CDBG funding ‘essential’

Dear editor:

After reading President Trump’s “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” I was stunned by the recommendation to “reprioritize discretionary spending” to boost the Department of Defense (DOD) budget by $54 billion, swelling DOD’s budget to $587 billion and Homeland Security by $6.8 billion ($2.6 billion to build a wall on the border with Mexico). The president maintains his blueprint will advance the safety and security of the American people by putting the needs of its citizens first without raising national debt.

I support a common-sense approach and desire to cut governmental waste, balance the budget and advance the security of the American people. However, I strongly object to the recommendation to “reprioritize discretionary spending” by cutting every nondefense federal department and agency by $54 billion to achieve its goal. I am especially concerned with the proposed $6.2 billion cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the elimination of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.

CDBG was enacted in 1974, with bipartisan and signed by President Ford to address low-moderate income-community needs with resources for decent affordable housing, aid in the eradication of slums and neighborhood blight, support for community services and infrastructure projects, as well as the promotion and creation of jobs through the expansion and retention of businesses.

The president’s justification for the elimination of CDBG is that “it is not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results.” In addition, he devolves and redirects federal resources to other “blueprint priorities.”

To date, CDBG projects have demonstrated increased economic and community development in Hot Springs’ poorest neighborhoods. The Park Avenue neighborhood alone has seen an increase in 14 new businesses. CDBG funds have supported ADA accessible sidewalks improvements, provided bus shelters, constructed/improved city parks, addressed flood mitigation and constructed traffic-slowing measures to slow motor vehicle traffic to allow pedestrians, bicyclists, elderly and residents in wheelchairs safe travel, without having to go into high volume traffic lanes.

Continued funding of CDBG is essential to the continued revitalization and elimination of blight in Hot Springs’ older neighborhoods. State and local funding for neighborhood revitalization is limited at best. I invite you to tour the Park Avenue, Gateway and Whittington Valley neighborhoods to see how the CDBG program has improved the livability, safety and security of Hot Springs’ residences by putting their needs first. Cynthia S. Rogers, Ed. D. Hot Springs

Dear editor:

Overdue reply to a critic on my views of the wealthy: The rich, the poor and the ugly.

The wealthy shouldn’t be painted by a broad brush. Here are some of the major divisions among the rich in my opinion:

Live-and-let-live rich: After the Second World War, the “Rockefeller” Republicans looked after their own desires, but allowed the middle class to have unions, good wages and safety net programs.

Movie-star rich: With the exception of right-wingers like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, etc., movie stars are mostly moderate to liberal and more sympathetic to the underdogs in America. Most celebrities don’t want to take our Social Security away.

The entrepreneurial rich: Invent and refashion products and services. A “poster boy” is Bill Gates. These don’t actively try to take away our Social Security, but are more and more forced to go with the right-wingers.

The ideological right-wing rich: While basically consisting of only about 12 prominent families, they have managed to add allies, such as CEOs, through their policies which favor the affluent. They inflexibly follow Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Frederich von Hayek and Milton Friedman. While their policies have been disastrous for at least 90 percent of the American workers, still the right-wingers push on. As we get poorer, they want to take away Medicare, SS and Medicaid.

The unworthy rich: Wall Street scammers, corporate raiders, crony capitalists, polluters, swamp creatures, etc. They seek cover under the right-wing, Trump and any legislator they can buy.

The poor can also be divided into broad categories: dragged-down-by-poverty poor, handicapped poor, working poor, unworthy poor, the new middle-class white male poor, etc. The latter have lost their unions and their good wages.

The right-wing ideologues have been almost the sole reason that the middle class is shrinking and poorer. They haven’t helped middle-class citizens, and they drown out groups that have some ideas as to how to bring back jobs and good wages. Their only ideas are “give more money to the rich individuals and corporations and let them pollute our land.” One would think they would lose every vote and be sent packing.

Money, a state-of-the-art propaganda machine, and cultural wars, have deceived the American voter. But the most successful right-wing feature is the scorched earth policy used on every non-right-wing entity.

We’d all be better off if poverty were reduced. But the right-wingers have done everything to wage war on the poor. Large numbers of poor and unemployed reduce middle-class wages and increase profits for the wealthy investing in the bond market. Also, the poor have been constant scapegoats and propaganda ploys (welfare, Welfare Queen). Recently, the only activist agency for the poor, ACORN, was punked and put out of business on false charges.

Look at their war on mainstream Christians who believe in all Ten Commandments, such as thou shalt not steal or bear false witness. We care about lives lost through right-wing policies; we have been almost completely silenced. Ditto for a successful war against moderates and liberals!

Linda Woodbury Hot Springs