By Donald Sykes
Donald Sykes
The state and federal massive budget cuts are the result of trends started decades ago. For at least 30 years there has been political pressure to cut taxes for corporations and businesses while reducing services to citizens.
The disparities in income and wealth during this period of time have led to the greatest inequality in perhaps a century. A recent visit to Milwaukee by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore enlightened us to a newsworthy fact, “Just 400 Americans—400— have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.”
The decrease in government income and claims that it can no longer maintain the expenses of the services provided to the people today could eventually lead to a government shutdown. For example, one of those expenses is the $3.8 billion that funds the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). The WIA funds workforce development boards across the country and without the support of the federal government these boards would be forced to close its doors to the millions who seek its services annually.
For Milwaukee that means 90,000 people who visited our one-stop resource centers yearly for job, training and educational opportunities can no longer look to us for assistance. The approximately 3000 youth that are employed over the summer months won’t have the chance to continue working in the summer to earn money and skills they can use in the future.
The proposed federal budget has more potential implications such as its impact on America’s healthcare coverage and benefits. Strong opposition for health reform still exists after its one-year anniversary of becoming law. However, as Wisconsin’s Congresswoman Gwen Moore stated in a recent document, “Wisconsinites are already seeing the benefits [of health reform].” According to the document, about 3.6 million state residents with private insurance no longer have a lifetime benefit cap, and more than 300,000 Wisconsin children with preexisting conditions cannot be denied coverage. In the larger scope of things, that’s phenomenal and speaks for the majority, not the minority.
Moving forward, everyone has to allow their voices to be heard as federal government proposes and pushes through initiatives that will impact an entire nation. The need to maintain and foster a government that is of, for and by the people is more prevalent now than ever, and is a responsibility that lies on the shoulders of the people. What benefits the nation as a whole must be brought to light and instituted at the nation’s highest level of government, and trickled down. However, this won’t happen unless the people in the community are heard.