President Obama Slams GOP Congress In Labor Day Message (VIDEO)

Addicting Information ^ | September 5, 2015 | Randa Morris

[Cincinatus' Wife]

In a Labor Day message, posted to YouTube by The White House on Saturday, President Obama called on Americans to remember what the upcoming holiday is really about.

“I wanted to take a moment to talk to you about the real meaning of Labor Day – a day we set aside every year to honor the hardworking men and women who fought for so many of the rights that we take for granted today. “

Among those rights, the president highlighted “the eight hour work day, 40-hour work week, weekends, overtime pay, a minimum wage, safer workplaces. health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and retirement plans,” just to name a few.

As the president points out in his speech, those gains weren’t handed to our parents and grandparents by their ‘kind and generous employers’. They are rights that previous generations of American workers bravely fought for. But those rights are once again under attack from republicans all across the US, like presidential candidates Scott Walker and Rand Paul, as well as right wing governors like Michigan governor Rick Snyder and Illinois governor Bruce Rauner, Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, and many, many others..

But the president’s message was aimed at the anti-union, anti-worker, anti-middle-class GOP Congress, who are yet again threatening another government shutdown this fall.

As the president explains in his three-and-a-half minute weekly address:

“As always, the deadline for Congress to pass a budget is the end of September. Every year. This is not new. And if they don’t, they’ll shut down the government for the second time in two years. At a time when the global economy faces headwinds and America’s economy is a relative bright spot in the world, a shutdown of our government would be wildly irresponsible.”

Another shut down of the federal government would hurt working class Americans. It would once again damage the U.S. economy, which has finally returned to pre-recession health, in spite of republican sabotage.

In 2013, when the republican congress shut down the government for 17 days, nearly two million people were laid off or furloughed. The estimated economic losses associated with the 2013 shut down were more than $300 million dollars per day.

But the president also stresses that another government shutdown does not have to happen.

“If Congress wants to support working Americans and strengthen our middle class, they can pass a budget that invests in, not makes cuts to, the middle class. If they pass a budget with shortsighted sequester cuts that harm our military and our economy, I’ll veto it. If they make smart investments in our military readiness, our infrastructure, our schools, public health, and research, I’ll sign that budget – and they know that.”

During the last few moments of his speech, President Obama calls out the irresponsible and reckless actions of the republican congress in no uncertain terms, saying:

“Our economy doesn’t need another round of threats and brinksmanship. Nobody gets to play games with our economy – or the middle class I grew up in, and that you grew up in. So tell Congress to pass a budget that reflects the values we honor on Labor Day. Rewarding hard work. Giving everybody a fair shot. And working together to give all of our kids a better life.”

[RWB Patriot]

I don’t recognize your right to speak for me, dear leader.

So go blow it out your rear.

[wastedyears]

He won’t say that it was the unions, who donate to Democrats.

[upchuck]

At a time when the global economy faces headwinds and America’s economy is a relative bright spot in the world, a shutdown of our government would be wildly irresponsible.

Where can I get some of that same stuff he's smokin?