October 29, 2025 • 22 mins
Leslie is joined by Jody Calemine, Director of Advocacy for the 63 unions and 15 million members of the AFL-CIO, where he serves as chief lobbyist and director of government affairs.
They discuss the severe toll of the ongoing government shutdown on workers and families—from unpaid federal employees turning to food banks to the ripple effects hitting local economies.
Calemine warns that Congress’s failure to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits could sharply raise health costs for small-business owners and workers. He urges lawmakers to pass relief measures like the True Shutdown Fairness Act and Military and Federal Employee Protection Act, and to end political brinkmanship that’s using American workers as pawns.
The website for the AFL-CIO is AFLCIO.org and their handle on Blue Sky is @AFLCIO.org. Their handle on Facebook, Instagram and X is @AFLCIO. Jody's handle on Blue Sky is @guerino.bsky.social.
They discuss the severe toll of the ongoing government shutdown on workers and families—from unpaid federal employees turning to food banks to the ripple effects hitting local economies.
Calemine warns that Congress’s failure to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits could sharply raise health costs for small-business owners and workers. He urges lawmakers to pass relief measures like the True Shutdown Fairness Act and Military and Federal Employee Protection Act, and to end political brinkmanship that’s using American workers as pawns.
The website for the AFL-CIO is AFLCIO.org and their handle on Blue Sky is @AFLCIO.org. Their handle on Facebook, Instagram and X is @AFLCIO. Jody's handle on Blue Sky is @guerino.bsky.social.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How you doing. Welcomer, Welcome back to the second half
at this hour. I'm Leslie Marshall, your host in joining
us for the second half, is director of Advocacy for
the sixty three unions and fifteen million members of the AFLCIO,
mister Jody Calamine. Now Jody serves as chief Lobbyist and
Director of Government Affairs for the AFLCIO. So as you
(00:22):
can imagine, he's probably never home and on the hill
an awful lot and has to carry a couple of
pairs of shoes because that walk up there is a
heck of a climb. With an illustrious career spanning nearly
twenty five years in government and the labor movement, he
previously served as a Senior Fellow and Director of Labor
and Employment Policy at the Century Foundation. He brings a
wealth of experience and steadfast commitment to champion the needs
(00:45):
of workers. Now the website, got to check it out.
A lot of information there for the AFLCIO is aflcio
dot org. Their handle on blue sky is at aflcio
dot org, on Facebook, Instagram and x at aflcio, and
his handle on blue Sky is at Garno dot bsky
dot social. That's at g U e r I, not
(01:07):
bsky dot social. Tody. Thank you for joining us and welcome.
I know you're very busy, and I appreciate you. I
appreciate all you do, certainly all that the afl CIO
does for the majority of workers in this country, those
millions that we just pointed to. I think it's disgusting
as an American that we tout ourselves as the richest
(01:28):
nation in the world and as a leader in democracy
and freedom, yet we can't feed our own people who
work within our own government. And that is what happened.
What's happening, right, I mean, I'm not being dramatic. I'm
not being a fearmongerer here. I'm certainly not running for office.
(01:48):
Federal workers are turning to food banks as the government
shut down continues, and we're hearing from food banks not
just inside the Beltway but nationwide about how many more
people than they have food for those people at these banks.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Correct, that's right, and first of all, thank you for
having me. I really appreciate all that you're doing to
raise awareness around the country about what's going on inside
DZ right now. It's important that people understand this. We
are now in the fifth week of a government shutdown.
These federal workers have not been paid since September. We're
(02:24):
in the I'm sorry, that was a fourth week of
the shutdown. The fifth week, I'm sorry, it's the fifth
week of the House Republicans being on vacation. They've been
out of town, not coming to work. Still they're getting paid.
They are getting paid. They're the only people in the
federal government right now who are getting paid and refusing
to work. We have federal workers who are being forced
to work without pay, and federal workers who want to
(02:46):
work but cannot come to work because they've been furloughed.
All of them are going without any paychecks. And you're right,
they are lining up at food banks right now.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Again, this is twenty twenty five. There's no for this.
Nobody should be lining up at food banks. Heck, nobody
should go to bed hungary in this country. Ever. We
have so much wealth concentrated, sadly in such a small
percentage of people. And you are right, day twenty eight
of this shutdown. Federal workers have not been paid. And
it doesn't help when you have And I don't want
(03:19):
to make this political, but it is political because when
you have I mean, this administration has demonized federal workers.
I have never seen anything like it in my life.
You know, I'm not one hundred years old, but I'm
certainly not eighteen. And I just don't understand because what
do people in the United States. How do people in
the United States think the federal government operates if you
(03:41):
don't have people operating it. I mean, when you go
to the airport, hello, o tsair government workers. Air traffic
controllers are government workers. I mean, you know, that's just
two examples where your life can be directly or indirectly impacted.
So I just don't understand why anybody in America would
be cheering for another to be out of work andnot
be able to feed their family. It's in humane, right.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
It's just the latest of the assaults that have come
from this administration aimed at our civil servants in this country.
