Change = Progress in Only 16 Days

Just think -- in less than 16 days, this new Administration has made three really big accomplishments:

1. President Obama has signed SCHIP -- State Children's Health Insurance Program into law. Last year, readers of My Rural America worked hard to pass it, and we couldn't be more proud of this new Congress' action to pass SCHIP. About 1/3 of rural kids rely upon SCHIP and usually Medicaid. This year -- with the collapsed economy that President Bush left us stuck with, SCHIP is even more important because for every one point rise in unemployment, 700,000 kids in unemployed families become eligible.
   
2. Even before signing SCHIP, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. This bill combats wage discrimination, making it possible for more employees to challenge wage discrimination based upon gender, race, age and disability. The bill is named after Lilly Ledbetter who learned decades later that she was being paid significantly less than her male colleagues who were doing the same job at the same time, for many years of work at Goodyear. A lower court ruled that Goodyear was wrong, awarding Lilly $3M but Goodyear challenged and the case went to the Supreme Court, where the Court's extremely conservative Justices ruled that past discrimination didn't matter, saying Lilly should have sued sooner. The problem with that decision is that often those who are discriminated against in this way do not find out until many years later and the Court decision made sure that companies that discriminated wouldn't have to make things right. Now Congress and President Obama has fixed this injustice.
   
3. Obama Stimulus has passed the House. President Barack Obama warned a few hours ago, "The time for talk is over." As you read this tonight -- February 5, the Senate is likely to vote on the package later this evening. There has been much misinformation about the Stimulus, including that from the Heritage Foundation and other conservative news sources, but the bottom line is that Roosevelt did it right to get us out of the Great Depression and Obama's plan, like Roosevelt's, is one that can work. The Stimulus Package includes:

• Tax breaks for 95% of American workers. This is immediate cash on hand, which will be reflected in paychecks. What the conservatives are complaining about is that the top 5% of income earners (the extremely rich) aren't getting more tax cuts (like the rich did under the Bush Administration when essentially, the middle class got left out).
• First time home buyers will receive additional tax credits -- so more incentives for these new buyers to stop waiting and get into the market. As it is, just like the banks (even those with capital) are afraid to loan money right now), and so are the home buyers, who are waiting to see what happens. The tax credits offered should be the necessary incentive to get these buyers to be braver and quicker about buying the first homes they need and want.
• Infrastructure investments -- roads, bridges, schools, rails and mass transit systems ... a whole generation of new green jobs are in this Stimulus.
• Buy American ... there is a requirement that materials will need to be made by American workers. This means more jobs for Americans. Presently, the unemployment rate is the highest it's been in 16 years, i.e., since George H.W. Bush was president, and in 2008, more jobs were lost than in any other year dating back to 1945.
  

So watch the Senate carefully. This is about our future. Watch carefully. You may expect a report here about who votes yes for moving forward, and who votes no, trying to stop progress and return to the last eight years.