It may come as no surprise, but U.S. poverty rates climbed to a more than 20-year high during the Obama-Biden administration of 15.1 percent. President Donald Trump vowed to turn the tide on poverty for struggling Americans and is reportedly on track to beat back poverty to a historic low of 9.2 percent for 2020, despite economic disruption.
President Trump and the GOP pushed through a provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that creates “Opportunity Zones.” The America First policy incentivizes private sector investment in communities suffering from high poverty rates. Many of the upwards of 8,800 low-income communities continue to suffer under the economically deficient policies rolled out by liberals. According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created in these communities and unemployment ticked down between 2 and 4 percent.
“CEA estimates that in just two years, this incentive has drawn $75 billion in private capital to qualified opportunity funds. This represents 21 percent of all annual investment in opportunity zone communities,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson wrote. “The opportunity zone tax incentive’s focus on economic growth, rewarding employment, and removing bureaucratic middle-men means that the estimated decline in tax revenues are more than offset by drops in poverty and government transfers. Indeed, the administration estimates that opportunity zones will be budget neutral given the investments’ expected effect on poverty.”
President Trump firmly stated in his inaugural address that “the forgotten men and women of America will no longer be forgotten.” Washington elites had left behind impoverished families and offered no hope for their children’s future. The president recently doubled down on the success of Opportunity Zones by issuing an executive order that bypasses Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s obstructionist tactics. His strategy is to redirect federal resources into low-income communities to increase investment and create more good-paying jobs.
“Today’s executive order that the president is signing will ask agencies to, in their determination of where they’re going to build and lease new offices, include opportunity zones in that competitive process,” a White House official reportedly said.
The move signals a potential lifeline for organizations such as Second Chances Farm in Delaware. Run by 66-year-old Ajit Matthew George, the hydroponic farm provides opportunities for ex-cons to gain experience, mentorships and to help them reintegrate into society.
“We are in one of the most distressed opportunity zones in Delaware,” George reportedly said. “It’s a community that everyone has forgotten. It’s poor. There are no grocery stores. There’s no business and frankly, it’s been forgotten. But by us being there, we’re giving hope. We’re there providing jobs, we work seven days a week.”
Wilmington is one of the many communities left behind in Joe Biden’s home state.
Investment in Opportunity Zones has already increased by 41 percent under President Trump’s leadership and relocating government facilities will reverse the economic decline for many communities going forward. Should Trump win a second term, his America First policies could reduce poverty rates to an all-time low for a generation.
I really hate to give these poverty communities anything else. I mean housing, healthcare, cable, cell phones ect. aren’t enough. They’re never satisfied. But I trust Trump. He’s done so much to improve America. I stand with his decision.
I agree with Lisa in that poor communities are never satisfied, throwing good money after bad, therefore, try and pull these communities up by their boot straps and get to work to improve their situation. Programs are available to help communities with their poverty issues, programs that anyone can use if they so wish to make life better for themselves and communities. There needs to be checks and balances to insure these monies are being used properly and not lining the pockets of politicians.
Part of the problem in not having good opportunities to educate themselves. We need to uncuff the educators and get our educational system back before “leave no child behind” policies during the Clinton’s era. It has only put the US behind the 8 ball.
Also, regarding immigration. The US needs to re-impliment the policies we had to help immigrates, the policies we had in the early 20th century whereby new “Americas” were required to take classes to educate themselves into the American way of life. Australia has a two year policy whereby new “Australians” are required to take daily classes to learn the Australian way of life. An exam must be passed before their citizenship is excepted for consideration. If the individual can not speak and understand the language as well as other issues, the person is sent back to their country of origin. Teddy Roosevelt declared that a country needs to speak one language for all to be understood. We need to impliment a policy to declare the English language as being the official language, dropping the policy of ‘any language will do’. My ancestors from Great Britain risked life and limb to get here. And yes, I mean the Mayflower. Even my ancestors from 4 American Indian tribes had to learn English to communicate. We’ve been too soft regarding an ‘any language will do’ policy.
No wonder BLM and -Fa are targeting minority communities in OZ’s throughout blue-state land…!
Read it and weep, Democrats. You can’t come anywhere near that.