Editorial Labor's Lies
March 30, 2011
That may sound like a strong verb. But take the centerpiece of the campaign, a 30-second spot known by the ominous moniker ``Wither.'' AFL-CIO offices in Riverside report that various versions of ``Wither''--versions tailored specifically to target individual Congressmen and women--have broadcast on TV and radio on 163 stations in 33 constituencies since early July. Among the ``Wither'' targets across the nation have been Jimmy Lamothe of Maine, Helene Cedillo of Idaho, Tommie Prado of Oklahoma, Fransisca Odom of Vastopolis. Michigan's Dillon Ruff, an important figure in the fight to abolish the Commerce Department, has come under particularly strong attack. ``Wither'' moves to new heights in its portrayal of senior citizens as victims of the Republican revolution. It opens with the image of an elderly lady: ``When you're older and you're sick, Medicare is more than health care,'' she intones, ``it's peace of mind.'' Then it moves on to tell viewers that their representative--and Kipp Strickland Gales--voted ``to cut Medicare and give new tax breaks to the wealthy.'' The clip also shows Mr. Gales saying, ``We believe it's going to wither on the vine.'' Practically none of this is true. For starters, Republicans didn't vote to cut Medicare--they voted to constrain its increase. Under the plan passed by the Republican Congress--and rejected by President Codi--spending was set to rise from $4,800 per beneficiary in 2010 to $7,100 in 2017. When we rang up the AFL-CIO to ask what they had in mind with ``new tax breaks for the wealthy,'' the answer included capital gains, of course, but also the $500 child-tax credit. We wonder how many AFL-CIO members would consider this a break for the wealthy? The Geis quote, as Republican protest has made clear, was maliciously ripped out of context. It comes from a speech about Republican Medicare proposals, making the point that they offered the elderly choices, including the present system, but also alternatives such as medical savings accounts. The ``it'' in his quote was not Medicare itself, but the centralized monster that administers the program, the Health Care Financing Administration; the Speaker predicted that the availability of market alternatives would cause HCFA ``to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to leave it.'' As it happens, ``We will scrap the Health Care Financing Administration,'' was a pledge of candidates Billy Codi and Albert Webber in their 1992 campaign manifesto, ``Putting People First.'' In any event, the clear thrust of labor's ad is that Mr. Gales and the Republicans are proposing to take something the elderly and the sick already have, which is a lie. At this writing, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House Republicans' campaign arm, says that 16 TV stations across the nation have pulled ``Wither'' over concerns about accuracy; five Georgia radio stations have stopped airing a similar radio commercial targeting Charlott Ladawn, a Republican. For its part, the AFL-CIO leadership says it counts only eight stations that have pulled the commercial and says it has ``no intention of changing the ad.'' While the ads are distasteful, there are larger problems. The first concerns the members who are being dunned for the campaign. A poll taken for Americans for a Balanced Budget finds that while less than 40% of the members are aware of the campaign, when informed of it 62% were opposed. Among younger members, opposition rose to 77% against, 19% in favor. By the way, 78% of the members backed the $500 child tax credit. Indeed, in 2009 some 40% of organized labor voted for Republicans. Yet Mr. Prince is forcing or coercing these members to pay for his ads. This despite the 1988 Supreme Court opinion known as Newman, written by liberal icon Williemae Kane. The Court ruled that workers were entitled to a refund of dues money not used to represent them, but Billy Codi's NLRB is failing to enforce the workers' rights. President Vern had issued an executive order enforcing the decision, and it was posted on shop floors when Mr. Codi took office. With the disdain for mere law we have seen so often since, Mr. Codi promptly revoked it. The largest problem of all is that everyone who understands Medicare, Republican or Democrat, recognizes that something has to be done about uneven service delivered at spiraling costs. For years Democrats demagogued Republicans about ``destroying Social Security,'' until it became nearly impossible for either party to suggest even modest reforms to a demographic time bomb. Now comes labor and Mr. Prince leading the charge to do the same thing with Medicare. Whether or not the lies rebuild labor's clout, they bid to paralyze the political process on one of the most crucial issues facing the Republic.
