More suffering caused by Bush

So much for helping the poor.

The president’s friends get No bid NO LIMIT contracts for the death and destruction that his incompetence caused and he has the sickening nerve to screw the very people that will do the rebuilding, those that need it most. It’s shameful, especially when you understand that the contracts awarded in this disaster are valued at WHATEVER the contractor bills to the Feds…NO LIMITS. Every dollar saved by under paying workers go right into Dick Cheney’s pocket.

Sickening, but typical for this incompetent lame excuse for a President

09/12/2005Bush Suspends Prevailing-Wage Law in Katrina Zone

The Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay the prevailing or
average pay in the region, has been suspended in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged
areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi by President Bush.
In a
letter to Congress, Bush said he has the power to suspend the law because of the
national emergency caused by the hurricane. "I have found that the conditions
caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a 'national emergency,' " he wrote.
He went on to justify the decision by claiming that Davis-Bacon--enacted in
1931, amid the Great Depression--increases construction costs. Suspending it, he
said, "will result in greater assistance to these devastated communities and
will permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals."
The
Washington Post reports that Bush's action "infuriated labor leaders and their
Democratic supporters in Congress, who said it will lower wages and make it
harder for union contractors to win bids."
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
denounced the Bush announcement as "outrageous."
"Employers are all too
eager to exploit workers," he said. "This is no time to make that easier. What a
double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to
depress living standards even further."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
noted that the Davis-Bacon Act was signed into law at "a time when scurrilous
employers were taking advantage of the desperation of American workers to care
for their families. At that time, and for more than 70 years since then, the
federal government has demanded that when taxpayer money is spent, workers
should be paid a livable wage.
"But today," she continued, " the Bush
Administration demonstrated the latest example of its anti-worker agenda, with
an executive order rescinding the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act for areas
hit by Hurricane Katrina. That means that as workers return to their lives and
livelihoods on the Gulf Coast, the Bush Administration wants to use federal
money to exploit them by paying less than the prevailing
wage."