(Community Matters) Rebuilding our economy is the #1 priority. Infrastructure is crumbling and too many honest, hard-working Americans must earn money to keep their homes, their cars and feed their children – I’m not talking about the crooks who lied on their mortgage applications or the foolhardy who borrowed three times against paper profits. The government must help Americans when there’s systemic unemployment created by a failed and gamed economy. It isn’t partisan; it’s American.
It’s not 15% or 25% unemployment as it might have been without the economic recovery act, and 10% is still way too high. Even signs of recovery are too anemic. It was good to remind us that Bush inherited a budget surplus and spent us into a trillion dollar deficit while cutting taxes in the middle of two wars. And, that’s not a buy; it’s Obama’s baby now (our baby now), and we gotta fix it or be tossed out on our asses.
I emailed my cousin this morning about the extraordinary progress underway at the agency level. I’ve now had a chance to hear directly from the secretaries of energy and the EPA (the latter called the administrator) as well as top deputies at education and energy. These people blow me away. They aren’t waiting for legislation to pass, they’ve hired the very best & brightest, and have started enforcing laws, judiciously spending their budgets, and are already making huge differences in improving America’s economy and Americans’ lives.
Good things are underway, and a hell of a lot more needs to be done – today. Rescue, rebuild, restore must be substantive and immediate. Our citizens are tired of political rhetoric and partisan bullshit.
“Obama didn’t sound like a president buffeted and beleaguered by the political fates. He sounded determined, patient, forceful, good-humored, at times even mischievous.” -the Most Rev. Eugene Robinson
Community Matters 