Enough Is Enough: Confirm Hilda Solis Now

Almost two months have gone by since President Obama nominated Rep. Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor.

But some Senate Republicans are playing petty politics, holding up her confirmation. It looks like a cynical and misguided attempt to score points at the expense of the new Democratic President and his cabinet nominee.

America desperately needs a Secretary of Labor, with 600,000 workers losing their jobs just last month. Rep. Solis is eminently qualified for the post.  Her entire career is a testament to her deep commitment to making sure everyday people have equal access to educational and economic opportunity. Plus she brings a deep commitment to environmental justice and green jobs for all.

I got to see that commitment up close, when I worked with Rep. Solis on the Green Jobs Act of 2007.  That innovative law is designed to get skills and training to America's workers in the critical, emerging industries of renewable energy and energy efficiency.  Rep. Solis co-authored and championed that bill -- and got it signed into law by President Bush.  She'll bring the same vision, political skill and bipartisan approach to the Department of Labor.

But instead of getting to work solving the country's problems, Rep. Solis has been forced to wait and watch while a few Republican Senators try to make political hay of her husband's small business tax woes.  Her husband, Sam Sayyad, owed a few thousand dollars in back taxes. He paid them.  And the county says there is no reason to think he was trying to avoid paying his taxes.

So enough is enough.  It's time to put country before politics.  Give America the Labor Secretary we need and deserve. Confirm Hilda Solis ... NOW.

Comments

[rcmpvern]

On Feb 12th, Senator McConnell, former Secretary of Labor Chao's husband, threatened to filibuster Obama appointees from now on, unless they conform to his new set of standards.
Some people expected that Solis would get a vote in the full Senate on Feb 13th.

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=11529

http://www.rollcall.com/news/32352-1.html

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=56971

[TRUTHDOG]

Finally a Union friendly Labor secretary. I can't wait. Well, actually I've been waiting decades, it seems.

[TRUTHDOG]

43 posts in 3 1/2 days on supporting a labor friendly labor secretary is not exact;y awe inspiring. I sure hope she gets more support than this.

[Eclectic Radical]

Well written. I am from California, originally, and know of what Mr. Jones speaks. Ms. Solis was a superior congresswoman for district and will be a superior Secretary of Labor. The only reason for holding up her nomination is partisan politics.

For those of you who have raised the tax issue, consider this: regardless of whether or not tax problems are a bar to a cabinet post, they are hardly being applied as an equal standard in any way. Mr. Geithner's tax problems were no bar at all to his confirmation. Interestingly, he is a deficit hawk whose fiscal policy is much the same as moderate Republicans. Tom Daschle, whose tax problems led him to pull out as he faced increasingly bitter opposition, is a liberal who helped write the Clinton Health Plan and who championed it in the Senate. Things get interesting.

Hilda Solis does not even have any tax problems herself, instead the issue is a minor matter connected to her husband's business. Yet this issue was of crisis proportion.

Republicans do not demand ethics investigations of their own congressmen and senators who have their own tax issues.

Anyone who thinks this is anything but partisan, regardless of their views on the tax problems themselves, is making an important error.

[dezzertguy]

You are very forgiving since you support her Big Labor actions. Some wish there leaders were aware of the laws and their actions. Many critized Palin when it was discovered her daughter was pregant out of wedlock. Was that Palin's fault, no but she took the hit. Clinton and Carter took hits for their brothers' actions. In this day and age of technology, tax shortfalls should not occur. As we have learned this year, Dem leadership does not feel obligated to pay their taxes fully. How long will the American voter accept such lack of accountability. Will we see the Rangle rule pass that does away with tax penalities?

[Eclectic Radical]

"In this day and age of technology, tax shortfalls should not occur."

Better tell all the Republicans in Washington whose tax problems were outed a year or so ago. They don't know the standard you're holding Democrats to applies to them too. Quick, save them from themselves!

