Daily equity news

“Obama’s budget proposal draws rapid fire from legislators,” - USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s proposed $3.8 trillion budget ran into immediate trouble in Congress on Monday among lawmakers who said it tries to do too much while cutting the deficit too little.

The quick response came as Obama sought to juggle his twin goals of creating jobs, which entails tax cuts and new spending, and cutting the deficit, which involves the opposite.

“States Restart Health-Care Push,” - The Wall Street Journal
Tight Budgets May Limit Legislative Efforts to Lift Coverage as National Plan Stumbles

With the fate of a national health care overhaul unclear, state legislators are pushing their own bills aimed at expanding coverage, though tight budgets are likely to hinder many of these efforts.

Lawmakers in at least two states, California and Missouri, have introduced legislation for the current session to create government-backed coverage for state residents. In others, including Virginia and New Jersey, legislators are hoping to tweak existing state programs to include more people.

“Michelle Obama’s Healthy Food Campaign,” - The Root

The first lady takes childhood obesity as her cause.

The White House Kitchen Garden is frozen under, but, this Black History Month, first lady Michelle Obama is once more using food to address the epidemic of childhood obesity that has gripped the country and, she said in a recent speech to the United States’ Conference on Mayors, “never fails to take my breath away.”

The following is a statement from PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell in response to President Obama’s first State of the Union address:

“A recovery that merely recreates our inequitable pre-recession economy is no recovery at all. Throughout his first year and his first State of the Union address, President Obama has made it clear that all Americans deserve to live in opportunity-rich communities. He has listened to and learned from those closest to our nation’s challenges.

During his the first year of Obama’s tenure, PolicyLink and our allies have:

• Pushed for greater investment in green jobs. The president listened.
• Advocated for career ladders that help a job turn into a lifelong profession. The president listened.
• Argued that job training is crucial to creating a sustainable, flexible 21^st Century workforce. The president listened.
• Shown that hiring local residents and steering projects to local, minority-owned businesses has a phenomenal impact on a community. The president listened.

Of course, listening is just the first step. We must now put these ideas and innovations into practice. The path is clear…the president and all allies of equity in America must now walk that path with purpose. A true national recovery depends on it.”

Today’s equity news,  

 “Making a Healthy Lunch, and Making It a Cause,” -  The New York Times

Between them, Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey have worked on Wall Street, traveled the world and taught school from East Africa to Ecuador. Now they make lunch for a living.

Friends since they met in business school at the University of California, Berkeley, Ms. Richmond and Ms. Tobey founded Revolution Foods Inc. to ride a political and economic wave: surging support for healthier food in school cafeterias.

“ACORN’s Real Crime: Empowering the Poor,” - alternet.org

The name Felix Walker is not one you would recognize, but this 19th-century congressman inadvertently contributed a word to America’s political lexicon that you will recognize–a word that fairly well sums up a lot of what we’re getting these days from right-wing politicos and pundits.

In the 1820s, Walker was the U.S. representative for Buncombe County, North Carolina. In an age of great political orators, Walker was not one. He was a droner, a dull fellow known for expressing his dullness at great length on every topic. No matter what issue was up for debate in the House–no matter whether he had any real knowledge, facts, or insights to add–Walker would rise to speak, insisting that his constituents back home would want his voice heard. He would then launch into a wandering, wearisome, often-nonsensical discourse that he always called “a speech for Buncombe.”

“New push for infrastructure funding in US jobs bill,” -  Reuters

WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The Obama administration, key lawmakers and big trade groups want to include billions of dollars for transportation and infrastructure in pending legislation aimed at easing stubbornly high U.S. unemployment.

The move reflects cold calculations about what initiatives will take priority amid joblessness that is near a 26-year high at 10 percent and rapidly shifting political sands in Washington ahead of next November’s congressional elections.

The first year of the Obama Era has been defined by noise - voracious political pundits, screaming Tea Partiers, and cries of “too left” and “not left enough” from competing corners of political world. With the surprise election of Scott Brown yesterday following a loud and boisterous campaign built on voters’ anger at a still-stagnant economy, the noise isn’t likely to ebb soon.

But hard work gets done beyond the noise. Check out Angela Glover Blackwell’s piece in the Huffington Post today, “Beyond the Noise — 12 Quiet Ways Obama is Building a More Equitable America.”

But the best ideas don’t come from Washington. They come from community leaders closest to our nation’s challenges.

How would you make sure Year Two of the Obama Era is a year of equity? What should the Administration and its allies make their top priority?

Please share your ideas in the comments section.

Today’s equity news.

“Administration Loosens Purse Strings for Transit Projects,” -  The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will make it easier for cities and states to spend federal money on public transit projects, and particularly on the light-rail systems that have become popular in recent years, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday.