They do protect our planes as they fly through the air.
They protect our food, they inspect our food, They deal
with natural disasters, they predict help keep track of the weather.
(04:26):
All of these things that they do to serve us
every day so that we can live normal lives. They
are out there doing day in and day out. They
really care about their jobs. But since the beginning, there
has been a plan by Trump's own Director of Office
and Management Budget Office of Management Budget RUSS Vote to
traumatize that's the word he uses, traumatize federal workers. And
(04:47):
so over the course of the past nine months ten months,
we have seen workers being unlawfully fired in mass We
have seen the single biggest act of union busting American
history being committed by this president when a million federal
workers lost the right to bargain, and hundreds of thousands
have seen their contracts get get canceled at WHIP so
(05:10):
they don't have union contracts anymore. And now they are
being forced to work without pay or furlough all together
without pay and turning to food banks. It has been trauma,
but it's intentional trauma inflicted by this administration on this workforce.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And there's just so many things here. When you say
you want to traumatize federal workers, I don't want to
sound like an old lady, but an old lady's no
longer with us. My grandmother used to say it chafes
my hide. That used to be her line, which she
was like, you know, ticked off and It chafes my
hide when you know, and you know this because you're
a lobby as you see this practically every day. When
(05:45):
these legislators walk down the hall in the House and
the Senate, they have a posse around them like some
of the celebrities out here in Hollywood have security and
assistance and you know everybody who does everything for them. Right,
you know what I'm talking about. Right, they walked down
the hall and they've got six, ten, I think sometimes
twelve people. I remember when I met Hillary Clinton. I
(06:07):
met her prior, but when I met her face to face,
I was in the Senate. There was some kind of
a cocktail hour without booze, no joke, and I turned
around and there she was, and I'm five to two
and she's five three, and she had on flats and
she had nobody around her. And I said, where's where's
your where's your gang?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And she goes.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I ran away from the rest.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
But because they walked down the hall with all these people,
none of those people are fired. You notice that for
some reason, you need seven, ten, twelve people walking around
you that's not government waste, not to mention their own salaries.
And these people in the House in the Senate, not
all of them, but most of them are very wealthy
and they could afford to go without a paycheck. But
(06:47):
these federal workers cannot. And we forget it's not just
the worker, it's their families. They're not going to that
mom and pop coffee shop on the corner to get
coffee on their way to way work. So, you know,
especially in the tri state DC, Maryland, you know, Virginia area,
you know, the Beltway and the surrounding area. That's hurting
(07:09):
other businesses, other families, other communities. I mean, this has
a rippling effect. There is no there's no good in it.
You can't find positive in it anywhere. And these aren't
the kind of massive cuts you know that are needed,
sure cut government waste, but cutting people off from providing
food or paying that copay for that kid that you
(07:31):
know has to go to the you know er because
he got pneumonia during this flu season. That again, that
that's to me, that's not American, that's anti American.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Right, And when you look at what the administration is
deciding to spend money on right now, it's incredible. This
isn't like a normal shutdown normally, when when there's a
government shutdown. The only people who are working are those
who are essentral to the protection of life and property.
So of course you have the air traffic controllers right
now working around the to keep our skies safe. But
(08:03):
the Trump administration has kept people working who are essential
to their priorities and is spending money that are that
is essential to its priorities. So while federal workers and
their families are going to food banks in order to
get a meal right now, we're spending forty billion dollars
on a loan to Argentina, or one hundred and seventy
(08:24):
two million dollars on two private jets for Christy. No,
that's where the money is being spent. It is an
abnormal shut down in that respect. He is continuing to
operate the government the way he wants to operate it,
and part of that has included the fact that while
he is, he should be releasing funds right now to
the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program SNAP food stamps. He is not.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And oh and by the way, people, he said he
had contributions to pay for the military, right, he has
contributions to pay for the ballroom. Why on earth if
you can get people to give you millions of dollars
for a gaudy, gold glittered ballroom, why wouldn't you say
to them fund the food banks.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Right, No, that's not his priority. His priority is a ballroom,
not feeding the hungry. And we're about to have a
serious hunger crisis on top of a massive healthcare crisis.
Come this weekend, when the open enrollment period begins for
the ACA marketplaces, we're going to see. This is part
(09:29):
of the reason the government is at loggerheads on how
to proceed with funding. Democrats are pressing to extend the
tax credits for the ACA, and Donald Trump doesn't want
to address it, is refusing to talk about it. And
what that means is that on Saturday, when this open
enrollment period begins, people are going to have massive sticker shock.
