Romney tries to make hay of Chicago teachers' strike
By Michael O'Brien, NBC News
Mitt Romney led Republicans on Monday in trying to get political traction from the teachers' union strike in Chicago, which forced canceled classes in one of the nation's largest public school districts.
Charles Dharapak / AP
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stands on a table as he addresses an overflow crowd as he campaigns at PR Machine Works in Mansfield, Ohio, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012.
Romney and running mate Paul Ryan assailed teachers' unions, and sought to tie President Barack Obama to striking educators and divide him from Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
"I am disappointed by the decision of the Chicago Teachers Union to turn its back on not only a city negotiating in good faith but also the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city's public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education," Romney said in a statement Monday morning.
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike in the nation's third-largest school district after negotiations toward a new contract broke down Sunday night. No immediate resolution to the dispute seemed likely as of Monday afternoon.
Republicans quickly attempted to turn the collective bargaining standoff into political fodder for the fall campaign.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Is Mitt Romney taking a political risk by focusing on closing tax loopholes for wealthy Americans? Republican strategist Fred Malek and Democratic strategist Ed Rendell debate.
"Teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children, and today we are seeing one of the clearest examples yet," Romney added in his statement Monday. "I choose to side with the parents and students depending on public schools to give them the skills to succeed, and my plan for education reform will do exactly that."
The Republican presidential nominee has been a frequent critic of teachers' unions, casting them as a self-interested impediment to the types of reforms Romney argues are needed in schools.
And as if to prove the maxim that politics makes for strange bedfellows, GOP vice presidential nominee Ryan found himself praising Emanuel, the former hard-charging Obama chief of staff, while campaigning on Monday in Oregon.
"Rahm and I have not agreed on every issue or on a lot of issues, but Mayor Emanuel is right today in saying that this teacher's union strike is unnecessary and wrong. We know that Rahm is not going to support our campaign, but on this issue and this day we stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel," Ryan said at a fundraiser.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and the Morning Joe panel talk about the impact of the teachers strike in Chicago on unions, parents and students.
The praise for Emanuel might prompt some askew glances considering how Republicans have referred to Chicago as a kind of shorthand for cronyism and strong-armed machine politics of which they accuse Obama. The president hails from the city and headquartered his 2008 and re-election campaigns there.
But Emanuel himself lashed out at Romney during a press availability in Chicago this afternoon, accusing the Republican presidential hopeful of political opportunism.
"While I appreciate Mitt Romney’s statement, on behalf of the kids and the parents of the city of Chicago, if he wants to help, he could then determine that when it comes to his tax cut, he will never cut the Department of Education and the funding that’s necessary and he will make sure that there will never be a cut in any education to pay for his tax cuts for the most fortunate," the first-term mayor said.
"So while I appreciate his lip service, what really counts is what we’re doing here. And I don’t really give two hoots about national comments scoring political points or trying to embarrass -- or whatever -- the president."
And as Romney and Ryan attack unions, other Republicans, ironically, turned up the pressure on Emanuel.
Pat Brady, the chairman of the Illinois GOP, called on Emanuel to abandon his role with Priorities USA Action, a super PAC which supports Obama.
"Chicago families deserve the mayor’s complete attention this week," Brady said on Monday. "Mayor Emanuel should put aside his Obama Super PAC fundraising work and put Chicago issues first."
(POLITICO reported that Emanuel has put his fundraising on hiatus to turn his attention to the ongoing strike.)
Romney himself will be in the Chicago area later Monday to attend a closed-door fundraiser following an afternoon rally in Ohio, and his schedule currently doesn't call for any public availabilities while in the Windy City.
As for the president, White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested that Obama hadn't chosen a "side" in the fight, and instead hoped for a consensus solution to avert further lost days of school for students.
"I can tell you more broadly that our principal concern is for the students, and his principal concern is for the students and families who are affected by the situation," Carney said. "And we hope that both sides are able to come together to solve this quickly and in the best interests of Chicago's students."
Willard can try to make "hay" out of it all he wants...
The simple fact of the matter is, people are coming back to President Obama's green pasture! ;o)
The fields in Willard's world are draught-ridden with the same old tired policies, Republican's have been practicing for 30 years!
Why do you think there is no longer a strong middle-class?
- 235
- !
Green pastures, maybe you should switch to the article about the Volt that keeps costing taxpayers money.
Your green crap has put us deeper into the red.
- 128
- !
Obama's green pasture? Did you read his recent speech transcripts?
Romney/Ryan 2012
- 120
- !
Feisty, thats great how you quasi post in the first slot to make sure you get it, then you get all your talking points together to actually submit your post/propaganda. Have you ever felt really pathetic in your life? Because you are.
Why do you think there is no longer a strong middle-class?
Umm, because dems and libs prefer everyone being poor and on the dole?
- 117
- !