Administration officials said they were reversing guidelines put in place by the Bush administration that called for evaluating new transit projects largely by how much they cost and how much travel time they would save.

 “White House: Stimulus saved 2 million jobs,” -  Reuters
Obama has called for more measures to boost $787 billion package

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama’s emergency spending measures last year saved up to 2 million U.S. jobs, the White House said on Wednesday, but it warned that the outlook for the economy remained uncertain.

Obama, anxious to reduce double-digit U.S. unemployment which has dented his popularity, has already called for additional government measures to boost jobs on top of the $787 billion stimulus package he signed in February 2009.

“Americans are fat, study says, but not getting fatter,” - Mercury News

Americans are fat, but at least they’re not getting fatter.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans are overweight or obese, but that number hasn’t changed much in the last decade, according to a team of doctors Wednesday in two studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Today’s equity news

“Learning Curve: Diverse and poorer,” - Atlanta Journal Constitution

The South has become the first region in the country in which more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are minorities, according to a report by the Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation.

The foundation found that African-American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, American Indian and multi-racial children constituted a little more than half of all students attending public schools in the 15 states of the South by the end of the last school year.

“A Modern Heschel-King Alliance: The Struggle for Food Access,” - The Jewish Journal

Like Veterans Day or Memorial Day, the annual celebration of the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. has, over time, become just another three-day weekend for many Americans. Forty-two years after King’s assassination, the holiday presents us with an opportunity for reflection. How does our society compare to the one he fought for? Have we put an end to the discrimination and grinding poverty that King called upon us to heal? Are we capable of a mass movement equal to the millions who marched and practiced civil disobedience, reforming our country from within? Where is the Jewish community in modern struggles for justice and equality?

During the Civil Rights movement, another great lion of justice called the Jewish community to task. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel established a lasting friendship with King, one filled with mutual admiration and affection and based on shared purpose, values and experience. Both were survivors of systems that legalized discrimination and oppression: King in the segregated South, Heschel in pre-war Nazi Germany.

“Poll: Feeling of progress rises among African Americans,” - The Washington Post

Despite being hit especially hard by the bad economy, job losses and the high rate of foreclosures, African Americans’ assessment of race relations and prospects for the future has surged more dramatically during the past two years than at any time in the past quarter-century, according to a new poll.

In a survey of American racial attitudes released Tuesday, researchers reported that the feeling of progress is driven in large part by the election of President Obama, along with a greater sense of local community satisfaction and a more positive outlook. The majority of African Americans say they are better off now than they were five years ago.

This piece also appeared in the Washington Post’s Health Care RX online panel.

In all the arguing over incremental, sensible improvements to our nation’s health-care system, the voices of the people most affected by the current health-care crisis have been remarkably absent. Working families, self-employed small-business owners and uneasy workers fearful of losing their jobs have been heard from less and less as the debate has crawled on.

Instead, cable TV stations and op-ed pages are dominated by those who don’t have to worry about how to pay for an ambulance bill or a cancer test. Sunday morning talk shows feature almost exclusively those in the very highest echelons of national income. Just this week, the well-employed Rush Limbaugh even has the gall to claim that the health-care system is “working just fine, just dandy.”

The point of health reform was never to simply limit the red tape and cut down on the most egregious abuses of the insurance industry. It was to make millions of Americans more healthy and secure.

Without the voices of our most vulnerable communities, though, the provisions that could have helped those communities the most — a robust public option, expansion of Medicare, an improved children’s health insurance program, etc. — have lost out.

Specific provisions like ending discrimination based on pre-existing conditions are an enormous step toward a more just and more effective health-care system. But without the voices of struggling Americans at the heart of this legislation, it cannot do all that we need it to do.

After a year of a nearly non-stop national health-care debate, we sit on the precipice of significant — if incremental — progress. But we must remember this is not the end of the process. It is only the beginning. We will have countless opportunities to expand and improve on this foundation. The voices of those most in need are vital as we move toward implementation of this historic reform.

PolicyLink statement on the House Jobs Bill

Congress is right - we need a new jobs bill, and we need it now. When it comes to helping those hit first and worst by the recession - low-income people and communities of color - the House bill is a good start, but it is too small and not targeted at the hardest-hit workers.

The bill does offer important investments in green industries, workforce training, teacher retention, and safety net programs like Medicaid and unemployment.

But the final jobs bill must be far more robust and targeted to create jobs and long-term recovery in all our communities. The Senate should build on this bill’s foundation to prioritize those suffering most. They must:

• Require local hiring
• Direct projects to underrepresented firms
• Boost funding for transit operations and capital projects

The House bill is a good first step. But the path to recovery is long. A more robust and targeted bill is needed to ensure all our communities come out the other side of this recession stronger.

