Word: poore
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...thousands of funding streams for tens of thousands of projects. About $144 billion is allocated directly into state coffers for continuing existing programs that have been heavily burdened by the recession, like Medicaid. Hundreds of billions more have been set aside for tax cuts and continuing benefits to the poor and unemployed. The most visible part of the program, and the most politically explosive, is the roughly $152 billion for infrastructure investment, for which no one had a road map. In some cases, states and localities could spend those funds pretty much any way they liked. And that's where...
...study by a nonprofit smart-growth advocacy group, roughly 31% of the state-certified first-round transportation funding in one $27 billion highway fund will go not to maintaining existing roads but to building new highways or adding lanes to old ones. Kentucky, where 38% of roads are in poor condition, is spending 88% of its stimulus money on new additions. Then there is the sheer scale of the challenge. In many of these same states, the biggest concern is not the type of stimulus spending but the amount of it. "Of course it's not creating enough jobs," Senator...
...plazas. Two demonstrations. One street apart. At the first demonstration, an angry crowd pushes against the soldiers who surround Congress's headquarters in the Honduran capital. The protesters with sun-scorched faces and hardened hands cry out about the misery of the Honduran poor. And they chant the name of the one man they say has helped them: President Manuel Zelaya, whom they fondly call "Mel." One hundred yards away, marchers in neat white T shirts and designer sunglasses calmly sing the country's national anthem. They accuse Zelaya of being a polarizing class warrior. And they applaud the troops...
...unlikely leftist hero. A 56-year-old former rancher and timber merchant, he took office in 2006 after campaigning on a centrist platform. But once in power, he drew close to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and quickly copied his formula for popularity: giving handouts to the poor and blaming all the country's problems on the rich. Amid rising crime and a spluttering economy, the establishment turned on Zelaya. The flashpoint came in June, when he called for a nonbinding referendum on changing the constitution to allow Presidents to stand for a second term. The Supreme Court ruled...
...other end of the street, the poor complain that their lot hasn't improved in the past two decades. "You can work all your life, but you can never make it in this country. I want people to have opportunities here like they do in the United States," says waiter Antonio Bustamente, 50. "The problem is the rich," says Maya Martinez, pushing through the crowd to make her voice heard. "We have a few wealthy families who own everything and don't even pay taxes. They attacked Zelaya because he stood up to them." (See pictures of the Honduras coup...