[HonorJusticeTruth]

Don't kid yourselves. The only type of person the Republicans want to see as Secretary of Labor is someone who is anti-labor, like the one George Bush had. The Republicans view anyone who has to work with their hands as menials, and should be given as little rights in the workplace as possible.

Representative Solis has the qualifications for this job, which is more than can be said for her predecessor.

[lobear00]

It is high time for the Obama, Justice department to start investigating these members who have been obstructing investigations, appointments, and protecting the criminals in the last administration on both sides of the aisles.

[BEHM777]

Unfortunately, she is a victim of the Great Obstructionist Party for now. No worries. They will be their own undoing.

[WorkingClass]

when?

[biabouman41]

The Republicans have set out to destroy anyone with Labor connections. Remember the GM bailout where they insisted that auto workers take severe pay cuts before they agree to bailout GM. (But they complain that Wall St CEOs should not be forced to live on $500,000.0­0 a year if they accept welfare) Then there is Sen. Gregg who has voted against almost all minimum wage increases. Why is he going to be in the Obama administration whilst having his feet firmly planted in the far right of the Republican Party?
Solis should have been confirmed a long time ago. Where is the backbone of Democratic Senators. I hope that they first deal with the Solis nomination before they take up that of their "kith and kin" Gregg.

[michyh]

This is a very reassuring post. I use VanJone's book with students all the time as a beacon for these times.
If he's good on this , I am too.
Bless you for your work and wisdom!

[WritusMaximus]

Judging by all these appearances, paying taxes should be VOLUNTARY! LOL!

[AnnfromCA]

I watched as Joe the Plumber, who wasn't even up for a cabinet position, just a guy on the street at the wrong/right time, got skewered for a minor tax lien.

But it's OK for a cabinet member?

Oh please.

I don't really care, by the way. It's a minor position. But the incongruity of standards drives me away.

[lizzielilly]

Pay attention!! It wasn't Ms Solis's lien, it was her husband's.

[livinCalDemtbubble]

I don't think Joe was skewered in the press, in fact, he got a job with the press! This automatic victimhood that Sarah Palin and those who supported her portray is an enormous, self-serving exaggeration of normal press reporting.

Also, the Secretary of Labor is a minor position if you're reasonably prosperous, but for those Americans who are struggling the Department of Labor is their life raft: It provides unemployment insurance, job training and job search funds, labor market projections and statistics, and is the arbiter of labor disputes and the protector of worker rights. Basically, if you need a job, need to figure out what job to get, need unemployment benefits, need rehabilitation benefits, need to know your rights in a labor situation where you are vulnerable, the Department of Labor is your ally. The dismissiveness with which Republicans (and many others including Democrats) treat the Department of Labor is indicative of the real bias against those who are not wealthy, or at least not upper middle class.

I mean, Timothy Geithner is a wealthy WASP, so his position if real important, and Hilda Solis is a working class Latina, so she's minor? I don't agree! I would hope our new President really considers these issues, unfortunately, I'm beginning to have doubts.

[jcwtts1]

Ann,

Let me explain basic tax law. When you owe taxes and you self report them to the IRS, that is, you figure out you owe them before the IRS does, you pay the back taxes and you pay the interest. You have no penalty attached financially or employment wise. You don't lose your job for back taxes, you don't lose a promotion for back taxes, you don't pay a social penalty for back taxes. You either owe money or jail time. Secretary Solis has a husband. His business has a lein attached to it. What does that have to do with her, what does any of this tax nonsense have to do with whether anyone would make a good Secretary. This nonsensical meme that somehow owing taxes makes you evil or corrupt or unemployable or confirmable is nonsense. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever employed a baby sitter, or a kid to shovel your walk? Did you pay the social security tax on those payments? If you didn't then according to your standard you are somehow a criminal and should either be fired or kept from promotion. One has nothing to do with the other.

