The New Year begins
in Washington with Rep. Nancy Pelosi becoming the first female
Speaker of the House. Speaker Pelosi will then put the House
to work in January to pass the “100 Hours Agenda”
– raising the minimum wage, cutting prices on prescription
drugs, cutting student loan interest rates in half, and revoking
some subsidies to Big Oil to invest in renewable energy. These
are measures that could not even get a vote in the former
Congress run by now disgraced Tom DeLay.
Will the new faces
in charge and that “down payment” on a new agenda
make a difference? Across the country, the unmet needs are
great; the neglect rampant; the challenges staggering.
Will poverty
remain unmentionable? Or will the new Congress turn its attention
to those most in need, from rural Appalachia to the barrios
and ghettos of our neglected cities? The agenda for poor children
isn’t a mystery – pre-natal care, adequate nutrition,
decent housing, early education, smaller classes with skilled
teachers, safe streets. But the hope of giving every child
a healthy start in life has dimmed over the last decade.
Will
urban neglect continue? Or will we revive our cities
before they explode? Cities need jobs, particularly
for the young. They need affordable housing, particularly
for the families of low wage workers. They need treatment
for those seeking to get off drugs. They need investment
in infrastructure. The collapsed levees in New Orleans
are but the visible symbol of urban sewers, bridges,
transit systems that are suffering from inadequate investment
for years. Cities need investment in schools and teachers
– so that the children with the greatest need
can get the teachers with the greatest skills, in classes
small enough to work.
Beginning
with Reagan in the 1980s, conservative governments have
focused on reducing the obligations of the wealthy,
and increasing the burdens on the poor. Cities took
the biggest hit. Reagan’s largest cuts came in
affordable housing --he slashed some 80% out of HUD’s
housing budget. DeLay and Bush froze the minimum wage
for a decade, while squeezing any investment in cities
or the poor.
Now,
voters are looking for change. And some leaders are
beginning to stand up. John Edwards opened his presidential
campaign in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, calling on
Americans to put new focus on poverty in this nation.
He has spent the last years on the front lines, joining
with citizen movements seeking to raise the minimum
wage, with workers seeking to organize on the job. He
understands that America cannot thrive as two nations,
one affluent, one impoverished. That he believes he
can base his presidential campaign on this message suggests
that change is in the air.
Similarly,
Rep. Dennis Kucinich opened his presidential campaign
by calling for the US to get out of Iraq. Kucinich suggests
that those who say that they are against the war and
keep voting unlimited funds for it are like drug peddlers
who oppose the use of drugs in principle but keep the
dope supply coming. Legislators that do so say they
are supporting the troops, but the best support for
the troops is to bring them home and start to invest
in the communities from which they come.
These
bold voices and the new congressional leadership open
new possibilities. For example, there is now a broad
consensus that the US must move towards energy independence.
The Apollo Alliance lays out a broad investment agenda
– a national security imperative – in conservation,
renewable energy, new science and technology. This would
provide an extraordinary jobs programs for the cities
in making buildings more energy efficient. It would
bolster small farmers as they grow the energy we will
use. Unlike the money wasted in Iraq, these investments
would produce jobs here, generate growth, cut our trade
deficit, address catastrophic climate change –
and ultimately pay for themselves. With will and imagination,
this Congress could launch that initiative immediately.
Similarly,
the president pledged once to insure that “no
child would be left behind.” But he never paid
for his promise. This Congress could begin to provide
poor children with a fair start education.
None
of this will happen, however, unless citizens of conscience
get moving. This new Congress already is hearing more
from entrenched corporate lobbies defending multi-billion
dollar subsidies than from the poor seeking good schools,
the farmers seeking markets for new energy, the cities
seeking hope. Change will come only if citizens mobilize
and create the demand to which the new leadership can
respond. That’s a New Year’s resolution
we should all keep.
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