Rep. Maxine Waters Spells Out How to Aid Populace During Market Collapse
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As
the country’s economy continues to circle the drain, Congresswoman
Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) says citizens need additional assistance to
brave the maelstrom of fiscal nastiness. The 18-year Beltway veteran
told the audience at the 10th annual State of the Black Union that the
unemployed need to have benefits extended through the end of the year
and an extension of food stamp benefits.
“You need to know that if you have been laid off from your job, [and
have lost] your medical benefits, we have COBRA, [which] will pay 60
percent of your health care benefits so that you are not without health
care benefits,” she says.
Medicaid, which most states have run out of, desperately needs
revamping. “We have put billions back in [to Medicaid] so that we can
have medical [coverage] for the least of us. We are taking care of the
most vulnerable, the homeless,” Waters says.
Furthermore, Waters says all government contracts must be scrutinized.
“Many of the contractors discriminate in employment. We [have] to break
that down and make sure that the cities are not contracting with people
who have a record of discrimination,” she says.
“While the nation awaits the trickle down effect from the nearly
one-trillion dollar bailout … we are going to have an opportunity to
put job training and put support for the least of these back in the
system,” says the congresswoman.
Waters says its beyond inexcusable and indefensible for people to be
uninformed and misinformed anymore. Becoming educated on the inner
workings of local and state government is no longer a luxury — it is a
matter of survival,” she says.
“Get in touch with the mayors and go to town hall meetings so you can
take advantage of what is one of the most unprecedented kinds of
stimulus that’s ever happened anywhere in the world. We must know what
it’s all about,” Waters adds. –terry shropshire