Romney could bring in Governor Twinkie, all 400 lbs of him, to sit on the Teachers and tell them all how over-indulgent they all are...
- 118
- !
Haggisbingo, you mean Captain Corpulent of the Little Debbie Brigade, right?
- 35
- !
trudat - ooooooh sour grapes! No one prefers people being poor and let's remember, more Red States are "on the dole" than blue ones. See, when the economy goes into a recession like Bush caused, there are repercussions. More people need help until the recovery picks up.
That's what the US does - we help each other instead of turning people out onto the street in droves - like other countries. But, even one person who is homeless or out of work is too many. That's why we're working to fix the situation.
Now if the Republicans would just stop blocking everything - we could recover faster!
Obama/Biden 2012
- 186
- !
Romney would rather double class size, half teachers pay and their numbers, because we don't need an educated electorate. It costs money at the expense of his base (the rich) and the last thing the neo-conservatives need is an educated electorate.
Besides his and his base's children and grand children go to private schools that have a lower student/teacher ratio than public schools have now.
- 173
- !
Oh SURE!!!! Let's get RID of the unions, so Mitt Romney can really wipe out more teachers, LIKE HE HAS SAID HE WILL DO.
Without the unions, he has a free way to get rid of all the teachers, without any problems. HE SAID THAT HE WILL GET RID OF MORE TEACHERS.
IF YOU THINK THAT VOTING FOR ROMNEY WILL SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM IF YOU ARE A TEACHER, ASK THE TEACHERS IN Wisconsin!!!!
What a tool is Mitt Romney!
- 182
- !
Well this could be setted in 5 short minutes..... Either the teachers go back to work or they are FIRED..... Time to replace all of them with Non-Union teachers..... We cannot afford the pay and benefits that they are receiving..... We also need to take the Administrators out along with the teachers..... Yep lets do a Reagan on them.....
- 81
- !
"I am disappointed by the decision of the Chicago Teachers Union to turn its back on not only a city negotiating in good faith but also the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city's public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education," Romney said
This is the guy that had very little interest in higher ed. while he was governor of Massachusetts.
This is the guy that balanced Mass budget by cutting education budgets to pay for the tax cuts.
- 144
- !
Hmmm... I guess it's not really the "all about the children" BULLSH!T the teachers unions like to spew. It's ALL about full-time pay increases, full-time pension increases, and full-time free health insurance for life, for a seasonal job where you only have to work nine months out of the year.
Nice work, if you can get it.
- 79
- !
It's PATCO all over again!
Thank you for speaking out, Governor!!!
- 23
- !
I think that it is very telling that Obama is sitting on the sidelines. He knows the teachers union is in the wrong on this, but he is so beholding to them that he dare not say anything negative about a union. This is just one more reason why Obama needs to go. Even when it is apparent to anyone with a brain that the union is in the wrong and are only trying to line their pockets and protect incompetent teachers, Obama still will not say anything negative about them. Obama is bought and paid for by the unions and he will let the union destroy every business in this country that they can and not say a word against them. These greedy, self serving unions need to go. They are one of the primary reasons that we have almost no manufacturing left in this country. They are also the reason that so many state and local governments are on the verge of bankruptcy. Unions served there purpose decades ago but today are nothing but greedy parasites that are destroying the country, and Obama is bought and paid for in their pocket.
- 93
- !
Fiesty said:
The simple fact of the matter is, people are coming back to President Obama's green pasture! ;o)
The fields in Willard's world are draught-ridden with the same old tired policies, Republican's have been practicing for 30 years!
Why do you think there is no longer a strong middle-class?
Well the fact may not be so simple. While a group of people see people coming back to Obama, and I would assume they think this because of the bump in the polls, Obama is pushing people from him just as fast. Take a look at the division in this country... a lot of it caused by Obama himself. The country has been and hopefully will be a center right country. Radical ideas don't cause cohesion.
The reason we don't have a strong middle class is because there have been efforts on both political aisles to strip away the middle. The democrats want government control and the republicans want to offer individual control, but don't know how to maintain it. The loss of the middle class is really an illusion. There's plenty of middle class, but there has been erosion, mostly towards the lower middle class. Thank inflation, price of goods and loss of income. Plenty of blame to go around on both sides.
- 45
- !
Romney trying to "make hay"?
More like he's grasping at straws....
- 93
- !
Well this could be setted in 5 short minutes..... Either the teachers go back to work or they are FIRED.....
YEAH! That is REAL COMMUNISM!!!! All of you Republicans love to throw your rhetoric about Socialism, Communism and all that asinine rhetoric.But workers should JUST GO BACK TO THE DISMAL SALARIES OR ELSE THEY ARE FIRED, JUST LIKE IN THE iNDUSTRIAL revolution.
The children of the Republicans are the worst behaved, and the parents are always looking for ways to sue the schools, because they want to get RICH WITHOUT WORKING.
