A Big Deal
A Green New Deal
FDR's New Deal
Perhaps one of the best known projects in U.S. history was of our Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. FDR, our 32nd President, was elected in 1933 using the slogan "Happy Days Are Hear Again" during the calamity of the Great Depression. His goal and promise was to alleviate the despair besetting America. FDR launched scores of new programs to respond to a wide range of problems facing the country: stabilizing the banks and stimulating the economy, creating jobs and raising wages, investing in public works and modernizing lagging regions, and giving ordinary Americans a new sense of security and hope -- The American Dream. The New Deal lasted until America entered the Second World War at the end of 1942. In ten years it transformed the country and restored our faith in the ability of government to serve the people.
A Green New Deal
One of the greatest challenges the world faces today is that of Climate Change. The earth is certainly warming up, and it is the contention that we, as a human species, have the potential of offsetting those effects. Such an endeavor requires us to create and implement new 21st Century technologies that at the same time will create a cleaner and greener world. Today, we are far from that goal, but there is good news. We have the opportunity to create new jobs while not only repairing our crumbling infrastructure, but creating new and better infrastructure that will endure for decades to come.
To Build Back Better
Unfortunately, regardless of overwhelming support by the American people, President Biden's plan to Build Back Better was largely blocked by Republicans and a couple of Democrats in Congress. This exemplifies the fact that our country is mostly under the control of wealthy special interests that care more for their own agendas then that of the American people. Still, a major component of the president's policy passed in the House of Representatives November of 2021 is now pending before the Senate.
Falling far short of the original $3.5 trillion, the agreed upon bill would dedicate $1.7 trillion over 10 years. The was created partly to fund critical social programs that would significantly advance human rights and repair our badly broken social safety net. These rights include social security, an adequate standard of living, housing, sanitation, people with disabilities as well as children, our seniors, and worker's rights. The program is not as impractical as it is depicted since it actually mirrors what is already available in most first-world countries. But we could do even better by providing more funding for our existing but crumbling infrastructure as we as newer 21st century infrastructure that would benefit not only the American People, but also those who oppose the plan.
How To Pay For It
Certainly, paying for these ambitious programs is a primary concern, so how is it done without increasing the national debt beyond what we can afford to pay?
What you may find interesting is the fact that your legislators currently in Congress could not seem to find adequate funding for Build Back Better, however they could easily find more funding for an already overly financed military to the tune of an additional $778 billion, one of the highest rates since World War II. Some of that money could have easily been allocated to infrastructure and social programs here in the U.S. but will instead go to the Military-Industrial-Complex that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against at the end of his presidency. Instead of helping you, the money will go into the pockets of big corporations and wealthy individuals that don't need it.
Paid for and Authorized by Peter Mathews for Congress