Hello 5-day Workweek
08 December 2006 9:51 am by Taylor Marsh
Hello 5-day Workweek –updated–
| Buh-bye 109th! |
Goodbye 109th Congress.
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
Enter Pelosi's 110th.
One of the things that will happen this spring, I hope,
is the Employee
Free Choice Act, which is intended to encourage workers rights to unionize.
This would include “card-check”
applications in corporations, instead of secret ballots. To give you an idea
of the importance of “card-check” rights, in a secret ballot, you
don't know whether the corporation counting ballots is actually telling the
truth when the ballots are counted. (Update: much more at this Kos diary and here, with Sirota's take here.)
But things will be very different in Speaker Pelosi's House.
No doubt you've seen this story by now, but I just can't resist highlighting
it as we say goodbye to the rubber stamping do nothing 109th Congress.
Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most
on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have
to work five days a week starting in January.The horror.
(snip)
Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes
each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m.
Friday, Hoyer said.With the new calendar, the Democrats are trying to project a businesslike
image when they take control of Congress in January. House and Senate Democratic
leaders have announced an ambitious agenda for their first 100 hours and say
they are adamant about scoring legislative victories they can trumpet in the
2008 campaigns.Hoyer and other Democratic leaders say they are trying to repair the image
of Congress, which was so anemic this year it could not meet a basic duty:
to approve spending bills that fund government. By the time the gavel comes
down on the 109th Congress on Friday, members will have worked a total of
103 days. That's seven days fewer than the infamous “Do-Nothing Congress”
of 1948.
The Republicans of Pelosi's 110th are already whining about the “extra” work days: “Keeping us up here
eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically
flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages
suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that's what this says.”
Well, well, well. Maybe Mr. Kingston will understand why Democrats champion
maternity leave, family and medical leave, you know, things that help families,
including the minimum wage and healthcare.
But the classic response came from Missouri's most corrupt rubber stamper,
Roy Blunt, the man who created the 109th's two-day workweek.
“They've got a lot more freshmen then we do,” he said of the Democrats.
“That schedule will make it incredibly difficult for those freshmen to
establish themselves in their districts. So we're all for it.” – Rep. Roy Blunt
Ah, yes, Roy. He's all for it because it's all about politics. Doing the people's
business never occurred to this cretin.
As for Democrats, this is the spirit: “It's long overdue,” said
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), who lives in Napa Valley and will have to leave
his home at 3 a.m. on Sundays to catch a flight to Washington in time for work
Mondays. “I didn't come here to turn around and go back home.”
