AFL-CIO chief Dick Trumka: The GOP has committed economic “treason”

Union boss Richard Trumka to accuse Republicans, businesses and insurers of ‘economic treason’

(By Jon Ward, The Daily Caller) - AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Tuesday will accuse Republicans, private sector businesses and health insurance companies of “economic treason” in a red meat speech in Columbus, Ohio, to union members at their annual convention.

Trumka’s charge is centered on his anger at private sector business and corporations for sitting on capital — as much as $2 trillion by some estimates — instead of spending it to expand and create jobs, and at insurers for proposing rate hikes.

Business groups and leaders say that President Obama’s policies, namely the health-care overhaul and the financial regulation bill, have created massive uncertainty and are transforming hiring into the assumption of liability instead gaining an asset. Insurers who have announced rate hikes say that the health-care bill has increased their costs.

But Trumka will say it boils down to a more simple explanation: greed.