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What type of investigation into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina do you favor?


 

An independent commission of experts

 

With Republicans in Congress investigating themselves

 

No investigation is necessary



 
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Revitalizing Our Rural Communities

Rural Americans are worried about gas prices, health care costs, college tuition, and the continued war in Iraq. Republicans are ignoring these concerns and taking our country in the wrong direction – focusing on issues designed to distract Americans from the real issues we need to address. Democrats have a plan to take our country in a new direction to create economic opportunity and security for middle-class working families. The Democratic plan will ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care and energy, good jobs, and a secure retirement and will put an end to Bush’s failed Iraq policy.  Democrats believe that the American Dream must be attainable for all families; if you work hard and play by the rules, you and your children should have a bright and prosperous future.  Increasing economic prosperity is key to attracting young people to stay or return to small towns and rural areas.

 

Democrats have a plan for better American jobs and bigger paychecks, while the Republican economy is moving in the wrong direction for Rural America.

·         Almost half of rural and suburban counties had lower employment in 2005 than they had in 2000. [Rural America at a Glance, USDA, 8/06] Under President Bush, 2.9 million American manufacturing jobs have been lost.

·         Nearly 17 percent of people in rural areas are living in poverty today. In 2002, 7.5 million people in rural and non-urban areas were poor, including 2.6 million children. [Rural Poverty at a Glance, USDA, 7/04]

·         Rural America still lacks access to technology, including internet access, which would spur economic growth. In 2003, only one-half of rural and non-urban adults used the internet, compared to 62 percent of adults in urban areas. [USDA, 8/06] Democrats have an innovation agenda that will guarantee affordable access to broadband technology for all Americans.

·         Republicans have provided billions in corporate tax subsidies for companies that ship jobs overseas and blocked an increase in the minimum wage. Democrats have a plan to create good-paying American jobs and will end tax giveaways that encourage companies to move jobs overseas.

·         Democrats are offering middle-class tax relief to help families with the high cost of health care, energy, and college, and will end tax giveaways that encourage companies to move jobs overseas. 

·         Democrats will prohibit the Congressional pay raise until we raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. Increasing the minimum wage would help more than 2.3 million rural and suburban workers. In rural communities, an increase in the minimum wage would give a pay raise primarily to adults (77 percent of those benefiting), full-time workers (60 percent), and women (63 percent). [USDA, Rural Development Perspectives, 5/1999]

 

Democrats have a plan to lower gas prices and achieve energy independence, while Republicans are giving subsidies to profitable oil companies.

·         Americans across the country have paid as much as $3.05, on average, for a gallon of regular gasoline – more than double what they paid when Bush took office in January 2001. [EIA]  

·         This year, diesel fuel prices are expected to average $2.73 per gallon, up 32 cents from last year. [EIA, 10/06]

·         Rural households use nearly 40 percent more gasoline than urban households with vehicles. [USDA, 8/06]

·         Farmers planting crops this year faced fuel prices estimated at more than double what they paid four years ago, with fertilizer prices up 70 percent. [Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, 4/19/06]

·         Democrats will end Big Oil tax subsidies and invest in developing alternative energy resources from the American heartland to achieve independence from foreign oil.

·         Democrats have a plan to increase the amount of biofuels sold in America, including biodiesel and ethanol both from crops and cellulosic sources, such as switch grass and forestry sources; encourage independent and locally-owned facilities to produce biofuels; increase the cars and trucks that run on ethanol; make biofuels more available to consumers at the pump; and invest in research and development for renewable energy technology.

·         Instead of working to bring down rising fuel costs, Republicans in Congress continue to push for billions in subsidies for Big Oil companies even as these companies report record profits.

Democrats are fighting to support rural communities by keeping the promises made in the 2002 Farm Bill, providing much needed disaster assistance and expanding market opportunities for farmers.

·         The 2002 Farm Bill was a bipartisan promise to America's farming communities, and it’s a promise Democrats are committed to keep. Unfortunately, Republican cuts to Farm Bill programs and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the budget and appropriations processes have undermined that promise to America’s farmers and ranchers.

·         More than 70 percent of all U.S. counties have been declared disaster areas by the Agriculture Department in 2006, and nearly 80 percent of counties were declared disasters in 2005. Republicans blocked disaster assistance legislation repeatedly in the last year.  Democrats have fought to provide our farmers and ranchers with the help they so desperately need – help that is long overdue.

·         The Bush Administration has failed to expand opportunities for farmers in trade deals and here at home. The Administration has failed to convince the EU and other nations to reduce subsidies and tariffs on farm goods in the Doha Round of trade negotiations and continues to ignore the potential to expand domestic markets.

