By Fred Gaboury

People's Weekly World

The $15 billion bailout of the nation's airlines is drawing harsh criticism. The deal gives the airlines $5 billion in direct cash and $10 billion in loan guarantees, while some 77,000 workers - ticket agents, flight attendants, pilots, mechanics and ramp workers - get nothing.

Frank Larkin, a member of the Machinists union communications department, compared the giveaway to rescuing the officers of a sinking ship while leaving the crew adrift.

"Multimillion-dollar checks are in the mail for the airlines while pink slips are on their way to more than 100,000 workers in the transportation industry," Larkin said. "Now we have to fight to see that the government is as generous with the workers as it was with the airlines."

In a statement issued the day before the measure was passed, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney warned that Congress might ignore the needs of laid-off airline workers in their haste to guarantee the profits of the airlines and protect the salaries of their CEOs.

"Any member of either party who casts a vote to leave workers out of the relief bill will be voting to betray American workers."

The nation got more bad news about the state of the economy the day after the airline bailout. A Sept. 22 survey of 44 economists said the nation's economy would slow down at an annual rate of one-half of 1 percent in the third quarter, which ends Sept. 30, and by 0.7 percent in the final three months of the year.

Despite these gloomy predictions, President Bush tried to put a happy face on the situation. Bush used his weekly radio address to assure people that the economy "will rebound in the years ahead," while remaining vague on solutions to today's situation - and this was at the end of a week during which the Dow Jones industrial average fell by 14.3 percent, its worst weekly decline since the Great Depression.

In the meantime, both Congress and the administration are maneuvering to come up with some kind of stimulus package for the economy. Republicans are pushing for more of the same - cuts in the corporate tax rate that already leaves corporations paying little more than 10 percent of the total federal income tax burden and a reduction in the capital gains tax that would benefit the top 2 percent of taxpayers.

In arguing the case for a permanent reduction in corporate taxes, Kenneth Dam, deputy secretary of the treasury, said it "would change corporate investment decisions overnight" by promising a higher rate of return on new plants and equipment.

Dam is ignoring the fact that durable goods industries such as auto, steel and lumber production are operating at 73 percent of capacity, down 9 percentage points from a year ago.

For their part, Democrats are calling for a temporary tax cut for all workers, arguing that the best stimulus for the economy is one that puts cash into the hands of those who will go out and spend it.

Although generally supportive of this approach, Sweeney said the AFL-CIO had been working to develop a worker relief package that included unemployment insurance, job training and protection of health benefits.

He also called for legislation providing for additional assistance to workers throughout the economy, patterned after the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, that extends unemployment benefits for up to 78 weeks for workers who lose their jobs because of imports.

Heather Boushey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), said Congress should enact a short-term program aimed at extending unemployment benefits to all workers.

"Presently only about one-third of all unemployed workers are drawing benefits and that needs to change," she said.

Other elements of the EPI program call for increased federal funding of social programs such as the Child Health Insurance Program, Head Start and a prescription drug program under Medicare.

Boushey said there should be increased investment in the nation's railroads and infrastructure repair and development. "These are not only badly-needed social programs, they will also provide jobs in a time of economic crisis."