties in
Congress stepped up their joint campaign for deep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid,
and other social gains of working people - all under the banner of "balancing
the budget" within the next seven years.
But as capitalist politicians used a partial shutdown of federal offices to try
to drive through the cutback plans, their decision to force half a million
government employees to work without pay backfired. Federal workers staged
protests in the U.S. capital and many other cities January 3. The White House
and Congress were forced to back off from the blatant assault on federal
workers, but pressed ahead on the overall bipartisan effort to gut entitlements.
After orchestrating a three-week shutdown of numerous federal offices and
cutting off pay for 760,000 government employees, White House officials and
Congressional leaders announced they were closer to an agreement on cutbacks in
social spending.
On January 6 President Bill Clinton announced his latest plan. He proposed
slashing Medicare payments for retired people by $102 billion. The president
also called for reductions in Medicaid, a program covering impoverished working
people, by $52 billion.
The White House has proposed a series of other attacks on social benefits as
well, such as raising monthly Medicare premiums, now $46, to $77 over the next
seven years.
The Republican Congressional leaders countered with their latest proposal - to
chop Medicare by $168 billion and Medicaid by $89 billion.
At the same time, both sides have also called for billions of dollars in tax
cuts for the wealthy.
Each round of negotiations has shifted the bipartisan debate toward sharper
attacks on these social gains. The White House, for example, had previously
called for axing Medicare by $97 billion and Medicaid by $37 billion. Announcing
his latest proposal, the Democratic president declared it was time to "put aside
partisanship and work to craft a balanced-budget agreement that upholds our
values."
In the bipartisan dance over the budget, Clinton has postured as an alternative
to the "heartless" Republicans whose measures would hurt the aged and poor. A
January 9 editorial in the New York Times, however, while backing what it called
Clinton's "less harmful budget," acknowledged that the differences between the
White House and Congressional positions were somewhat "illusory."
Because of number-juggling, the proposed cuts might all be considerably greater
than the figures cited. Clinton's seven-year plan, the Times editorial noted,
piles up many of its cuts in the last two years, so that by the year 2002
spending "might be cut by 30 percent or more."
The Democratic administration, in fact, has been the driving force in the
assault on welfare programs. Clinton has taken the initiative since the 1992
election campaign, with his vow to "end welfare as we know it." While
criticizing the Republican cutback proposals as too "tough on children," Clinton
has continued to call for gutting the program. In December the administration
proposed making most "legal" immigrants ineligible for the Supplemental Security
Income program.
Clinton vetoed a Republican welfare "reform" bill January 9. The bill would end
the federal guarantee of welfare payments for all those deemed eligible for it,
and instead would give each state government a fixed sum of federal funds to
dole out. The president chided the Republican plan, saying it did "too little to
move people from welfare to work."
In mid-December, a quarter of a million federal employees were laid off when
Congress let government agencies' spending authority expire. Federal offices,
from the Social Security Administration to passport offices, were closed for
three weeks. Others, such as the Pentagon and the postal service, remained open.
Some 480,000 workers involved in "essential services" were required to stay on
the job, but were told they would not receive their paychecks until a budget
deal was concluded. Both Democratic and Republican politicians used the shutdown
to press their case for social cutbacks.
Protests by federal workers
As the shutdown dragged on, 96,000 federal employees were forced to apply for
unemployment compensation. The House of Representatives voted December 30 to
order the 260,000 laid-off employees to return to work with no pay January 2.
This added insult to injury, and government workers took to the streets. Members
of the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions held protest
rallies January 3 at the State Department and other federal offices.
"To me, it's a higher class of slavery," said a furious Aleta Hicks, who works
as a secretary at the Justice Department. "They are not physically preventing me
from going home. But if I choose to, I risk repercussions later on, a reprimand,
a warning, even loss of my job."
Working people were incensed at the arrogant statements of Congresspeople such
as George Nethercutt, who justified the mass layoffs by declaring, "It's a
greater principle than just today's federal worker." Further outrage was sparked
by a federal judge who rejected a request by the federal employees unions to
prohibit the government from forcing workers back to their jobs without pay.
Faced with the prospect of growing protests and public support for the workers,
Congress backed down. By the end of the week it voted to end the shutdown of
federal offices and reinstate pay for employees who had been forced to remain at
their jobs.
Budget talks, which were suspended for a few days, are due to resume after
Clinton returns from a trip to Bosnia to rally support for Washington's war
drive there.
FLASHBACK, Gov't Workers Demand Pay As Clinton, Congress Prepare To Slash Social Wage. (May get a repeat starting this Friday) 
Linear Mode