(09:52):
There are twenty two million people relying on these tax
credits being extended in order to afford health insurance. And
I saw it to or maybe it was yesterday. There
is a couple, or according to the Department of Insurance
in Pennsylvania, a sixty year old couple in York, Pennsylvania
that makes eighty two thousand dollars a year. They currently
(10:12):
pay seven thousand dollars and annual premiums on the ACA
come Saturday's. On Saturday, they will pay thirty five thousand
dollars a year. That's how much these prices are about
to go up. And it's twenty two million people.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And then what about We're going to talk more about
this after the break, Hank type Jody Jody Calamine, director
of advocacy for the sixty three unions and fifteen million
members of the afl CIO. Follow him on blue sky
at Garno g e r I n O dot b
sky dot social. Follow the afl CIO on Facebook, Instagram,
and Exit afl CIO. Check out their website aflcio dot
(10:49):
org and their handle on blue sky at aflcio dot org.
Back with Ulady, back with you right after this, don't
go away? Can you imagine from you and Mad.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
We are back.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I am talking with Jody Calamin Judy as director of
Advocacy for the afl CIO. Please follow him on blue
sky at Grino dot Besky dot social. Follow the AFLCIO
on blue sky at aflcio dot org. Follow them on x,
Facebook and Instagram at at aflcio and aflcio dot org
is the website. Jody, I hear your passion, and that's
(11:29):
because you're a good person. Really, you care about other people,
and our elected officials should care, if not about you
or me, at least their own constituents in their own states.
And some of these people, and I don't want to
get political about this, but this is political right now.
(11:49):
There are very poor rural communities in the United States
that are in red states, in deep red districts, and
these people are going to hurt even more than that couple.
I mean, and you know, I want to get back
to that what you said before the break. This couple
base seven thousand a year. They're going to have to
pay thirty five thousand a year. Unless they have some
(12:10):
kind of a healthcare fund that they've put aside, which
some people do but most people haven't. They're probably going
to have to go without insurance. Let's talk about what
happens when that happens. That's a position. I know this well.
My husband's a surgeon. I know this well. When people
come into the er, they are treated because of legislation
that was signed during the Reagan administration that states that
(12:34):
you can't turn somebody away because they don't have insurance,
you can send them to a clinic if it's not
an you know, uber emergency, like oh, you're you know,
you have a tiny fever, but you know you're having
a heart attack, you're bleeding on the floor, you're bone
sticking through your flesh. You're gonna get treated, and you're
not getting paid. And people think the federal government pays.
It's usually written off by the hospital. And all of
that is you know, public information. People can google to
(12:55):
their hearts content. So what happens is this becomes then
what happens the hospitals, you know, are just gonna be
beyond capacity. You have rural hospitals closing already with the
different you know cuts. This is you know when you
talk about a domino effect, that the domino effect here,
I shudder. You have people on the one hand that,
(13:18):
like you said, we're gonna have people starving. That starvation's
gonna lead to them going to the hospital. They certainly
aren't gonna have insurance or have those premiums. Then you
have older people that can't afford those premiums, whose bodies
are more vulnerable than somebody who's younger and healthier. That's
just star anatomy and they're gonna be going, then you're
(13:41):
gonna have not enough people in the hospital to I mean, seriously,
this sounds like an apocalyptic movie that is really coming
in real life, where there will be people who are
outside of hospitals dying because the hospital simply can't get
to everybody. I mean, I'm not trying to make this
sound like a Hollywood film horror film, but this is
(14:01):
really our future if we don't do something about this now,
and this will be our future if we don't do
something about this now.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
That's right. What you're describing is why everybody, even those
who are not on the ACA marketplace, should care about this,
because what you're describing is a whole bunch of uncompensated care.
You're right, people won't be able to afford these insurance premiums,
they won't have health insurance. Something will happen, They will
end up in an emergency room, they will have to
be cared for, and then that will not get paid
(14:30):
for unless the providers, the hospitals and doctors, the whole
system raises prices on everybody else to make up for
this loss. And so we will all all of us
will be paying more for healthcare on top of these
lines that you're describing, but we'll all be paying more.
The afl CIO put out a report several weeks ago
showing that if these tax credits are not extended to
(14:52):
the ACA marketplace participants, the average person in a healthcare
plan will pay in an employer provided healthcare the kind
that union members have, many workers have, we will each
be paying four hundred and eighty five dollars more per
year per person. There's at least that much of a
hit on everybody else wants these premium skyrocket, and you know,
(15:15):
you can expect that somebody who's facing like the couple
I described in New York Pennsylvania, a bill for health
insurance premiums alone that takes up more than a third
of their total annual income, that they're either going to
drop their insurance or the only reason they will keep
it is because they are desperately ill themselves. And so
the people that remain in that system end up being
(15:36):
the sickest people, which then causes the premiums to rise
even more. It ends up being a kind of death spiral.
There's a reason why they didn't extend the tax credits
in the one big beautiful bill over the summer when
they had a chance, they were extending all kinds of
tax credits for the rich, but they didn't do this one.
