Follow the money from stimulus to recovery
Ron Walters/NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 2/22/09 Section: Politics
The Obama Administration has vowed to create a website RECOVERY.GOV for the average citizen to follow how these funds will be used. That will not be a place to access the programs, but to understand how they are being distributed and what effect the funding is having on things like the unemployment rate.
As the debate has suggested, this may not be the last stimulus package needed to jump-start the economy by the spending made possible through job creation.
I must confess however, to being somewhat worried when I see that Black leaders have not visited the White House to make their position felt on this matter, but on Friday, February 13, 60 Latino and Latina leaders from around the country visited the White House for a briefing by key White House staff.
Perhaps we should not have been first in the door among racial and ethnic groups - perhaps we would not have been permitted to be first - but we should make it plain that there is an expectation that the Black community would experience a fair distribution of these funds.
Without the Black vote, there would be no Barack Obama in the White House. Take away the states where the Black vote influenced an Obama victory: North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and John McCain would have won the election. Our claim on policy fairness is strong.
Dr. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, Director of the African American Leadership Center and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. His latest book is: The Price of Racial Reconciliation (University of Michigan Press)
As the debate has suggested, this may not be the last stimulus package needed to jump-start the economy by the spending made possible through job creation.
I must confess however, to being somewhat worried when I see that Black leaders have not visited the White House to make their position felt on this matter, but on Friday, February 13, 60 Latino and Latina leaders from around the country visited the White House for a briefing by key White House staff.
Perhaps we should not have been first in the door among racial and ethnic groups - perhaps we would not have been permitted to be first - but we should make it plain that there is an expectation that the Black community would experience a fair distribution of these funds.
Without the Black vote, there would be no Barack Obama in the White House. Take away the states where the Black vote influenced an Obama victory: North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and John McCain would have won the election. Our claim on policy fairness is strong.
Dr. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, Director of the African American Leadership Center and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. His latest book is: The Price of Racial Reconciliation (University of Michigan Press)
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