I say yes, just because in he time as President of our fair land, he has alays supported legislation and policy which has seemed to favor big business. (ie tort reform, immigration, engery, gov't contracts, bankruptcy, war, healthcare)
the following article is an example where he has finally been called on his bullshit.


http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/26/news/ec ... tm?cnn=yes

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Reversing a decision made in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration will reinstate rules requiring that companies receiving federal contracts for hurricane reconstruction and relief efforts pay local prevailing wages.

The administration said that suspending the rules would reduce rebuilding costs and help open opportunities for minority-owned companies, but critics said it would result in lower pay for workers.

Members of Congress were first informed of the decision at a White House meeting with Chief of Staff Andrew Card on Wednesday morning.

The decision, which means that workers will get wages closer to what they were making before the hurricane, was met with approval by Republicans and Democrats, many of whom felt that out-of-state workers were descending on hurricane-ravaged areas and working for a fraction of a living wage.

The Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees the wage levels, was suspended Sept. 8. It will be reinstated Nov. 8.

Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, who attended the White House meeting, told CNN that the situation was unacceptable.

"The danger we have in the Gulf Coast in general is profiteering. When you have these large contracts and again, when you suspend some protections ... it appears you can pay people whatever you want to pay and the rest of the money goes into the profit column of the corporation," he said.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who has led his party's charge against the Davis-Bacon suspension, said in an interview with CNN, "At least those wages will be protected where federal money is involved, and that's very important to the economy of that region. This is why we couldn't understand how the president could take such a callous position immediately after the hurricane to just decimate the protections for the wages of people who are trying to rebuild their families, their communities, their lives."


this thread is decdicated to Chris_H_2

We as a people need to tell these corporate greedheads to just fuck off--and take their gov't goons with 'em!

Yeah great idea. Let's hire 400 different small businesses instead of hiring 1 or 2 big businesses to handle rebuilding New Orleans. Nothing like having too many cooks in the kitchen.

i think the point was the rates people were being paid, not the size of the business. In fact I believe the article states that Bush's reason for lower wages was to include small business

Why do all companies have to work together to rebuild New Orleans? It's not really a kitchen...

I don't really know what motivated me to make that post, but I think there is going to be a serious construction economy evolving in New Orleans for a few years--why not let that money stay local? Why should some huge company be in charge of everything, when local concrete companies can work with the water board, or small construction companies can build and rebuild houses the same way? Nothing would be better for a local economy than money staying local rather than going up the corporate hierarchy to sit in some uber-rich guy's bank account.

Coordination. Why could the government get it's sh*t together right before and after the hurricane? One hand didn't know what the other was doing.

#1 the cost. It will cost the people of New Orleans way more $$$ than it would if there were only a handful of contractors. We are talking about rebuilding roads & bridges and other utility infrastructure. Then comes housing.

I can't imagine the numerous disconnects in building or rebuilding an area if there are hundreds of different companies. This is why when states build roadways they hire one General Contractor to oversee the other contractors. Otherwise you have chaos.

does a hobby horse........ oh, nevermind

The bill was about the wage that workers are being paid by the companies doing the rebuilding, not how many companies were doing the overall rebuilding. It seems to me that having more than one or two companies doing the work will lessen the possibility of fraudulent costs being passed on to the people paying the bill.

I don't believe there would be chaos--ever seen a house be built? There are several companies that are contracted by the builder to put up the house, not one horizontally controlled company. While a big company would have a more concise plan, they would also be shovelling money up the corporate food chain, cutting out the labor and the city of New Orleans. I said it before, but I think money should stay local as much as possible, and it should be kept out of the banks of the multi-national corporations that just accumulate wealth rather than share it.



I agree with this. The people in New Orleans are going to need jobs. It seems they would be better off working for a small company than a big corporation at this point. Again, that money should stay local. I hope I am being clear, but i don't feel like I am...it's been a long day...

I have to admit that I am making this argument more on grounds of ideals than rationality. But I honestly think that corporations have too much control over the economy--a side-effect of "free-market" capitalism...