- 103
- !
So funny seeing all you idiot libs supporting this strike, it just proves to everyone that you guys really are just tools.
$91K after benefits a 9 month year, keep supporting that you dolts, they are nearly the 1%, with a pathetic success rate, they are comparable to weathermen.
- 71
- !
Does anyone realize that the GOP has passed a bill in the House of Representatives to eliminate the caps on skilled foreign workers coming into this country?
It is now in the Senate. We need to speak up NOW and put a stop to this garbage! These are American jobs!
The United States House of Representatives passed this week a bill — House Resolution 3012 — which favors highly skilled workers by removing country-specific caps on immigrant engineers, computer scientists and other professionals.House representatives voted 389 to 15 in favor of HR 3012 or the "Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act." The bill is also expected to pass in the Senate.By eliminating the cap from each country on high-skilled working visa, talented immigrants from India, Philippines, China and other emerging economies can work in the US, the report said.
So much for the GOP's blathering about "illegals" taking American jobs. They just want to make them "legals" when it's cheaper for their corporate masters!
- 93
- !
Another lie by SeekingSanity to cover up for union greed and demands in the most corrupt city of our nation !
It's not really about their selfish demands for more money although that is an element. The unions want MORE BENNIES with their health insurance and MORE PROTECTION for their incompetent teachers.
Democratic pandering to the unions will be the final result ! It's too bad people like Rahm and Obumbles don't have the balls to say "enough is enough".
But then, Obama could risk losing part of his support base ... the "bought and paid-for" unions !!
Screw the kids ... the unions reject a 16% increase when their pay is already among the highest in the country !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- 57
- !
The Senate bill is S. 1983:
Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) eliminate the per country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants, and (2) increase the per country numerical limitation for family based immigrants from 7% to 15% of the total number of family-sponsored visas.Amends the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 to eliminate the provision requiring the reduction of annual Chinese (PRC) immigrant visas to offset status adjustments under such Act.
So more foreign workers to take American jobs. And many more Chinese by eliminating the offset reduction for foreign worker visas.
Does anyone here not see that this is just a ploy by American corporations to avoid raising wages for American workers? Companies can get these foreign workers at 1/3rd to 2/3rds the rate of qualified Americans.
STOP the GOP from offshoring our jobs here at home!
- 75
- !
It's ALL about full-time pay increases, full-time pension increases, and full-time free health insurance for life, for a seasonal job where you only have to work nine months out of the year.
heck you'd think they were a politician LOL .
STOP the GOP from offshoring our jobs here at home!
tell that to GE and GM LOL so Get Real, Real
- 30
- !
To all you parents who have voted for democrats and want to pay more for your teachers YOU will pay at the stores haha hahaha hahahahaha keep voting The democrats they have you by your butt haha hahaha hahahahaha. Suckers! That is who and what the democrats are haha hahaha hahahahaha!
- 27
- !
JS in SD - no President Obama is sitting on the sidelines because it would be inappropriate for him to stick his nose into a city problem - just like it is for Romney. Do you ACTUALLY believe the President should go around putting his 2 cents into every big city problem? We have mayors for that!
trudat - just totally stupid! Not even the biggest liars are claiming $91,000 per year for teacher's salaries. When you make up lies I guess you think the bigger the better, huh?
Obama/Biden 2012
- 96
- !
If you don't like outsourcing why did obama outsourse your government jobs at the cost of a trillion dollars. Don't ask me it is on abc and the huffington post. There go your government jobs haha hahaha hahahahaha!
- 18
- !
So caesar - I guess you're all for giving American jobs to immigrants?
What the heck has the GOP been howling about for the last four years?
No use in building a wall if you're INVITING them in!
- 45
- !
hahah, maybe the half million students can help at his gay bathhouse, where he and obozo have lifetime memberships.
vote suppression
vote communist
vote higher taxes for everyone
vote enslavement to govt
vote fiscal irresponsibility
vote obozo
- 26
- !
Union embracing ROMNEY. This is your guy REPUBLICANS!!! He loves unions and every corporation in AMERICA will now have one
- 5
- !
Joe
Do you have any idea how many hours a teacher puts in. My wife starts class at 8:00, school's out at 3:15. Stays at school for meetings, helping students, meeting with parents until 5:00. Comes home and works on next day assignments or grades papers till midnight. Goes to bed and starts all over the next day. She has a BS with Honors from Notre Dame in Biology, a MS in Geology from U. of AZ, plus a teaching certificate in math. She makes about $33,000 a year.
- 100
- !
So caesar - I guess you're all for giving American jobs to immigrants?
no i was pointing out that you are a liberal hack trying to paint it a one sided problem/cause.
Seeking quit wetting yourself. you call everyone dumb, I bet you live at home still. Tell you what, read what you write. Nevermind you're seeking sanity LOL.
- 13
- !
No comments:
Post a Comment