President Obama's choice for the U.S. Labor Department's top law enforcement job created a first-of-its-kind program in New York that deputized unions and advocacy groups to visit private businesses and report wage violations to the government, an initiative that has raised concerns holding up her nomination.Oooh, “enforcers,” huh? Sounds real scary, kids!
M. Patricia Smith told senators vetting her appointment to be the Labor Department's solicitor that her "wage watch" pilot program in New York was created over the last year to "engage groups to help us with education" and not to let the private groups conduct labor investigations.
But internal memos obtained by Republican aides on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee show Ms. Smith's state labor agency in New York actually referred to the union and group participants as "enforcers," The Washington Times has learned.
Until you read this…
On Nov. 28, (New York State Regulator Lorelei) Boylan (who worked for Smith) wrote a message to coworkers, which was copied to Ms. Smith, on the subject of training groups in the wage watch program. It said, "The one day session will not turn the enforcers into labor law experts but will assist them in identifying labor law violations and make the referrals of greater value."The Times story tells us that Boylan “has been nominated by Mr. Obama as administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Labor Department.”
And by the way, leading the charge against Smith is Senate Repug Mike Enzi, who apparently was able to find time from obstructing health care reform (here) to concoct this straw man (woman?) against Smith.
Update 8/31/09: If this isn't "game, set and match" on Enzi, I don't know what is.
There are a lot of reasons why I’m glad that the Labor Department will once more act on behalf of workers in this country under the Obama Administration, but one of them (which of course is utterly ignored here by the Times) is that wage theft was a huge problem while The Dragon Lady (pictured) ran labor under Dubya (noted here).
The Think Progress post also noted that Elaine Chao’s DOL investigated only 1 in 10 fictitious labor violations, a sorry record that I’m sure will be topped by current DOL Secretary Hilda Solis.
Update 9/2/09: The New York Times tells us the following from here...
Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.A hat tip to Think Progress for that, by the way.
The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, also found that 68 percent of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week.
...according to a White House fact sheet titled "Paying for Health Care Reform," (Obama senior advisor David) Axelrod was misleading his readers. It notes the administration would cut $622 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, with a big chunk coming from Medicare Advantage, to pay for overhauling health care. Mr. Obama heralded these cuts as "common sense" in his June 13 radio address.As noted here…
Medicare Advantage was enacted in 2003 to allow seniors to use Medicare funds to buy private insurance plans that fit their needs and their budgets. They get better care and better value for their money.
Medicare Advantage also has built-in incentives to encourage insurers to offer lower costs and better benefits. It's a program that puts patients in charge, not the government, which is why seniors like it and probably why the administration hates it.
Under the Medicare Advantage program, created by a Republican-led Congress in 2003, the government buys private insurance coverage for Medicare patients in lieu of paying for health services directly. Supporters say MA plans have the advantage of delivering additional care to Medicare patients, including dental and eye services not covered under the traditional program. Those additional benefits, combined with a heavy dose of marketing, have made the program enormously popular. This year, a record-high 10.5 million seniors — or 23 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries — are enrolled in MA plans, according to a June report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, an independent panel that recommends Medicare reforms to Washington policymakers.And as firedoglake notes here…
But the extra care doesn’t come cheap. Despite promises that private plans operating under MA could eventually save money, the cost to treat the average patient in the MA program is 14 percent higher than the cost to treat the average senior under traditional Medicare. A part of that additional cost, MedPAC noted, “consists of funds used for plan administration and profits and not direct health care services for beneficiaries.”
The argument that private plans are necessary to keep Medicare sustainable, Berenson said, “is belied by the fact that private plans always seem to require more money.”
“It’s hard to make the case,” Berenson added, “that these overpayments are justified.”
Humana, Inc. (HUM) reported its earnings Monday, and they really love that government money. HUM reports in two segments: government and commercial. The government segment is really profitable: profits up 62.5%, membership up 12%. The increase in profits was the result of the membership increase and the company’s decision last year to charge its Medicare Advantage customers premiums on top of the lovely government subsidy.Can’t wait to see how you look in that orange jumpsuit, Karl.
As Dickerson says, it’s "a story of race and class on New York’s Lower East Side."
And the Amazon description tells us the following…
Set in a post 9/11, post Giuliani, rapidly gentrifying Lower East Side, the story revolves around a mugging turned murder, and how it affects everyone invovled.Nice to see that at least one of our leaders has an interest in a story of how everyday people live and interact, warts and all.
…
Price is widely regarded as a master of dialogue, and a master of capturing how people walk it and talk it in the real world. And he certainly does that here, conveying almost everything important via dialogue, which is often heavily spiced with street slang or on the job jargon (which some readers may find offputting). Moreover s a fan of procedurals, I was hooked from the get go by Price's ability to set up the situation, show it go down, and then maintain the separate threads. Indeed, for the first third of the book, I was completely engrossed.
…
Of course, Price is trying to do more than write a crime procedural, and (his) subplots all feed into the broader themes he's trying to explore. These are pretty fundamental at their core: what happens to us/how do we feel when we realize that our lives aren't what we had planned, or that we've somehow failed ourselves.
…
Is there meaning, is there redemption? Check out the last stanza of Billy Strayhorn's incredible lyrics to the Duke Ellington tune, Lush Life:
"Romance is mush/stifling those who strive/so I'll live a lush life in some small dive/And there I'll be/While I rot with the rest/of those whose lives are lonely too..."
A pretty “fly” book selection, Mr. President…
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – You're never too old for something new, they say, and veteran rocker Bob Dylan is set to release his first Christmas album, he announced on his website Thursday.I can just imagine the track selection list in my mind…
At the ripe young age of 68, Dylan will release "Christmas in the Heart" on October 13, with profits going to charity group Feeding America.
No word yet on whether or not Bob would be a “man of constant sorrow” for the occasion – hope not (ho, ho, ho).It Take A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Sleigh To Cry Visions Of Ol’ Santa Snow (Not Gospel) Plow Love Minus Below Zero/No Limit It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Frostbitten) Tangled Up In Christmas Lights Just Like Hermie The Elf’s Blues Ballad Of A Fat, Jolly Man (But Not Quinn The Eskimo)
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