For decades the quality of life in rural America has been on the decline….even much needed health services has had to close….then there is the poverty that infects rural Americans….something needs to be done to help Americans that live in rural areas.
Someone is trying to stop the bleed from rural America…..Progressives in the House have offered up what is being called a “Rural New Deal”….
“A Rural New Deal is urgently needed to build and rebuild local economies across rural America, reverse 40 years of wealth and corporate concentration, restore degraded lands, reclaim land and ownership opportunities for those whose land was taken by force or deceit, and ensure that communities and the nation can and do meet the basic needs of its people.”
That’s the opening line of a report released Tuesday by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative (RUBI), which recognizes that “for too long, we’ve neglected, dismissed and underinvested” in rural U.S. communities, and offers “a broad policy blueprint to help steer progressive priorities” in such regions.
“Addressing the problems and concerns of rural America, isn’t just the right thing to do, it is essential for the health of our nation. Progressives have ignored rural for too long,” said PDA executive director Alan Minsky in a statement. “The Rural New Deal will change that.”
…
The RND pillars—which each include up to eight recommendations for primarily federal action—are:
- Rebuild farm, forest, and food economies;
- Reward work and ensure livable wages;
- Dismantle monopolies, empower and support local business;
- Invest in community and regional infrastructure;
- Rebuild small town centers;
- Cultivate self-reliance and resilience;
- Invest in rural healthcare;
- Fully fund rural schools;
- Make rural and small town housing affordable; and
- Re-localize rural and small town banks.
Policy proposals include supporting regenerative farm, forest, and fishery businesses; adopting a federal jobs guarantee with a living wage and essential benefits; making broadband access universal; expanding Medicaid and Medicare access; incentivizing installation of solar technology on buildings and non-prime farmland, over parking lots, and in vacant spaces; and enacting reforms to rein in private equity’s “unbridled power,” such as eliminating the carried interest tax loophole.
Rural America use to be the ‘heart’ of our nation…..now it is a dilapidated dream of the past.
So yes something needs doing….the House and Senate has all the time in the world for Ukraine and the waste of taxpayer money when it could work wonders for rural America.
Get behind this and do some good for your fellow Americans.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
I have never seen a farmer yet who does not live in a large, well-furnished house and who drives at least two or three late model automobiles plus a pick up truck or two. Rural America does really well for itself shipping all its products to foreign markets and sending what is left to the American Markets at inflated prices that people can generally ill afford to pay. Do not talk to me about the “Poor American Farmer.” The only poor farmers I have ever seen have long since abandoned the farm and flown to the city to get high paying jobs in automobile manufacturing companies…
When you complain about the farmer, please don’t do it with your mouth full.
Because of some of the practices of the Agri-group, there are some people who can never afford to have their mouth full.
Then they’ve never been taught to shop properly, be frugal and eat right. I’m on a strict SS budget, yet I eat quite well.
I am on a millionaire’s budget and I eat too damn much for my own good.
Then share.
I share a lot .. I pay taxes …I give money to food pantries and other such things …I do my part to support those who refuse to lift a hand to do an honest day’s work… The government steals enough of my money to take care of the indigent and the poor and the purely lazy of this country. — I am also a proponent of “Work For Your Welfare Check” legislation.
Well, there we agree.
Sorry but not all farmers are so well off just like not all welfare recipients drives Cadillac…..I think the problem is more the greed of the ‘middle man’ than the farmer. chuq
All working farmers are pretty well off… I lived in a farm community for years and I never saw one begging bread …all I saw was what I described in my post…I am sure there are exceptions somewhere….there are always exceptions somewhere.
Some in the South are not so lucky. chuq
Always an exception every situation, isn’t there?
True….down here the big houses were built when times were good….now most are in debt to their ears. chuq
Same as up here…I used to wonder who it was who could afford all those big houses that were being built around here and now I know who can afford them…nobody!
Down here the farming sucks….this summer extreme heat and little to no rain…..makes growing anything difficult…..my small garden was nothing like it should have been and my citrus trees are light so a bad year for fruit….I am glad I do not depend on crops for my livelihood. chuq
Our green peppers got so hot they were tough as nails– inmedible…our flower beds all went to hell …in fact, we are thinking of taking them up and letting the whole area revert to lawn…
My only crops that made it was my tomatoes, Thai peppers, Thai basil….the rest went to crap. chuq
Over here, the problem in rural communties is farmers selling land for the building of Solar Panel farms or new housing developments. It seems younger people don’t want to go into farming, so they sell off the land when they inherit it. That means more higher-priced imports for consumers here, and housing developments at the edges of towns that do not have the infrastructure to cope wiith the extra population.
Best wishes, Pete.
Same here except few solar farms….the young worked hard as a kid and want to move on….here we build stuff that sits idle for years….but that is progress right? Sarcasm…..chuq
I posted this story post election 2016 – I had travelled to rural Oklahoma for a few days and shared some pictures of a rural area slowly withering away…the only industry there was a military base…and thought it helped explain why people voted the way they did – for someone who promised to shine a spotlight on them again, which didn’t happen but they wanted to believe…
An excellent post….thanx for the link chuq