Word: reliefs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fact, this crisis is an ideal opportunity for Obama to start keeping his campaign promises: providing tax relief and health security for ordinary Americans, restoring our economic competitiveness and reducing our dependence on environmentally disastrous fossil fuels that increase the power of our enemies. It's hard to imagine when he'll have a better opportunity. Nothing in the historical record suggests that when Congress has more time to deliberate - and more time to confer with the special-interest lobbyists and local-interest political advisers who dominate the decision-making of its members - it will enact fair tax policies, sustainable...
...what is to be done? If you are not already clear about what you think, it is crucial to try to find out for yourself. If the situation is as bad as I have painted, you might consider some small step, perhaps just a contribution to humanitarian relief for Gaza, or e-mailing the White House, or something more, like advocating for Harvard to divest...
...state officials, the weekend involved a rapid reassessment of just how dire the situation had become. Speaking out the day after some local municipalities decried a lack of federal or state emergency relief, Gov. Steve Beshear described the fallout from last week's ice storm as the state's largest-ever natural disaster. He then activated every last member of Kentucky's National Guard, dispatching all 4,600 Guardsman to assist with the statewide crisis. On Sunday, they were going door to door in some areas, to reach stranded citizens. But by Monday, there were still a quarter-million people...
...communication. "This is a situation that's awesome in scope. Ninety of 120 counties are declared emergencies, and it's becoming an issue of communication. Communication towers and lines have gone down, whole communication systems have been devastated," which made it difficult to assess conditions and target relief efforts. He also acknowledged that given the breadth of the emergency, some municipalities had been slow in receiving aid. "There's a level of frustration at the local level, and that's completely understandable, but we're currently assessing how best to assess what capacity we need, and how best to move...
...Maybe that should be the model now. Within a nearly trillion-dollar stimulus bill there is probably enough that lawmakers agree on to get the kind of bipartisan vote Obama once aimed for: shoring up collapsing infrastructure, extending unemployment benefits, targeted tax cuts and relief - with strings attached - to state and local governments and embattled homeowners. Then take a deep breath, and let's have the debate he promised, the rigorous test of "Do we need this?" and "Can we afford it?", for all the other programs currently marinating in the bill, whether the honeybee subsidy or the Pell grants...