The United Auto Workers union is sending out a letter from its legislative director, Josh Nassar, urging senators to vote against several budgets pending in the Senate. One of the budgets UAW apparently opposes is President Obama's own budget.
"On behalf of the UAW’s more than one million active and retired members, I write to strongly urge you to vote against S. Con. Res 41 (Sessions budget plan), H. Con. Res. 112 (Ryan budget proposal), S. Con. Res. 37 (Toomey budget plan), S. Con. Res 42 (Paul budget proposal) and S. Con. Res. 44 (Lee budget plan), when they are considered on the Senate floor," Nassar writes. "These proposals are another attack on the middle class and our most vulnerable citizens. They would force middle class Americans to make more sacrifices while giving larger tax breaks to corporations and wealthy individuals."
While the other budgets are proposals from Republicans, S. Con. Res 41 is the president's own budget, which Senator Sessions put on the legislative calendar. As the legislative website Thomas.gov notes, the official title of the bill as introduced is, "A concurrent resolution setting forth the President's budget request for the United States Government for fiscal year 2013, and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2014 through 2022."
This opposition is a bit odd, considering the union's closeness with Obama. The president even spoke to the union earlier this year in Washington. And Obama gave the union a majority stake in Chrysler as part of the auto bailout.
But nevertheless, either UAW meant to attack a Republican and accidentally went after the president's budget, or they are being serious in their opposition.
"Any serious proposal to reduce the federal budget deficit must include increased revenue from wealth individuals and corporations. Unfortunately, these proposed budgets fail to increase tax revenues but instead cut taxes. All of these proposals would cause more unemployment and jeopardize our economic recovery," Nassar says in his letter. "We strongly urge you to oppose these budget proposals. Thank you for considering our views."
Here's a copy of the letter:
