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Yes, We Can’t

If every American repeated mistakes made by the banking and mortgage industries we’d be bankrupt and out on the streets. But thanks to the Congress of the United States global economic calamity was averted with the intervention of various federal agencies in efforts to minimize the effects of the meltdown.

Imagine the movie Independence Day starring Will Smith but with the roles of aliens being played by Wall Street bankers, mortgage lenders and greedy republican conservatives. And then the whole world gets together (insert line by third world guy on the street, “thank God for the Americans”) as we defend ourselves from alien creatures that want our planets resources including our homes and wealth. Sorry, I digress.

During the Great Depression after losing everything some on Wall Street simply opened their Manhattan office window and jumped. (Bernie Madoff, splat!) That was 1929, today with Wall Street being shielded like a witness protection program participant the real victims of this mess are the working class people of this country.

If you live in upstate New York you’d notice that the manufacturing base of our economy has collapsed after two decades of massive layoffs and factory closings decimated the working class. Hundreds of millions of dollars in annual payroll were erased from the local economy. The list of companies in the area that have reduced staff, gone out of business or just gone from Central New York is as long as your arm.

Like an economic Tsunami, neighborhood after neighborhood have been impacted as people who could no longer afford their homes and apartments had to walk away. Neighborhood businesses unable to make a profit closed. Lack of living wage job availability has pushed those on the bottom of the ladder to the ground.

Therefore, with great fanfare The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 was enacted. In many cases these funds simply replaced monies that were previously allocated delaying the inevitable financial collapse of local governments and broader consequences of shrinking state and local tax revenue.

A major part of this legislation involved health care and keeping your employer sponsored health insurance through government subsidy of COBRA AKA Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.

Regular COBRA insurance allowing a person or family continuation of previous health insurance cost over $500 per month for an individual with the government subsidy that caps your payment at $190. The COBRA subsidy is perhaps is the most important benefit of ARRA to the working class individual. But that’s if you can afford the premium. Even with the subsidy many still can’t afford to continue their insurance coverage.

In localities across the nation ARRA funds are awarded to states, local governments and non profits to mitigate the impact of the economic downturn funding projects such as home weatherization, affordable housing construction, highway repair/reconstruction and much more. In the area of employment support, there are initiatives that have just begun all over the country, whether these reduce the unemployment rate remains to be seen.

Cash for Clunkers, appliance rebates and other measures are being used to jumpstart the ailing economy. Officially the U.S. economy is growing again but the last indicator of economic strength is employment and that is still anemic.

Scour state and federal Web sites dedicated to recovery from this “Great Recession” and see how much money is just laying there on a spreadsheet waiting to be spent. With seven months left on most of these contracts, a fraction of these funds have been requisitioned to date leaving hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, on the table that has not yet entered the pipeline.

Millions and millions are spent targeting employment, contracting with not-for profits that are going to create hundreds of jobs on the local level for people looking for jobs, to assist people who are looking for jobs. (Insert head scratch here.)

A little over a year ago Americans were jubilant that change had come to Washington, D.C. now after the Republican/Conservative Anarchist Tea Parties and relative inaction of Democrats with linguini spines, all we are left with is a slogan. Those who are hopeful, employed and democrats continue to say “Yes, we can.”

However, if you are among the millions of Americans, some unemployed for years, there’s a new slogan – “Yes, we can’t.”

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