Booman Tribune

Top Priorities: Urban Policy and Poverty

by BooMan
Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 12:57:35 PM EST

I took a look at your wish list for Obama's first session as president and it mainly came down to a few themes:

1. A universal health care system (preferably single payer).
2. Green economy/Energy Bill
3. Jobs program, emphasizing infrastructure.
4. Regulation of the banking/financial sector.
5. Getting out of Iraq/repairing our international relations.
6. Accountability for the Bush administration.

To this I would add addressing poverty/urban issues as a top priority. You can read about Obama's poverty program here and his Urban Policies here. Many of Obama's ideas can be rolled into his Jobs program, and others could be rolling into an Energy Bill, a Banking Bill, and a Transportation Bill. Some examples:

Jobs Program:

    Help Americans Grab a Hold of and Climb the Job Ladder: Obama will invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathway programs that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce.

    Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports: Obama will work to ensure that ex-offenders have access to job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment opportunities. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program and reduce barriers to employment.

    Create a Living Wage: Obama will raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation to make sure that full-time workers can earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs such as food, transportation, and housing.

    * Establish 20 Promise Neighborhoods: Obama will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in areas that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement in cities across the nation. The Promise Neighborhoods will be modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone, which provides a full network of services, including early childhood education, youth violence prevention efforts and after-school activities, to an entire neighborhood from birth to college.

    * Ensure Community-Based Investment Resources in Every Urban Community: Obama will work with community and business leaders to identify and address the unique economic development barriers of every major metropolitan area. Obama will provide additional resources to the federal Community Development Financial Institution Fund, the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies, especially to their local branch offices, to address community needs.

    * Invest in Rural Areas: Obama will invest in rural small businesses and fight to expand high-speed Internet access. He will improve rural schools and attract more doctors to rural areas.

Green Economy/Energy Bill:

    # Create a Green Jobs Corps: Obama will create a program to directly engage disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency opportunities to strengthen their communities, while also providing them with practical skills in this important high-growth career field.

Transportation Bill

    # Improve Transportation Access to Jobs: As president, Obama will work to ensure that low-income Americans have transportation access to jobs. Obama will double the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program to ensure that additional federal public transportation dollars flow to the highest-need communities and that urban planning initiatives take this aspect of transportation policy into account.

It's important that Barack Obama tackles Urban Policy in his first session. He has already signaled his intention to take Urban Policy seriously:

Obama will create a White House Office of Urban Policy to develop a strategy for metropolitan America and to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs. The Director of Urban Policy will report directly to the president and coordinate all federal urban programs.

Many of his ideas can be implemented in his Energy and Jobs bills, and also in a Transportation bill and Banking/Financial Services Bill. If Obama has the numbers in Congress to implement even half of the agenda his has laid out on his website, the first session could be as revolutionary as the New Deal. Some examples, in addition to those spelled out above:

    Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments.

    Create a new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program that will provide meaningful incentives for lenders to buy or refinance existing mortgages and convert them into stable 30-year fixed mortgages.

    Create a Foreclosure Prevention Fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners.

    Create Early Learning Challenge Grants to stimulate and help fund state "zero to five" efforts; quadruple the number of eligible children for Early Head Start and increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both; work to ensure all children have access to pre-school; and create a Presidential Early Learning Council to increase collaboration and program coordination across federal, state, and local levels.

    Expand the highly successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers. The Nurse-Family Partnership provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families.

    Tackle predatory loans: In the wake of reports that some service members were paying 800 percent interest on payday loans, the U.S. Congress took bipartisan action to limit interest rates charged to service members to 36 percent. Barack Obama believes that we must extend this protection to all Americans, because predatory lending continues to be a major problem for low and middle income families alike.

Urban progressives have been waiting an eon for an opportunity like this where we have a president that viscerally understands our issues and has the political will and capital to go to bat for us. It should not be wasted.

By spreading out his Urban/poverty agenda through a Jobs Program, an Energy Bill, a Banking/Financial Services Bill, and a Transportation Bill, Obama can bring about a revolution in progressive Urban Policy in his first session.



Display:
And, of course, McCain will do none of these things and will, in fact, make matters worse.
by BooMan on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 01:08:00 PM EST
The Green Economy will be pushed off the burners. OFF. The fix is here:

On planet earth we've an abundance of oil - reports the
U.S. Geological Service.

Wealth of oil in Arctic, report says

"The survey suggests that there is the equivalent of 412 billion barrels of oil throughout the Arctic, most of it off the coast of Russia."

A new study suggests that the equivalent of 30 billion barrels of oil lie undiscovered underneath the sea ice and frigid waters of North America's Arctic.

The report by the U.S. Geological Service has for the first time put some hard numbers behind the energy potential of the North and could add new urgency to the debate over control of those resources.

