Congress to the Commonwealth: Requesting Federal Aid After the (Financial) Storm

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The recent ice storms left thousands of Kentuckians in desperate need of help—isolated and without food, clean water, or heat. Federal aid after the disaster did not magically fix the destruction, but when the National Guard began to knock on doors and aid started to arrive, Kentuckians breathed a small sigh of relief. Thankfully, Governor Beshear and the National Guard took action quickly, preventing an even worse crisis in the Commonwealth.

Now, a different kind of storm is gripping the state: a financial storm. While Kentucky struggles with a $450 million state budget deficit, we have a growing unemployment rate, falling markets, and in recent months we have witnessed retail sales at their lowest level since records of such things have been kept.  Kentuckians, however, are hard-working, responsible people, and we are very fortunate the Commonwealth has not been hit as hard as other states.

Kentucky has dealt with a number of ice storms, and each time we learn how better to handle them. Unfortunately, we are experiencing the worst financial and banking crisis most of us have seen in our lifetimes, so living memory does not offer us much wisdom. We know that the practices of the past eight years, including deregulation and rampant greed on Wall Street, helped cause our financial crisis and that we need to act quickly to avert disaster.