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Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on "Gang of Six" Plan

Both parties keep telling us that deficit reduction requires "tough choices" and "shared sacrifice" and "taking on sacred cows." But then we keep seeing bipartisan support for plans like the so-called "Gang of Six" that cut Social Security benefits, kill jobs, give tax incentives for corporations to export good jobs overseas, tax health benefits, and lower tax rates for billionaires and corporations. There's no shared sacrifice here. The only sacred cows being gored are working people, the middle class, seniors and the poor.

WASHINGTON

Both parties keep telling us that deficit reduction requires "tough choices" and "shared sacrifice" and "taking on sacred cows." But then we keep seeing bipartisan support for plans like the so-called "Gang of Six" that cut Social Security benefits, kill jobs, give tax incentives for corporations to export good jobs overseas, tax health benefits, and lower tax rates for billionaires and corporations. There's no shared sacrifice here. The only sacred cows being gored are working people, the middle class, seniors and the poor. Though the plan is very specific when it comes to spelling out tax cuts for rich people, there are still a lot of blanks to be filled in. Even so, we've seen enough to know that there is nothing here for working people. We need to keep asking our leaders: "Who got us into this mess?" It wasn't working people. The people who got us into this mess are getting off scot-free, and this Gang of Six proposal shows they have accomplices in both parties.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) works tirelessly to improve the lives of working people. We are the democratic, voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women.