Countdown to hope and change again!

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

Do you remember how much we looked forward to hope and change when President Barack Obama was running for office? As I talk with people daily, they long for those days and wish Barack Obama and Michelle Obama could return to the White House. Some even wish they could return with Michelle being President! I must confess that I’m among the dreamers!

Let’s be real because I doubt that the Obamas would want to return after all they had to endure. They’ve given us as much hope and change as we should expect of them. We loved what they did and we’re most grateful for their service.

Now, we must find our hope and change some place else. In an email conversation with my good friend Frank Watkins, he was clear in showing us where we might find a bit of hope and change, but it won’t be in the White House soon. That’s not before January when the Democratic Party takes over the House and will be able to stop some of the craziness we’re having to endure.

Some of the things Frank said are: “Republicans want policies and programs that they argue will stimulate the economy from the top down—supply side economics—and by spending lavishly on the military to provide national security. They want to give tax cuts to the rich and corporations. 82 percent of their… tax cuts in the 115th Congress went to the top one percent and 63 percent went to the top .01 percent – with the idea that jobs and income will trickle down to the middle class, working Americans and the poor.

Republicans want to reduce spending (except for the military, which they always want to be high) and government (except when it comes to controlling a woman’s body and choice) at all levels, and/or destroy (e.g., Steve Bannon) the “Administrative Accounts (MSA) for health care; vouchers for private and parochial schools; gradually eliminating all public and subsidized housing and privatizing it, beginning with Section 8 housing; privatizing retirement accounts through Wall Street investments; contractors – i.e., there were more private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than U.S. military personnel. These priorities have always resulted in increased budget deficits and an expansion of the national debt.”

On the other hand, we look forward to the hope and change the Democrats can and should bring to us. “That should include policies and programs that stimulate the economy from the bottom up. Democrats (should) want investment in the present and the future based on everyone and all businesses and financial institutions paying their fair share of taxes so the nation can make investments in jobs and job training, education, infrastructure, health care, housing, inner city public transportation, modernization of all forms of rail transportation, modernization of airports and air travel, a significant raise in the minimum wage ($15 per hour and indexed to future inflation), voting rights, voter education and voter participation, investments in the environment in the form of clean ups and renewable energy, investments in science, technology, space exploration and more. The result would be economic stimulation and more balanced growth that created good paying jobs both now and in the future and would result in added tax revenues so we can increase investments in popular government programs (e.g., Social Security and Medicare) and services all of which would reduce dependency on many government “welfare” programs (e.g., unemployment compensation, Food Stamps) and a faster reduction in the nation’s budget deficits and national debt.”

If the Democrats do the above, with the help of a few others, we’ll get back a measure of the hope and change we knew before November 6, 2016.

Dr. E. Faye Williams, National President of the National Congress of Black Women. (202/678-6788. www.nationalcongressbw.org.

This article originally published in the December 17, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.