Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate Gina Raimondo: Corporate media loved her anti-worker stance
It’s unusual for the Rhode Island Democratic gubernatorial primary to attract national media attention. But this year’s race was seen as a referendum on cutting workers’ pensions, so corporate media outlets wanted to weigh in–against the workers.
The race saw state treasurer Gina Raimondo prevail, and this was good news for those who believe that the right thing to do about underfunded state pension is to cut benefits. We’re told again and again that states simply cannot pay what they’ve promised to public sector workers–who are often targeted for being overpaid anyway (Extra!, 1/11).
The Washington Post (9/10/14) was unsurprisingly happy with the primary’s result, noting that Raimondo faced down “ferocious opposition from labor” because she had dared to explain “the plain budgetary impossibility of maintaining pensions” as promised. To the Post, “her primary victory is an encouraging sign that many voters, including Democrats, have woken up to the peril posed by years of reckless promises by office-holders beholden to public-employee unions.”
Anything that hurts labor unions, workers and moves Democrats to the right must be something to cheer about.
Dean Baker
Economist Dean Baker (Beat the Press, 9/11/14) took exception to the Post‘s argument pointing out (as he has for years now) that the Post used scary-sounding big numbers ($1 trillion!) to portray this looming fiscal disaster–a far more effective tactic, Baker writes, than saying that “the shortfall is equal to about 0.2 percent of projected GDP over the 30-year planning horizon of public pensions.” That doesn’t sound nearly as frightful.
Baker offered a modest proposal for an alternative way to balance the state budget:
If the state of Rhode Island really can’t afford to pay its bills, why should public sector workers be the only ones to pay the price. The state has hundreds or even thousands of contractors. Why not short them all 10 or 20 percent of their payments? That would be the fairest way to deal with the situation if the state really can’t pay its bills or raise the taxes needed to do so. Obviously the Post doesn’t believe that contracts with workers are real contracts.
But such opinions are for the editorial page, right? Except when they creep into news reporting, as in a New York Times story (9/9/14) about the Rhode Island primary. FAIR alum Ben Somberg spotted this language from the Times:
Analysts were already predicting that if she won in November, Ms. Raimondo could go on to become a national star in the party, showing fellow Democrats that responsible policy is not necessarily bad politics, although organized labor may choose to differ.
Whoever the “analysts” are, the message is pretty clear: Cutting workers’ promised benefits is considered the “responsible policy.” Times public editor Margaret Sullivan received a few complaints about the language, and she wrote (9/12/14) that she agreed with the critics. Though not always spelled out so explicitly, such attitudes permeate pension coverage.
“Personal Responsibility” in public policy is Reneging on the public’s promise to its workers. How…Orwellian…
F—k all of these republicrats.
Sorry, suckers. But your tax monies were all used up to bail out, your betters, the investment class. The working class just has to suck it up…
Be well.
“Responsible” ? Yes we all know who these human leeches and the political functionaries they promote are “responsible” to. Neither WaPo or NYT should have an ounce of credibility left. Why anyone other than their oligarchic boards and the political slime that use them should patronize either paper at all is beyond me. I don’t trust even the DATE they publish at the top of the page anymore.
“Personal Responsibility” = another “code word” by the right wing ALEC supporters vs. democratic government. ALEC=Plutocrats United.
“Personal Responsibility” means
“pull yourself up by your bootstraps after you’re laid off of your job after 19 years at age 45, and oops! Sorry about your pension!”
One more reason to not vote Democratic. I for one will vote a straight Republican ticket this year (god forbid me). The party must be purged of the Obama/Clinton/Lanny Davis crud within the party. Social Security is next.
davi
Well then, if she is certain that we must all be “responsible” then she can lose her Pension (which I am willing to bet is 10 times what any normal worker is making) and be paid the same wages as the workers she is diss’ing. In fact, since she is so ‘responsible’ she can volunteer to do the job for free, with no pension what so ever.
A fight against labor is against every worker, and produces a middle-class slide to the bottom. Retirees, now too old to get a job, that after decades of contract negotiations that often included keeping retirement benefits rather than getting equitable current pay should not have their retirement cut. Fair taxation of the 1% would fill the coffers. Preying on the old, the sick, and the weak is a coward’s fight. But our congress and legislatures are filled with cowards.
Rather than targeting those who valued retirement benefits over better hourly wages with after the fact pension reductions, why not simply level the playing field, and make comprehensive changes to the laws of contracts – and make all contracts henceforth, invalid for all persons unable to immediately pay cash for bargained goods and services? Although this is not the best possible suggestion, at least it is more fair than that advocated by Raimondo and others in the plunder and pillage political groups!
@ marcus: “Neither WaPo or NYT should have an ounce of credibility left.” WaPo has obviously sold out to the 0.1% and features sock puppets Charles Krauthammer and George Will, but the NYT has done slightly better, with news articles and columns that address current issues sensibly.
Apparently, though, somebody up high at the Times loves to shoot animals with military assault weapons, its editorial board still won’t say that global warming is on track to exterminate mankind, and it prints David Brooks’s roundabout support for Republican nihilists twice a week.
On second thought, I have to agree with you.
On third thought, The New York Times is well worth reading and far and away the best major media publication in the U.S.
It’s September 15 treatment of the auto safety crisis, including the decades-long incompetence of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was as good as journalism gets.
The Times has been disappointing on gun controls and global warming, but even on those subjects it keeps its readers well informed.
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