Gerald McEntee

America is losing 20,000 jobs a day. Unemployment just hit 7.6% and states are looking at shortfalls this fiscal year that amount to 14% of their total budgets. Current projections for the next fiscal year are deficits that total 17% of budgets. And fiscal year 2011 is shaping up to be just as bad. That is why AFSCME made an economic recovery bill the top legislative priority in our "Make America Happen" campaign - our effort to win long term investment in public services, reform health care and strengthen the middle class through the Employee Free Choice Act.

or years, AFSCME has been leading the fight to rein in the grotesque and excessive paychecks that unaccountable boards of directors have been giving too many of America's CEOs. We've fought shareholder battles and taken our case to the media, arguing that directors who approve exorbitant salaries for executives cheat shareholders and workers. We created a network of institutional and individual investors that fights to get shareowners a voice on executive compensation packages and in the boardrooms of major corporations. But the CEOs want their sky-high pay guaranteed even when they fail, so they've fought us every step of the way, building thick walls of resistance to pay reform.

This week's historic vote by the House of Representatives in favor of President Obama's plan to revitalize our economy and protect the jobs of millions of working Americans is proof that the change we voted for has finally arrived. The House acted boldly to protect jobs and create opportunity by passing President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestmant Plan. Against a backdrop of a worsening economic crisis that resulted in last year's loss of 2.6 million American jobs, and layoffs that accelerated in the early part of 2009, President Obama's plan will create or save three to four million jobs, strengthen our middle class, and improve the economy in the near and long term. As Americans face the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, we need to work together to put our economy back on track by passing this legislation.

President John F. Kennedy called Inauguration Day “a celebration of freedom – symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning – signifying renewal, as well as change.” This year, that is dramatically true. President-elect Barack Obama will place his hand on the same Bible President Abraham Lincoln used to take the oath of office. When he does so, at noon on Tuesday, Americans of every party will celebrate both renewal and a long-needed change.

Not since the darkest days of the Great Depression has an American President taken office with so many challenges awaiting him. But here's the good news: America has overcome similar challenges before. And we can do it again.