And that's because this by denying people these tax credits,
it's a back doorway of destabilizing these marketplaces and ending
(15:59):
a bar which is what a majority of the Republican
caucus in the House and the Senate is gunning for right,
and they and.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
What kills me. For fifteen years they've been saying this,
and for fifteen years they've not had anything that is
an alternative. And it's and remember a former president, Barack
Obama said they will call it Obamacare, you know, if
it fails. And now they're trying to demonize that program
that millions are on, and you know, millions could not
have any kind of health insurance without it. So I
don't understand the demonization of it. And also when you don't,
(16:30):
you know, don't I always say to my kids, you
told me the problem. Let's come up with a solution.
If Republicans feel that Obamacare, anyone feels that Obamacare is
the problem, where's the solution. There is no solution. You
have to have an alternative. They're not talking about Medicare
for all, like Bernie Sanders AOC and some on the left.
I mean, you have you have to have a solution
(16:52):
to the problem. And if Obamacare is not the problem,
but if they want to paint it is the problem, again,
you have to have a solution. I want to talk
about the workers and the business owners and the corporations
with regard to healthcare. We have people out there that said,
I reposted something saying how what kind of a human
(17:12):
being are you? Who said, you know you don't have
health care, get up and get a job. Forty four
percent of companies in the United States. Employers in the
United States do not provide healthcare. That's close to half, right,
So people have to buy their own health care. If
they can't afford it, they have to go to some
kind of an exchange like Obamacare. So if you have
(17:36):
these huge increases, how is that percentage going to change?
How many companies, especially smaller companies that only have one
hundred employees, not hundreds or thousands of employees. How many
of those companies are going to say, come January, screw this,
I'll go out of business if I keep providing healthcare,
and they're going to sit down and say they employees,
(17:57):
I'm sorry, you have a choice. You can keep right
and I'm going to give you a little bit of
a raise, but I can't provide your healthcare anymore. That's
what's going to happen in many of these small businesses
throughout America, because if the people can't afford to pay
for their all own insurance premiums when their employer is
not providing insurance, how are the employer is going to
be able to afford that. And by the way, even
the big corporations can afford you know, the big corporations
(18:20):
don't want to get rid of their you know, seven
digit golds and parachutes, so they're going to cut health
care benefits, either the type of benefit or the benefit altogether.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, we can expect exactly a whole lot of that
happening if these tax credits aren't aren't extended. You're right
that they're going to price out small businesses from providing
health insurance. And even the large businesses. We can expect
big union employers when we go to bart in our
next contract, with these skyrocketing prices, we can expect the
(18:51):
employer to be crime, poverty, we can't give you that
pay raise, or we need to shift more of the
healthcare costs onto the employees because of these prices.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Let's let's talk about We talked about problems. Let's talk
about there are some solutions out there. We already know.
There was a solution to fun fifty percent of snap
that the President didn't want to do, so his minions
on the Republican Party just followed in suit. But the
AFL has been doing a great job. My friend, your president,
Liz Schueler, I told her. It says she's sleep. I
mean she's everywhere and as she should be. I think
(19:23):
it's just, you know, awesome, especially being a woman. I
gotta say, you got to show the guys you gotta
work a little harder, you know, like everybody go, okay,
I'll give you your props. Right, But AFL CIO demands
that lawmakers stop playing political games. Pay all impacted workers
during the shutdown Day twenty eight. In the shutdown, one
point four million federal workers, million federal contractors. People, forget
(19:44):
about that, right, you got a million more people or
contractors through the federal government. They've missed at least one
pay check. If they you know, you get paid monthly,
they're going to assume this another if Congress fails to act. Now,
you guys sent a letter to senators and demanding they
stop the games. Pass legislation provide immediate relief and pay
every worker impacted during the shutdown. And there are two
(20:07):
things that can be done right away, True Shutdown Fairness
Act and Military and Federal Employee Protection Act. Talk to
us about those.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yes, So one of them is introduced by Senator Van
Holland of Maryland. It would pay everybody, the federal workers,
the federal contractors, and the military, their regular paychecks, plus
all the back pay that they missed since the start
of the shutdown. That would start immediately if that were passed.
He offered it on the Senate floor last week, and
(20:35):
Republicans objected. Senator Peters of Michigan offered the other bill,
which doesn't provide regular paychecks, but it would immediately provide
everybody with the back pay they're owed so far, with
presumably another segment of back pay at the end of
the shutdown. That was also rejected. Our goal is to
get everybody paid and to make sure workers are not
(20:56):
the pawns in this fight. So far, what we've seen
from the registration has been pitting workers against one another.
It's the federal workers versus the healthcare workers. On this
ACA tax credit. If that's not extended, we can expect
about one hundred and fifty four thousand healthcare jobs to
be lost as a result of the change. We've seen
them cut funding for clean energy projects, which is going
(21:19):
to affect hundreds of thousands of construction jobs across the country,
all blaming this shutdown on these actions, which actually the
shutdown has nothing to do with this, but they are
trying to pit workers against one another as we fight
for the scraps that have left after the one big
beautiful bill.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
And they're unlawfully withholding the back pay from the furloughed workers.
They're threatening to fire illegally fire at least ten thousand more.
And I want to read your quote you said in
your letter to senators, and this is true and powerful.
