Issues: Jobs

American Bridge response to Trump Administration abandoning 4 million Americans being denied overtime pay 

American Bridge President Jessica Mackler released the following statement after the Department of Justice announced it would stop defending the Obama Administration’s rule guaranteeing that approximately 4 million Americans would no longer be denied the overtime pay that they earn: 

“Donald Trump personally screwed over hundreds of employees by refusing to pay their overtime and now he’s using the Justice Department to slash the paychecks of 4 million hard-working Americans who will not receive the overtime pay ​that ​they earn. This is Trump’s latest action that is at odds with his campaign trail rhetoric, and ​it ​further shows how his economic agenda is solely designed to further rig the American economy for the rich – including Trump himself – at the expense of American workers. The American Dream is moving farther and father out of reach of our country’s workers and Donald Trump is to blame.” 

Read more after the jump.

Trump Economy Jobs Report: 178,750+ Announced Layoffs

After 225 days as President, Donald Trump still hasn’t come up with a comprehensive plan for creating and protecting good-paying American jobs. Nor has Trump so much as begun to follow through on his campaign promise to begin a large-scale rebuilding of the country’s crumbling infrastructure.

The result: across the country, 178,752 American workers that Trump sold out and left behind have received pink slips since Trump took his oath of office, according to American Bridge’s TrumpEconomy.com project.

“Despite Trump’s promises to rebuild our infrastructure and create good-paying American jobs, his first priority was to take away our healthcare access to cut his own taxes, and now he’s throwing all his weight behind even more big tax cuts for himself, his family, and billionaire CEOs,” said American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah. “All of that — plus Trump paying his own businesses millions in taxpayer dollars — proves once again that […]

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Donald Trump’s inaction on China and trade shows working Americans are on their own

Donald Trump made trade the bedrock of his appeal to the American people, promising that “he alone” could fundamentally remake American trade policy and deliver new economic opportunities for struggling working and middle class families.

However, 205 days into his presidency, Trump still hasn’t produced a jobs plan – the top priority of the American public – and his incompetent, bickering administration’s only “accomplishments” continue to be glorified press releases.

Today, Donald Trump’s announced that he is requesting that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative determine if there should be an investigation into China’s relentless, systematic theft of American trade secrets – which worsens job loss and the overall economic pain felt by working people as the global economy rapidly changes under their feet.

Both parties have known for years that this hacking done by China is a rampant economic drain on the United States, and requesting a possible investigation into whether this […]

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Trump Economy Update: 157,735 Announced Layoffs

In conjunction with today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report, American Bridge released its latest TrumpEconomy.com tabulation of announced layoffs since Donald Trump took office.

At least 157,735 American workers have been given pink slips in the just over six months since Trump’s inauguration, but President Trump has done nothing to meaningfully protect or create American jobs. Instead of introducing a bold jobs plan or comprehensive infrastructure bill, Trump has spent all of his political capital trying to slash his own tax rate with a series of dangerous health care bills that’d strip health insurance away from anywhere between 16 and 32 million Americans.

“Trump’s economy isn’t working for the middle-class and his lies and broken promises are exactly why. From ditching promises to invest in infrastructure to pushing a sham ‘healthcare’ bill that was really a tax cut for the rich, the President has done next to nothing for American jobs since […]

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Undermining the American Dream: Trump Attacks American Values, Working Families

Trump Policies Make It Harder For Working People To Get Ahead

The Trump White House has officially designated this week “American Dreams Week,” so what better an opportunity to look at the myriad of ways that Trump’s agenda has already made life more difficult for American working people. From proposing massive cuts to key job training programs and making it harder for Americans to buy a home, to unilaterally imposing discriminatory immigration policies, Donald Trump has repeatedly proven he has no reverence for the values and ideals that have come to define the American Dream.

“From Day One, when he signed an executive order ensuring 40,000 Americans were unable to buy homes in 2017, Donald Trump has gone out of his way to make life more difficult for everyday Americans, while further rigging the economy in favor of himself, the top 1%, and big corporations,” said American Bridge Vice […]

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Banking On Obstruction

Tonight at midnight, with the expiration of the Export-Import Bank, Republicans will put their quest for the Kochs’ support ahead of American jobs. The bank’s renewal would usually go without a hitch, but the Kochs’ huge lobbying push through Americans for Prosperity has thrown a wrench in an already dysfunctional GOP-led Congress. The Kochs’ (highly hypocritical) opposition to the bank is, like everything else they do, purely profit-driven. Their crusade against the bank is not fueled by free market values but greed. By dismantling the 81-year-old bank, Republicans are putting American jobs and the economy at risk, all because their billionaire puppet masters want to boost their bottom line.

Read more about the Kochs and the Ex-Im in the Bridge Project report, “Banking On Obstruction.”

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GOP Shutdown Sells Out Small Business

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Members of Congress – both Democratic and Republican – have long touted the merits of America’s small businesses. The value of small businesses as job creators and pillars of the local community are one of the few views shared by both parties. However, Republicans are demonstrating that their affection for small businesses is not deep enough to warrant any action beyond hollow rhetoric.

With the deadline to raise the debt limit looming, Republicans have been holding the economy hostage and threatening to let the nation default unless President Obama and Democrats give in to right-wing demands. In 2011, the mere threat of default caused significant damage for small businesses and the economy; an actual default – attributable solely to Republican intransigence – would be catastrophic, rivaling the 2008 economic crisis. Yet many conservatives dismiss the potential consequences of their actions, and have convinced Speaker Boehner to follow them down this perilous path.

Although Republicans have justified their opposition to the Affordable Care Act by falsely claiming that it will hurt small businesses and kill jobs, their decision to shut down the government in a desperate attempt to stop the health care law has led to actual suffering for small businesses. The Republican shutdown has created crippling uncertainty in the form of cancelled ongoing work, delayed payments, collapsed consumer confidence, and Small Business Administration loans “in limbo.” But Republicans show no signs of concern for the small business owners they purport to defend.

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60 Plus Association: “Clear”

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The 60 Plus criticizes Rep. Ron Barber (D-AZ) for supporting President Obama, blaming the president’s policies for the number of Americans who are still looking for work or receiving food stamps. The truth is that Obama inherited an economy that was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs per month and forcing millions of Americans to rely on government assistance, as Americans suffered through the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Today the economy is growing, the private sector has added almost 5 million new jobs in the last 32 straight months, and consumer confidence has climbed to its highest level since February 2008. The ad also blames the Obama for the rising debt, but the real culprits are Bush-era policies and the recession itself, and Republicans have repeatedly blocked Obama’s deficit-reduction proposals.

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Ending Spending: “Spending Our Future Away”

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Ending Spending claims that Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) is “spending our future away,” connecting his support for the health care law and the Recovery Act to the rising debt. However, the Affordable Care Act actually reduces the deficit, while the stimulus bill created jobs and helped rescue the economy from a deeper recession. In reality, Bush administration policies and the recession itself caused deficits to explode in recent years.

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U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “PA Senate – Bob Casey”

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce accuses Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) of “voting against western Pennsylvania” by supporting the health care law, a cap-and-trade bill, and EPA regulations designed to cut down on toxic air pollution. But the Affordable Care Act doesn’t, as the ad suggests, cut any money out of Medicare’s current budget. The estimate of job losses the ad cites for the cap-and-trade law comes from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, and the EPA’s air toxics regulations would prevent an estimated 11,000 premature deaths per year.

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