I took a look at your wish list for Obama’s first session as president and it mainly came down to a few themes:
1. A universal health care system (preferably single payer).
2. Green economy/Energy Bill
3. Jobs program, emphasizing infrastructure.
4. Regulation of the banking/financial sector.
5. Getting out of Iraq/repairing our international relations.
6. Accountability for the Bush administration.
To this I would add addressing poverty/urban issues as a top priority. You can read about Obama’s poverty program here and his Urban Policies here. Many of Obama’s ideas can be rolled into his Jobs program, and others could be rolling into an Energy Bill, a Banking Bill, and a Transportation Bill. Some examples:
Jobs Program:
- Help Americans Grab a Hold of and Climb the Job Ladder: Obama will invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathway programs that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce.
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports: Obama will work to ensure that ex-offenders have access to job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment opportunities. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program and reduce barriers to employment.
Create a Living Wage: Obama will raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation to make sure that full-time workers can earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs such as food, transportation, and housing.
* Establish 20 Promise Neighborhoods: Obama will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in areas that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement in cities across the nation. The Promise Neighborhoods will be modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which provides a full network of services, including early childhood education, youth violence prevention efforts and after-school activities, to an entire neighborhood from birth to college.
* Ensure Community-Based Investment Resources in Every Urban Community: Obama will work with community and business leaders to identify and address the unique economic development barriers of every major metropolitan area. Obama will provide additional resources to the federal Community Development Financial Institution Fund, the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies, especially to their local branch offices, to address community needs.
* Invest in Rural Areas: Obama will invest in rural small businesses and fight to expand high-speed Internet access. He will improve rural schools and attract more doctors to rural areas.
Green Economy/Energy Bill:
- # Create a Green Jobs Corps: Obama will create a program to directly engage disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency opportunities to strengthen their communities, while also providing them with practical skills in this important high-growth career field.
Transportation Bill
- # Improve Transportation Access to Jobs: As president, Obama will work to ensure that low-income Americans have transportation access to jobs. Obama will double the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program to ensure that additional federal public transportation dollars flow to the highest-need communities and that urban planning initiatives take this aspect of transportation policy into account.
It’s important that Barack Obama tackles Urban Policy in his first session. He has already signaled his intention to take Urban Policy seriously:
Obama will create a White House Office of Urban Policy to develop a strategy for metropolitan America and to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs. The Director of Urban Policy will report directly to the president and coordinate all federal urban programs.
Many of his ideas can be implemented in his Energy and Jobs bills, and also in a Transportation bill and Banking/Financial Services Bill. If Obama has the numbers in Congress to implement even half of the agenda his has laid out on his website, the first session could be as revolutionary as the New Deal. Some examples, in addition to those spelled out above:
- Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments.
Create a new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program that will provide meaningful incentives for lenders to buy or refinance existing mortgages and convert them into stable 30-year fixed mortgages.
Create a Foreclosure Prevention Fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners.
Create Early Learning Challenge Grants to stimulate and help fund state “zero to five” efforts; quadruple the number of eligible children for Early Head Start and increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both; work to ensure all children have access to pre-school; and create a Presidential Early Learning Council to increase collaboration and program coordination across federal, state, and local levels.
Expand the highly successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers. The Nurse-Family Partnership provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families.
Tackle predatory loans: In the wake of reports that some service members were paying 800 percent interest on payday loans, the U.S. Congress took bipartisan action to limit interest rates charged to service members to 36 percent. Barack Obama believes that we must extend this protection to all Americans, because predatory lending continues to be a major problem for low and middle income families alike.
Urban progressives have been waiting an eon for an opportunity like this where we have a president that viscerally understands our issues and has the political will and capital to go to bat for us. It should not be wasted.
By spreading out his Urban/poverty agenda through a Jobs Program, an Energy Bill, a Banking/Financial Services Bill, and a Transportation Bill, Obama can bring about a revolution in progressive Urban Policy in his first session.