All the paychecks have stopped, the bills of not rent
needs to be paid, mortgage payments are due, groceries must
(21:57):
be bought. What you're doing, Jody, is you're asking them
to be human beings, and we should as people do
this for each other and as Americans both. Jody, thank
you for being with us. I'd love to have you
back on the show. I know you're busy, but I'd
love to have you on another time. Jody Calamine, director
of Advocacy for the sixty three unions and fifteen million
fifteen million members of the a f l c I
(22:19):
O the website. Check it out a fl cio dot
org on blue Sky their handle, follow them there at
a fl cio dot org. Their handle on Facebook, Instagram
and X is at a fl cio and Jody's handle
on blue Sky is at Garno g U E r
I n O dot b sky dot Social. Thank you,
thanks lovely
How you doing. Welcomer, Welcome back to the second half
at this hour. I'm Leslie Marshall, your host in joining
us for the second half, is director of Advocacy for
the sixty three unions and fifteen million members of the AFLCIO,
mister Jody Calamine. Now Jody serves as chief Lobbyist and
Director of Government Affairs for the AFLCIO. So as you
(00:22):
can imagine, he's probably never home and on the hill
an awful lot and has to carry a couple of
pairs of shoes because that walk up there is a
heck of a climb. With an illustrious career spanning nearly
twenty five years in government and the labor movement, he
previously served as a Senior Fellow and Director of Labor
and Employment Policy at the Century Foundation. He brings a
wealth of experience and steadfast commitment to champion the needs
(00:45):
of workers. Now the website, got to check it out.
A lot of information there for the AFLCIO is aflcio
dot org. Their handle on blue sky is at aflcio
dot org, on Facebook, Instagram and x at aflcio, and
his handle on blue Sky is at Garno dot bsky
dot social. That's at g U e r I, not
(01:07):
bsky dot social. Tody. Thank you for joining us and welcome.
I know you're very busy, and I appreciate you. I
appreciate all you do, certainly all that the afl CIO
does for the majority of workers in this country, those
millions that we just pointed to. I think it's disgusting
as an American that we tout ourselves as the richest
(01:28):
nation in the world and as a leader in democracy
and freedom, yet we can't feed our own people who
work within our own government. And that is what happened.
What's happening, right, I mean, I'm not being dramatic. I'm
not being a fearmongerer here. I'm certainly not running for office.
(01:48):
Federal workers are turning to food banks as the government
shut down continues, and we're hearing from food banks not
just inside the Beltway but nationwide about how many more
people than they have food for those people at these banks.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Correct, that's right, and first of all, thank you for
having me. I really appreciate all that you're doing to
raise awareness around the country about what's going on inside
DZ right now. It's important that people understand this. We
are now in the fifth week of a government shutdown.
These federal workers have not been paid since September. We're
(02:24):
in the I'm sorry, that was a fourth week of
the shutdown. The fifth week, I'm sorry, it's the fifth
week of the House Republicans being on vacation. They've been
out of town, not coming to work. Still they're getting paid.
They are getting paid. They're the only people in the
federal government right now who are getting paid and refusing
to work. We have federal workers who are being forced
to work without pay, and federal workers who want to
(02:46):
work but cannot come to work because they've been furloughed.
All of them are going without any paychecks. And you're right,
they are lining up at food banks right now.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Again, this is twenty twenty five. There's no for this.
Nobody should be lining up at food banks. Heck, nobody
should go to bed hungary in this country. Ever. We
have so much wealth concentrated, sadly in such a small
percentage of people. And you are right, day twenty eight
of this shutdown. Federal workers have not been paid. And
it doesn't help when you have And I don't want
(03:19):
to make this political, but it is political because when
you have I mean, this administration has demonized federal workers.
I have never seen anything like it in my life.
You know, I'm not one hundred years old, but I'm
certainly not eighteen. And I just don't understand because what
do people in the United States. How do people in
the United States think the federal government operates if you
(03:41):
don't have people operating it. I mean, when you go
to the airport, hello, o tsair government workers. Air traffic
controllers are government workers. I mean, you know, that's just
two examples where your life can be directly or indirectly impacted.
So I just don't understand why anybody in America would
be cheering for another to be out of work andnot
be able to feed their family. It's in humane, right.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
It's just the latest of the assaults that have come
from this administration aimed at our civil servants in this country.
They do protect our planes as they fly through the air.
They protect our food, they inspect our food, They deal
with natural disasters, they predict help keep track of the weather.
