by digby
Presidential Proclamation on Labor Day, 2018
On Labor Day, we celebrate the American worker: the bulwark of our national prosperity and the cornerstone of our national greatness. Since taking office, my Administration has sought to restore the obligation of loyalty and allegiance that this Nation’s Government owes to its workers. In all economic decisions, we believe in our sovereign obligation to defend and protect our country’s workforce, and to seek its economic interests above that of any other country. America’s workers pay our taxes, support our values, serve in our military, raise our children, protect our Constitution, and build our communities. They deserve, in return, the unwavering fidelity of their Government.
Guided by this obligation, my Administration has taken historic action to advance prosperity for the American worker: cutting their taxes, eliminating regulations that threaten their jobs, unleashing American energy that powers their lives, restoring American manufacturing, and ending the transfer of wealth out of our country through disastrous trade deals that gutted our industries and our national strength. The result of our pro-America economic policies have been extraordinary: currently, in America, there are a record 162 million people working; initial claims for jobless benefits are at their lowest in half a century; and the unemployment rate of 3.9 percent is historically low.
We have also taken historic action to defend the American worker by upholding and enforcing the immigration laws enacted for their protection ‑‑ and by seeking to reform our immigration system so that it protects the jobs, wages, and livelihoods of our Nation’s workers. Further, as we honor the work of all those in our labor force, we are especially mindful of the dignity gained from a hard day’s work. Thousands of Americans have found a renewed sense of purpose in our resurgent economy. The dedication, resolve, and pride of the American worker are the reason our Nation has achieved prosperity that was once thought unattainable.
Blah, blah,blah, me, me, me for two more long paragraphs, then:
We also recognize and honor the proud and historic role of our Nation’s labor unions in advocating for the interests of the American worker and wage-earner ‑‑ and we have kept our promise to always keep the White House door open to members and leaders of our country’s labor organizations.
Trade, trade, trade, me, me, me, a bunch of stuff that someone else wrote about “our magnificent Republic” and then the signature.
Nobody can remember a president ever using the occasion to brag about his own “achievements”
This morning he marked the day with this:
Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend. Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
He was responding to this, all of which is true:
“Unfortunately, to date, the things that he has done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers,” Trumka said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Trumka’s comments, made one day before Labor Day, come after Trump on Friday issued a statement praising labor unions. Trump lauded organized labor for “advocating for the interests of the American worker and wage-earner.”
But Trumka on Sunday criticized a number of Trump’s policy decisions.
“He hasn’t come up with an infrastructure program that could put a lot of us back to work,” Trumka said. “He overturned a regulation that would deny over 5 million overtime that they would’ve had. He overturned some health and safety regulations that will hurt us on the job.”
“We keep trying to find areas where we can work with him,” he added.
Trumka has praised Trump in the past for his stance on U.S. trade policies, but has called the president a disappointment, charging that Trump has “used his office to actively hurt working people.”
“If President Trump wants to change course and join us in the fight to raise wages and standards, and strengthen our democracy and build better lives, then we’ll be ready,” Trumka said in January. “But if he continues down his current path, workers will be looking for a new president in 2020.”
Fox News host Chris Wallace also pressed Trumka on the state of the economy, pointing to low unemployment numbers and suggesting that Trump deserved credit.
“Those are good, but wages have been down since the first of the year,” Trumka said. “Gas prices have been up since the first year. So overall, workers aren’t doing as well.”
To paraphrase Kanye before he became a Trump voter: Trump doesn’t care about working people.
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