Middle Class Economic Squeeze ... Hurting Rural America Now

Sometimes we're all so busy trying to avoid the economic squeeze that is happening now, that we miss taking time to be thoughtful. In 2006, Senator Byron L. Dorgan wrote a book called "Take This Job and Shove It ... How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America." Two of its key points are:

• "As big companies move their jobs to China, sell their products in America, and run their profits through the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes, they undermine American workers and threaten our future."
• "Trade can't be "free" when our small businesses and working people are expected to compete with exploited workers and slave labor in third-world nations that care little about the conditions in their factories and not at all about the pollution they generate."

We urge you to read the book, and also to recognize that the "Middle Class Squeeze" is happening now. It is jobs disappearing because of bad policy decisions and it is budget decisions that compound the situation. My Rural America's immediate goal is to watch and separate out which Members of Congress care (and act) from those who may give lip service but do not actually walk the talk. Right now, this means watching Congress deal with the Farm Bill and also a series of Budget issues, e.g.,

• President Bush's budget TERMINATES! 19 Rural Development programs including grants:
• For energy projects in areas with extraordinarily high heating costs
• For expanding broadband access to rural America
• For the Delta Regional Authority, and to Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities
• Housing programs, including construction, purchase and rehabilitation of single family homes and also rental assistance

• At USDA, the Bush Budget also makes severe cuts or terminations in renewable energy, conservation, water and sewer grants and disaster assistance.

There is more bad news in the Bush Budget ... to be continued. Tomorrow -- Budget info about health care.