(04:26):
All of these things that they do to serve us
every day so that we can live normal lives. They
are out there doing day in and day out. They
really care about their jobs. But since the beginning, there
has been a plan by Trump's own Director of Office
and Management Budget Office of Management Budget RUSS Vote to
traumatize that's the word he uses, traumatize federal workers. And
(04:47):
so over the course of the past nine months ten months,
we have seen workers being unlawfully fired in mass We
have seen the single biggest act of union busting American
history being committed by this president when a million federal
workers lost the right to bargain, and hundreds of thousands
have seen their contracts get get canceled at WHIP so
(05:10):
they don't have union contracts anymore. And now they are
being forced to work without pay or furlough all together
without pay and turning to food banks. It has been trauma,
but it's intentional trauma inflicted by this administration on this workforce.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And there's just so many things here. When you say
you want to traumatize federal workers, I don't want to
sound like an old lady, but an old lady's no
longer with us. My grandmother used to say it chafes
my hide. That used to be her line, which she
was like, you know, ticked off and It chafes my
hide when you know, and you know this because you're
a lobby as you see this practically every day. When
(05:45):
these legislators walk down the hall in the House and
the Senate, they have a posse around them like some
of the celebrities out here in Hollywood have security and
assistance and you know everybody who does everything for them. Right,
you know what I'm talking about. Right, they walked down
the hall and they've got six, ten, I think sometimes
twelve people. I remember when I met Hillary Clinton. I
(06:07):
met her prior, but when I met her face to face,
I was in the Senate. There was some kind of
a cocktail hour without booze, no joke, and I turned
around and there she was, and I'm five to two
and she's five three, and she had on flats and
she had nobody around her. And I said, where's where's
your where's your gang?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And she goes.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I ran away from the rest.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
But because they walked down the hall with all these people,
none of those people are fired. You notice that for
some reason, you need seven, ten, twelve people walking around
you that's not government waste, not to mention their own salaries.
And these people in the House in the Senate, not
all of them, but most of them are very wealthy
and they could afford to go without a paycheck. But
(06:47):
these federal workers cannot. And we forget it's not just
the worker, it's their families. They're not going to that
mom and pop coffee shop on the corner to get
coffee on their way to way work. So, you know,
especially in the tri state DC, Maryland, you know, Virginia area,
you know, the Beltway and the surrounding area. That's hurting
(07:09):
other businesses, other families, other communities. I mean, this has
a rippling effect. There is no there's no good in it.
You can't find positive in it anywhere. And these aren't
the kind of massive cuts you know that are needed,
sure cut government waste, but cutting people off from providing
food or paying that copay for that kid that you
(07:31):
know has to go to the you know er because
he got pneumonia during this flu season. That again, that
that's to me, that's not American, that's anti American.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Right, And when you look at what the administration is
deciding to spend money on right now, it's incredible. This
isn't like a normal shutdown normally, when when there's a
government shutdown. The only people who are working are those
who are essentral to the protection of life and property.
So of course you have the air traffic controllers right
now working around the to keep our skies safe. But
(08:03):
the Trump administration has kept people working who are essential
to their priorities and is spending money that are that
is essential to its priorities. So while federal workers and
their families are going to food banks in order to
get a meal right now, we're spending forty billion dollars
on a loan to Argentina, or one hundred and seventy
(08:24):
two million dollars on two private jets for Christy. No,
that's where the money is being spent. It is an
abnormal shut down in that respect. He is continuing to
operate the government the way he wants to operate it,
and part of that has included the fact that while
he is, he should be releasing funds right now to
the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program SNAP food stamps. He is not.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And oh and by the way, people, he said he
had contributions to pay for the military, right, he has
contributions to pay for the ballroom. Why on earth if
you can get people to give you millions of dollars
for a gaudy, gold glittered ballroom, why wouldn't you say
to them fund the food banks.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Right, No, that's not his priority. His priority is a ballroom,
not feeding the hungry. And we're about to have a
serious hunger crisis on top of a massive healthcare crisis.
Come this weekend, when the open enrollment period begins for
the ACA marketplaces, we're going to see. This is part
(09:29):
of the reason the government is at loggerheads on how
to proceed with funding. Democrats are pressing to extend the
tax credits for the ACA, and Donald Trump doesn't want
to address it, is refusing to talk about it. And
what that means is that on Saturday, when this open
enrollment period begins, people are going to have massive sticker shock.
(09:52):
There are twenty two million people relying on these tax
credits being extended in order to afford health insurance. And
I saw it to or maybe it was yesterday. There
is a couple, or according to the Department of Insurance
in Pennsylvania, a sixty year old couple in York, Pennsylvania
that makes eighty two thousand dollars a year. They currently
(10:12):
pay seven thousand dollars and annual premiums on the ACA
come Saturday's. On Saturday, they will pay thirty five thousand
dollars a year. That's how much these prices are about
to go up. And it's twenty two million people.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And then what about We're going to talk more about
this after the break, Hank type Jody Jody Calamine, director
of advocacy for the sixty three unions and fifteen million
members of the afl CIO. Follow him on blue sky
at Garno g e r I n O dot b
sky dot social. Follow the afl CIO on Facebook, Instagram,
and Exit afl CIO. Check out their website aflcio dot
(10:49):
org and their handle on blue sky at aflcio dot org.
