This is just one of the many examples Brown has proven to be a real economic populist looking out and working for workers. Here’s another great example:
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) Thursday to chair the third hearing of the bipartisan, joint House-Senate committee tasked with solving the pending pension crisis threatening small businesses and 1.3 million workers and retirees nationwide. More than 60,000 Ohio workers and retirees are at risk.
During the hearing, Brown questioned Thomas Reeder, executive director of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), on exactly what is at stake as he continues to urge his colleagues to pass a solution this year. Reeder confirmed that congressional action is needed to prevent devastation for workers, retirees and businesses and prevent a taxpayer bailout of the PBGC.
PBGC serves as the insurance company for multiemployer pension plans. Brown explained in his opening statement that, like any insurance plan, PBGC won’t kick in until after the damage is done – after plans fail, businesses are forced to close and jobs are lost. And even then, retirees would only be covered for a tiny fraction of the retirement they earned over a lifetime of work. What’s more, Brown explained, the PBGC itself is severely underfunded, so allowing just one of the major plans to fail could put enough strain on the insurance system to bring down the entire PBGC multiemployer system. And if that happens, taxpayers could be on the hook for tens of billions of dollars.
Brown is urging the committee to find a solution to prevent that from happening and ensure workers and retirees get the full pension they earned.
“Ask anyone who’s ever totaled a car or dealt with flooding or fire in their homes – you’re sure glad you have insurance. But you’d much rather have avoided the disaster in the first place. We have the opportunity to do just that – to keep those businesses open, to save those jobs, and to ensure workers get the entire retirement they earned,” Brown said. “Simply propping up the PBGC is not enough. We can’t take our hands off the wheel, close our eyes and allow this car to crash, simply because we bought an insurance policy. We can’t do that to the retirees and businesses whose plans are in crisis, and we can’t do that to the multiemployer system.”
Reeder confirmed to Brown during questioning that if plans are allowed to fail and PBGC insurance kicks in, the insurance could only pay about one-eight of the minimum benefit retirees are supposed to be guaranteed. Brown pointed out that minimum benefit is already much lower than the retirement these workers earned, that they bargained for and gave up pay raises for – that they budgeted for when taking out mortgages, and that they count on to pay their bills. Cutting it down to one-eighth is unsustainable and could force retirees into poverty.
He’s also been focused on health care, renegotiating NAFTA and of course, infrastructure:
That’s not the only thing Brown wants more support on.
“I heard big promises from the White House during the campaign, a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan over 10 years,” Brown says. “And then I heard it again and then it was a trillion-and-a-half dollar infrastructure plan.”
Under Trump's plan, though, the burden would fall to local and state governments and private entities to put up 80 percent of the money. Brown says that’s a sharp contrast to Democratic plans.
“I personally put two bills out there, this last bill, a trillion dollar, 10-year, paid-for infrastructure plan,” Brown says. “But the Republican House and Senate decided instead to give a tax cut to the wealthiest 1 percent.”
Brown has grander plans for fixing the country’s infrastructure.
“The Democrats plan’s real, it provides real money, it’s not smoke and mirrors,” Brown says. “It provides dollars to local communities, it follows in large part the way we built the interstate from World War II on, where the federal government provided 90 percent of the funding, and local and state governments 10 percent. We’re not quite that ratio, but you don’t build infrastructure by the federal government putting in pennies on the dollar because communities and states don’t have the money.”
Brown says that good infrastructure creates jobs – and not just in construction.
“We know that it creates jobs because it builds a foundation, where companies are more likely to come into a community that has modernized infrastructure,” Brown says.
Brown has also been gearing up for re-election big time:
Just 10 days after the May primary, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, is launching a multi-city, broadcast and cable TV ad campaign. The ads are scheduled to start Friday and air through Monday, according to sources who track political ad spending in Ohio.
The Brown campaign wouldn't discuss details of the ad. But a campaign spokeswoman suggested it would take a shot at Brown's Senate primary opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who won a five-way Republican primary election on May 8.
"Voters across Ohio will begin hearing about the clear difference in the race for Senate," said the spokeswoman, Rachel Petri.
Renacci in 2008, three years before he became a congressman, registered as a lobbyist for Smokerise International, a business consulting firm for which he served as a CPA. He deactivated his status as a lobbyist in 2009, but didn't file a companion form with the U.S. Senate office until two months ago. Laura Mills, a lawyer for the consulting firm, said in a statement Friday that Renacci never performed any lobbying work for the firm or anyone else, and that Brown's statement that he was a registered lobbyist while in Congress is false. Polifact / The Plain Dealer explored this subject in greater depth in 2010 when it came up then, the year Renacci was elected to office.
We have to keep Brown in the Senate and we can’t allow Trump and his chosen candidate to dupe the voters. So let’s help this real Populist get ready. Click here to donate and get involved with Brown’s campaign.