We have some exciting news to share! A bi-partisan group in the US House of Representatives took an important step to improve access to healthy foods and create jobs in low-income communities across America.

Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and 20 co-sponsors just introduced a resolution in support of a National Fresh Food Financing Initiative (NFFFI), based on a highly successful program in Pennsylvania. (Read the full resolution here.)

In partnership with The Food Trust and The Reinvestment Fund, PolicyLink has been working on Capitol Hill for more than a year to lift up this remarkable effort and bring it to national scale.

With 27 million Americans without access to fresh, affordable food – and poor and minority communities getting the worst of the problem – a national effort to expand and build grocery stores, farmers markets, and other healthy food retail in needy communities could be just the kind of bi-partisan, triple-bottom-line solution we need.

In just the past five years, the Pennsylvania public-private partnership has turned $30 million of state investment into 4,800 jobs, 78 new or expanded fresh-food markets, more than $150 million in additional private investment, and 400,000 people with improved access to fresh, healthy food. (Read how the program works here)

This Congressional resolution is just the first step, though. We anticipate a bill creating the NFFFI will be introduced in the Senate in early 2010. We need your help to make that happen.

Sign on to have your voice heard. Tell Congress all communities deserve good jobs, fresh food, and smart, long-term investment

UPDATE: NY Governor makes a BIG announcement, creating $30 million fund to expand access to healthy food in under-served NY communities. Once again, The Food Trust and The Reinvestment Fund play critical roles in getting this done. Exciting day for the food access movement!

One of the visible areas of pain in this current recession has been the subprime mortgage debacle which caused a wave of foreclosures among many borrowers of color who had been unfairly targeted for high interest loans by the nation’s financial lenders. Had America paid attention to what was happening in communities of color the nation might have been spared the worst effects of an economic catastrophe that pummeled home values and sucked Americans into a vortex of foreclosures and layoffs, and stalled economic growth.  In a similar manner, the boat was missed in addressing our failing education system earlier, when test scores and dropout rates made it clear that something was going terribly wrong for many African American and Latino students.

For too long communities of color have been the canaries in the coal mine, sending out signals that should have served as urgent wake-up calls for the rest of the country.  One approach to ensuring that communities of color participate fully in the vitality of American economic life is through a focus on equity—just and fair inclusion for all.

The pursuit of equity today is different from the pursuit of equality.  While civil rights legislation established equality in principle many practical barriers remain to achieving economic and social parity.  You can’t just have the right to sit in a bus. Today, you need a bus that is frequent, connects you to employment, and provides a platform for economic, social, and physical mobility.

In many ways, inattention to equity brought about the country’s current economic mess.  The only way out is to refocus our sights on what it takes to build strong and healthy communities that enable everyone, including low-income people of color, to succeed.  To do this, the country must focus on jobs that pay family-supporting wages; high-quality education that prepares the next generation for 21st-century success; immigration and immigrant policy that fully taps the productivity and contribution of all residents; and reducing incarceration while at the same time preparing more young men for successful re-entry as productive and engaged citizens and community members. Just as essential is making sure our communities are livable, with access to healthy foods and physical activity for everyone.

Time is also running short because the demographic clock is ticking.   By sometime around 2042, the country is projected to shift from a majority white society to a “majority-minority” society with no single racial group as a majority.   Seventy-eight million baby boomers are poised to eventually retire, to be replaced by a new complement of workers reflecting the richness and diversity of America. The very future of the country will depend on how well it prepares that next generation of workers.

This is the time to reimagine the American future.  A bright future is possible if we keep in mind that diversity and equity are not the same.  Just because the country has a black president and is moving toward a more multicultural future does not mean that equity has been achieved.  At a time when everyone is hurting, communities of color are hurting even more.  High unemployment and poverty rates and growing hunger continue to define the reality for many black and Latino families.

To change that reality requires recognizing that universal strategies and policies don’t always work for everyone. For instance, the last attempt to address a financial crisis of this magnitude—the New Deal during the Great Depression—introduced many new programs but still fell short in reducing longstanding racial disparities.  Sometimes, countless seldom-seen barriers prevent communities of color from getting the help they both need and deserve.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), touted as a cure-all, has not yet reached low-income communities of color. As we look toward 2010, we must find ways to target investment so that all will benefit.

In the end, though, racial progress is more than about policy.  The civil rights struggle became a movement when it was fueled by ordinary citizens from all walks of life.  To address today’s pressing challenges, we need a similar movement, by Americans from every corner of the nation, who recognize that the country is at a crossroads and that the future depends on a broad vision of opportunity and inclusion for all.

This piece also appeared on The Race Equity Project, a special project of Legal Services of Northern California.