Back with Ulady, back with you right after this, don't
go away? Can you imagine from you and Mad.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
We are back.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I am talking with Jody Calamin Judy as director of
Advocacy for the afl CIO. Please follow him on blue
sky at Grino dot Besky dot social. Follow the AFLCIO
on blue sky at aflcio dot org. Follow them on x,
Facebook and Instagram at at aflcio and aflcio dot org
is the website. Jody, I hear your passion, and that's
(11:29):
because you're a good person. Really, you care about other people,
and our elected officials should care, if not about you
or me, at least their own constituents in their own states.
And some of these people, and I don't want to
get political about this, but this is political right now.
(11:49):
There are very poor rural communities in the United States
that are in red states, in deep red districts, and
these people are going to hurt even more than that couple.
I mean, and you know, I want to get back
to that what you said before the break. This couple
base seven thousand a year. They're going to have to
pay thirty five thousand a year. Unless they have some
(12:10):
kind of a healthcare fund that they've put aside, which
some people do but most people haven't. They're probably going
to have to go without insurance. Let's talk about what
happens when that happens. That's a position. I know this well.
My husband's a surgeon. I know this well. When people
come into the er, they are treated because of legislation
that was signed during the Reagan administration that states that
(12:34):
you can't turn somebody away because they don't have insurance,
you can send them to a clinic if it's not
an you know, uber emergency, like oh, you're you know,
you have a tiny fever, but you know you're having
a heart attack, you're bleeding on the floor, you're bone
sticking through your flesh. You're gonna get treated, and you're
not getting paid. And people think the federal government pays.
It's usually written off by the hospital. And all of
that is you know, public information. People can google to
(12:55):
their hearts content. So what happens is this becomes then
what happens the hospitals, you know, are just gonna be
beyond capacity. You have rural hospitals closing already with the
different you know cuts. This is you know when you
talk about a domino effect, that the domino effect here,
I shudder. You have people on the one hand that,
(13:18):
like you said, we're gonna have people starving. That starvation's
gonna lead to them going to the hospital. They certainly
aren't gonna have insurance or have those premiums. Then you
have older people that can't afford those premiums, whose bodies
are more vulnerable than somebody who's younger and healthier. That's
just star anatomy and they're gonna be going, then you're
(13:41):
gonna have not enough people in the hospital to I mean, seriously,
this sounds like an apocalyptic movie that is really coming
in real life, where there will be people who are
outside of hospitals dying because the hospital simply can't get
to everybody. I mean, I'm not trying to make this
sound like a Hollywood film horror film, but this is
(14:01):
really our future if we don't do something about this now,
and this will be our future if we don't do
something about this now.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
That's right. What you're describing is why everybody, even those
who are not on the ACA marketplace, should care about this,
because what you're describing is a whole bunch of uncompensated care.
You're right, people won't be able to afford these insurance premiums,
they won't have health insurance. Something will happen, They will
end up in an emergency room, they will have to
be cared for, and then that will not get paid
(14:30):
for unless the providers, the hospitals and doctors, the whole
system raises prices on everybody else to make up for
this loss. And so we will all all of us
will be paying more for healthcare on top of these
lines that you're describing, but we'll all be paying more.
The afl CIO put out a report several weeks ago
showing that if these tax credits are not extended to
(14:52):
the ACA marketplace participants, the average person in a healthcare
plan will pay in an employer provided healthcare the kind
that union members have, many workers have, we will each
be paying four hundred and eighty five dollars more per
year per person. There's at least that much of a
hit on everybody else wants these premium skyrocket, and you know,
(15:15):
you can expect that somebody who's facing like the couple
I described in New York Pennsylvania, a bill for health
insurance premiums alone that takes up more than a third
of their total annual income, that they're either going to
drop their insurance or the only reason they will keep
it is because they are desperately ill themselves. And so
the people that remain in that system end up being
(15:36):
the sickest people, which then causes the premiums to rise
even more. It ends up being a kind of death spiral.
There's a reason why they didn't extend the tax credits
in the one big beautiful bill over the summer when
they had a chance, they were extending all kinds of
tax credits for the rich, but they didn't do this one.
And that's because this by denying people these tax credits,
it's a back doorway of destabilizing these marketplaces and ending
(15:59):
a bar which is what a majority of the Republican
caucus in the House and the Senate is gunning for right,
and they and.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
What kills me. For fifteen years they've been saying this,
and for fifteen years they've not had anything that is
an alternative. And it's and remember a former president, Barack
Obama said they will call it Obamacare, you know, if
it fails. And now they're trying to demonize that program
that millions are on, and you know, millions could not
have any kind of health insurance without it. So I
don't understand the demonization of it. And also when you don't,
(16:30):
you know, don't I always say to my kids, you
told me the problem. Let's come up with a solution.
If Republicans feel that Obamacare, anyone feels that Obamacare is
the problem, where's the solution. There is no solution. You
have to have an alternative. They're not talking about Medicare
for all, like Bernie Sanders AOC and some on the left.
