U.S. NewswireJohn Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, slammed President Bush for misleading the public on issues important to working families:
"Last night President Bush paid a lot of lip service to the ideals of freedom and security without any apparent cognizance of the contradictions between his words and reality. If irony were an Olympic sport, President Bush would have won gold last night. Unfortunately, America's working families will find it even harder to make ends meet as a result of the clash between Bush's proposals and reality.
"President Bush talked about promoting comp time and flex time, which are inadequate substitutes for the income lost to so many working families due to the recently implemented new overtime rules. If Bush's proposals on comp time even remotely mirror his Administration's outrageous overtime rules, there will be so many loopholes, exceptions and caveats that American workers will have even less time to spend with family without any sort of compensation, be it financial or earned time off from work.
"President Bush spoke of supporting our troops, yet they were sent into murky circumstances with unclear goals, an undeveloped plan for accomplishing their mission, and inadequate equipment and supplies to sustain them. Our troops are forced to rely on profit-hungry contractors for their housing, meals, and other essential needs, contractors who on many occasions have failed our troops by refusing to show up for duty. It is the working families of America that have born the disproportionate burden of sending fathers and mothers and daughters and sons into the deadly powder keg of Iraq. ..
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