Burgess Owens: “our Nation is faced with a few simple facts that are awesome indeed. Unemployment has risen to a high of 6 percent…”

“our Nation is faced with a few simple facts that are awesome indeed. Unemployment has risen to a high of 6 percent nationally. In New York it is 9 percent. States throughout the Nation are faced with large deficits. States and cities are being forced to lay off government workers. Since the year 2000, more than 600,000 youths have lost their jobs. The economic downturn appears unlikely to end any time in the near future, according to the majority of the expert economists. Added to this is the fact that 90 percent of the troops on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan are members of working families. They come from working families. They are out there on the front lines. But nevertheless, here in America the Republican majority wages a relentless war against working families. I call on the Republican majority to call a truce. Stop your war against working families. You started this administration with a repeal of the ergonomics laws. That was a slap in the face of all working people. You have continued by ignoring the question of raising the minimum wage. You have launched a new assault on cash payments for overtime. You have launched a new assault against OSHA. Please, call a truce. These are working families who are as important in America as anybody, probably more important. Those are the people who supply the troops out there on the front lines. We are totally insensitive to the fact that the Nation is diminished by the way the workers are treated.”