I mean, you have you have to have a solution
(16:52):
to the problem. And if Obamacare is not the problem,
but if they want to paint it is the problem, again,
you have to have a solution. I want to talk
about the workers and the business owners and the corporations
with regard to healthcare. We have people out there that said,
I reposted something saying how what kind of a human
(17:12):
being are you? Who said, you know you don't have
health care, get up and get a job. Forty four
percent of companies in the United States. Employers in the
United States do not provide healthcare. That's close to half, right,
So people have to buy their own health care. If
they can't afford it, they have to go to some
kind of an exchange like Obamacare. So if you have
(17:36):
these huge increases, how is that percentage going to change?
How many companies, especially smaller companies that only have one
hundred employees, not hundreds or thousands of employees. How many
of those companies are going to say, come January, screw this,
I'll go out of business if I keep providing healthcare,
and they're going to sit down and say they employees,
(17:57):
I'm sorry, you have a choice. You can keep right
and I'm going to give you a little bit of
a raise, but I can't provide your healthcare anymore. That's
what's going to happen in many of these small businesses
throughout America, because if the people can't afford to pay
for their all own insurance premiums when their employer is
not providing insurance, how are the employer is going to
be able to afford that. And by the way, even
the big corporations can afford you know, the big corporations
(18:20):
don't want to get rid of their you know, seven
digit golds and parachutes, so they're going to cut health
care benefits, either the type of benefit or the benefit altogether.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, we can expect exactly a whole lot of that
happening if these tax credits aren't aren't extended. You're right
that they're going to price out small businesses from providing
health insurance. And even the large businesses. We can expect
big union employers when we go to bart in our
next contract, with these skyrocketing prices, we can expect the
(18:51):
employer to be crime, poverty, we can't give you that
pay raise, or we need to shift more of the
healthcare costs onto the employees because of these prices.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Let's let's talk about We talked about problems. Let's talk
about there are some solutions out there. We already know.
There was a solution to fun fifty percent of snap
that the President didn't want to do, so his minions
on the Republican Party just followed in suit. But the
AFL has been doing a great job. My friend, your president,
Liz Schueler, I told her. It says she's sleep. I
mean she's everywhere and as she should be. I think
(19:23):
it's just, you know, awesome, especially being a woman. I
gotta say, you got to show the guys you gotta
work a little harder, you know, like everybody go, okay,
I'll give you your props. Right, But AFL CIO demands
that lawmakers stop playing political games. Pay all impacted workers
during the shutdown Day twenty eight. In the shutdown, one
point four million federal workers, million federal contractors. People, forget
(19:44):
about that, right, you got a million more people or
contractors through the federal government. They've missed at least one
pay check. If they you know, you get paid monthly,
they're going to assume this another if Congress fails to act. Now,
you guys sent a letter to senators and demanding they
stop the games. Pass legislation provide immediate relief and pay
every worker impacted during the shutdown. And there are two
(20:07):
things that can be done right away, True Shutdown Fairness
Act and Military and Federal Employee Protection Act. Talk to
us about those.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yes, So one of them is introduced by Senator Van
Holland of Maryland. It would pay everybody, the federal workers,
the federal contractors, and the military, their regular paychecks, plus
all the back pay that they missed since the start
of the shutdown. That would start immediately if that were passed.
He offered it on the Senate floor last week, and
(20:35):
Republicans objected. Senator Peters of Michigan offered the other bill,
which doesn't provide regular paychecks, but it would immediately provide
everybody with the back pay they're owed so far, with
presumably another segment of back pay at the end of
the shutdown. That was also rejected. Our goal is to
get everybody paid and to make sure workers are not
(20:56):
the pawns in this fight. So far, what we've seen
from the registration has been pitting workers against one another.
It's the federal workers versus the healthcare workers. On this
ACA tax credit. If that's not extended, we can expect
about one hundred and fifty four thousand healthcare jobs to
be lost as a result of the change. We've seen
them cut funding for clean energy projects, which is going
(21:19):
to affect hundreds of thousands of construction jobs across the country,
all blaming this shutdown on these actions, which actually the
shutdown has nothing to do with this, but they are
trying to pit workers against one another as we fight
for the scraps that have left after the one big
beautiful bill.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
And they're unlawfully withholding the back pay from the furloughed workers.
They're threatening to fire illegally fire at least ten thousand more.
And I want to read your quote you said in
your letter to senators, and this is true and powerful.
All the paychecks have stopped, the bills of not rent
needs to be paid, mortgage payments are due, groceries must
(21:57):
be bought. What you're doing, Jody, is you're asking them
to be human beings, and we should as people do
this for each other and as Americans both. Jody, thank
you for being with us. I'd love to have you
back on the show. I know you're busy, but I'd
love to have you on another time. Jody Calamine, director
of Advocacy for the sixty three unions and fifteen million
fifteen million members of the a f l c I
(22:19):
O the website. Check it out a fl cio dot
org on blue Sky their handle, follow them there at
a fl cio dot org. Their handle on Facebook, Instagram
and X is at a fl cio and Jody's handle
on blue Sky is at Garno g U E r
I n O dot b sky dot Social. Thank you,
thanks lovely
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.