 

Democrats are fighting for fiscal responsibility, while Republicans have created record budget deficits.

·         In five years, President Bush and Republicans in Congress have turned a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion into a nearly $3 trillion deficit.

·         President Bush has borrowed a staggering $1 trillion from foreign nations – more than the previous 42 U.S. presidents combined.

·         The debt owed by our children and grandchildren is soaring, and will double under Republican policies to $11 trillion by 2011.

·         The bottom line on the Republicans’ irresponsible economic policies is a debt burden of $28,322 for every typical American middle-income family of four. [Citizens for Tax Justice, 6/06]

·         Democrats have a plan that would allow no new deficit spending, reduce the federal deficit and restore the fiscal discipline of the 1990s that helped spur record economic growth.

 

Democrats have a plan for real security, while Republicans have mismanaged the war in Iraq and failed to make security at home a priority.

·        The Bush Administration’s mismanagement of the Iraq war has taken a heavy toll on our troops, especially the 45 percent of troops who come from small, rural communities. [The Examiner, 8/3/06; GAO 9/2005] 

·        Rural communities are paying a huge price for the war.  Through February 2005, 43 percent of service members killed in action during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom hail from rural counties with populations of less than 20,000 [Release from Rep. Skelton, 2/28/05]

·        Democrats will transform the failed Bush Administration policies in Iraq, the Middle East and around the world. Democrats have a plan that will require the Iraqis to take responsibility for their country and press for the beginning of the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2006.

·        Democrats will implement all of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, ensuring police, firefighters and other first responders have the equipment and training they need.  Republicans in Congress have repeatedly failed to adequately secure our ports and borders and properly equip first responders across the nation.

·        Democrat will enact a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century.  This plan will honor the sacrifice of our nation’s 25 million American veterans and ensure that they receive all the benefits they have earned and deserve. [Census, 1/06]  

 

Democrats are fighting for retirement security, while the Republican plan to privatize Social Security puts rural seniors’ retirement security in jeopardy.

·         The Republican plan to privatize Social Security would undermine workers’ retirement security by cutting benefits for the middle class and adding trillions to the national debt.

·         Rural communities account for more than 90 percent of the counties with high senior populations (20 percent or more). Seniors in rural areas rely on their Social Security income nearly twice as much as seniors in non-rural communities. [USDA, Rural Population and Migration: Rural Elderly, Economic Research Service,5/2002; Campaign for America’s Future, 6/2005]

·         More than 8 million rural Americans receive Social Security checks each month – including 5.5 million seniors.

·         Women in rural communities would be especially hard hit by the Republican plan since more than 3 million senior women in rural America receive Social Security benefits. [CAF, 6/2005]

·         Democrats will ensure a dignified retirement for all workers by stopping the privatization of Social Security, expanding retirement savings incentives and enacting real pension reform that preserves hard-earned benefits.

 

Democrats will make health care more affordable, while Republicans have done nothing to help families with rising health insurance costs.

·         Over 7 million rural Americans did not have health insurance in 2001 – nearly one in five people. [KKF, 4/03]

·         In 2005, the typical American family was paying $1,200 more a year for health insurance – increasing 55% in real terms since 2000. [KFF, 2005]

·         Despite these facts, the Republican leadership has failed to take action to lower health care costs for middle-class families.

·         Instead, Republicans created a flawed Medicare prescription drug plan, written by the drug industry, which has failed to reduce drug prices for the 9 million rural Medicare beneficiaries. [Washington Post, 10/19/03]

·          Democrats will address health care affordability by fixing the Republican prescription drug program and making insurance more affordable for both employers and employees.

 

Democrats are fighting to make college more affordable, while Republicans have slashed student aid by $12 billion.

·         The costs of attending a 4-year public college have jumped 32% since fall 2000. [Education Dept., 2005]

·         Today, the typical student borrower now graduates from college with $17,500 in debt. [Proj. on Student Debt, 2004]

·         In 2000, fewer than 16 percent of rural adults completed college, and only 41 percent had completed 1 or 2 years of education beyond high school, despite evidence that rural students perform as well as metropolitan students. [USDA, ERS, 4/7/03]

·         Republicans have made it harder for Americans to pay for college – cutting $12 billion out of federal student aid programs.

·        Democrats have a plan to make college more affordable– expanding and simplifying tax credits for college tuition; expanding Pell Grants; and cutting interest rates in half on student loans, saving the average student $5,600 over the lifetime of their loans.


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2.9 million

2.9 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since the beginning of the Bush Administration. (National Economic Council)


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