Most of the oil and gas lies in waters that Canada shares with the United States and Denmark, and which are subject to boundary disputes.

The release of this report has impacted today's pricing of oil lower.

More oil wars ahead.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 01:10:27 PM EST
.
Accelerate global warming so we can get to all the arctic oil resources real soon!   <snark>

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

by Oui on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 01:39:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
now we know what the plan was all along ;)
by BooMan on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 01:40:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
pre-emptive strikes ahead for Canada, Denmark and Russia.

Do we have The money:

Oh wait, the Artic oil will pay for it.

The troops:

Oh, we'll recruit from third world countries ($600. per capita countries) with enticements of US$15,000 sign up bonuses, an insurance policy that never meets a pay out. IEDs take care of those or if they get injured the deal is repay the bonus.

see the love pouring to our shores?

BUT Bush needs to help McCain. Get the price down for the upcoming election.

Collateral sh^t hits the fan November 8, 08.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 03:14:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Interesting the reflection here, which I'm sure is shared across the landscape, that we're all looking toward what I would call getting back to domestic policies and functions. Iraq stands in the way, as do every one of Bush's policies of engagement with our global neighbors.

Almost an aside, The global excitement with Obama makes me take heart that our neighbors are eager to see the real us again and may find it in their hearts to forgive where Bush led us.


by mainsailset on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 01:48:21 PM EST
Well, we did say we were sorry.

President John Syndey McCain III. Hold that image for a moment, and then get back to work.
by Omir the Storyteller (omir.the.storyteller -CAT- gmail -DOG- com) on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 02:05:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I hadn't seen that, pretty much sums it up, eh? Thanks

by mainsailset on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 02:14:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It was big on the Internet at the very end of 2004, as you can imagine. I love some of the apologies (and some of the acceptances from the rest of the world).

President John Syndey McCain III. Hold that image for a moment, and then get back to work.
by Omir the Storyteller (omir.the.storyteller -CAT- gmail -DOG- com) on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 02:44:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
And to pay for this - he has to be willing to raise taxes on the wealthy - because no one else can afford a tax hike right now. That's something he really has to lead vigorously on.

Btw - locally, I just saw a wall with a sign on it saying that wall had been built as part of the Work Projects Administration in 1940. I love that. Not only that it was done, but that they reminded people, in bronze, of where those tax dollars had went. I wish we had a lot more of those all over the country.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

by Real History Lisa (lpeaseRemoveThis@gte.net) on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 02:30:39 PM EST
When we were on our road trip I saw a bunch of signs at highway constroction sites* touting "Your Tax Dollars At Work" and then explaining where the funding for the project had come from.

I think this is a wonderful and subtle way to remind people of what their taxes are for. Over the last few years we've been sold a bill of goods that "tax = bad" or "tax = waste" or similar malarkey. People need to be reminded that the money goes into the things that make their lives easier, or more bearable, or in some cases possible.

President John Syndey McCain III. Hold that image for a moment, and then get back to work.

by Omir the Storyteller (omir.the.storyteller -CAT- gmail -DOG- com) on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 02:50:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
cus a lot of them are suggesting not much is going to happen:

   But as Clyburn laid out his preliminary thoughts on organizing the 11 transition weeks between those two grand events, he worried about the current lack of comprehensive discussions and planning among top Democrats on the Hill and the Obama campaign. "Things need to bubble up, and not operate top-down," he cautioned. "You bring people in at the beginning to decide what will be done on the first day."
    [snip]
    "I have told others I would like to discuss them.... I am scared to death that so much has to be done, and I'm anxious to get started." [Rangel] voiced hope that both during the campaign and beyond, "nothing [Obama] proposes will be locked in cement ... and there will be as little detail as possible, to try to avoid conflict."
    [snip]
    Others caution that one of his biggest challenges will be the need to tamp down expectations.

    "The democratic process is not designed for quick action. [except when it comes to corproate bailouts with taxpayer funds or selling our 4th Amendment rights down the river, but I digress] Managing expectations will be very important," said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., a senior Ways and Means member. "On some issues, President Obama will need to say we are in tough times and can't solve problems quickly."
    [snip]
    But those early budget decisions present plenty of pitfalls for Democrats. "As a party, we are dogged by `tax-and-spend' [criticisms], so we need to show restraint," said former Rep. Fazio.

All of the things Obama won't be able to accomplish as a Democratic president with a presumed Democratic majority.

Hey oh, nothing's gonna change...

John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??

by brendan on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 04:32:41 PM EST
Did I miss the phrases "climate change" or "global warming" in all of the proposals above?

"Money ruined Democracy. Washington is lost. We only have the grassroots left." - Bill Moyers
by Knoxville Progressive (green_planet_2000 (at) yahoo (dot) com) on Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 at 10:07:32 PM EST


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