[Eclectic Radical]

Clearly it is okay for some cabinet members but not others. That bothers me, especially when combined with the fact that Geithner (whose tax problems were so utterly dismissed) basically agrees with Republicans about the economy, while Daschle is in favor of socialized medicine and Hilda Solis has a long record of fighting for worker's rights, women's rights, and immigrants' rights. Do you see why some think the concern with her husband's taxes might be partisan, yet?

I made this comment in another thread related to this confirmation: Mr. Sayyad sells cars for a living. Car dealerships require lots, which accrue property taxes. Selling cars has an uneven revenue stream and a constant expense stream. This means that property taxes are often deferred from cycle to cycle because of necessity. When this happens, liens are filed as a matter of course. These liens only come into force when the property is sold. So the liens are frequently allowed to stand for a long time and paid off when most convenient. They are part of normal business.

Nearly ever car dealer has or has had tax liens against one or more of their lots. This is similar to nearly every doctor having been the subject of malpractice suits or every lawyer having been subjected to ethics investigations. It's not a sign of corruption or incompetence, it is a natural part of the profession.

[elishagrey]

Mr. Sayyad has an Auto Repair Shop.
He doesn't sell cars, he repairs cars.
Up until February 5th, when USA Today called him about the tax liens they found and all the other calls came flooding in, he often answered his own shop phone.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090223/nichols

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=13049

[murderBYzeN]

what dont we just get it over with and pass a law that states deomcrats dont have to pay their taxes.

[lissonifan]

Hear hear. This is one of the best posts I've read in ages on the Huff Po.

[LeeHInAlexandria]

Solis is dangerous as she has been a strong supporter of unions in her eight years in the House, and will bring a pro-union bias to the Labor Department. The problem? As Labor Secretary, you have to be fair and listen to both sides.

She should also be considered dangerous because of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to form bargaining units. Solis was a co-sponsor of the bill, which passed the House in 2007 but stalled in the Senate.

The legislation -- know as the "card check" bill because it would allow workers to simply fill out a card to indicate their interest in joining a union rather than vote in a secret election -- is likely to be taken up again in the House in coming weeks. Do you really want to be forced into joining a union? I don't.

[Badger84]

Can I assume that you felt the same outrage when Elaine Chao brought a pro-managment background to the department?

[Eclectic Radical]

Somehow, strangely, I don't think that is a safe assumption. Call me prejudiced, but people who deride unions as evil and corrupt have either never had the opportunity to join one (very common here where I live, something other people can have and we can't MUST be horrible) or work in management.

I don't think management is evil either, mind you, simply because it is management. Though we certainly have a problem with evil management in the current American corporate culture.

But management has power and labor does not, so someone has to empower labor. Unions do that, and the Labor Department is supposed to.

[Biffmeister]

Jeepers, sounds like a living hell. My union jobs over the years have forced me to buy a house, and a new car every so often. I've been forced to have health care, dental and vision care. I was forced to take paid holidays and vacations, and forced to get overtime after forty hours, and forced to have a retirement plan. I sure hope Secretary Solis doesn't start forcing other people into such horrible circumstances, that would be just awful.

[skymuffin]

Well said, Biffmeister. My union jobs have forced me to receive equal pay for equal work, plus all of the things you mentioned, profitsharing, stock options, affordable healthcare, and a l ot of work conditions that have been carefully negotiated, as well as raises and job protection. Gosh, thank goodness those Bushies kept us from more of this hell...

[LeLoup]

"The legislation -- know as the "card check" bill because it would allow workers to simply fill out a card to indicate their interest in joining a union rather than vote in a secret election."

Did you know that if workers want to get rid of the union, all they need to do is perform...­a card check?
Why should it be different for joining a union?

What's wrong with fairness?
You got a particular problem with fairness?

[citizensrus]

It is a labor positon not a commerce position.

[jcwtts1]

you mean fair like the Bush appointees? No way no how. There is no litmus test to any cabinet position. She is a perfect fit and a perfect pick. When you have a prize fight the last guy standing is the guy who won. We did you lost, suck it up.

J