My Turn: Public works – an opportunity for bipartisanship
Published: 2/14/2021 6:20:04 AM
In President Joe Biden’s inaugural speech, he listed the convergence of five societal-level challenges facing the nation.
He appropriately has focused on the most pressing challenge of containing the spread of the Sars-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. His next initiative could result in advancing the climate change, economic, and justice agendas that are foci of his new administration by strategically crafting a comprehensive public works bill.
Almost 65 years ago President Eisenhower came before a joint session of Congress and proposed the greatest public works effort seen in the history of the United States.
White House dining room filled with all the people in the White House who care
Millions of people are being thrown off their individual health insurance plans, possibly as many as 15 million and the White House response to this is not an apology, but rather it is to say it’s only a small number of people who are affected. Jay Carney said only 5% of the people are receiving healthcare. They don’t care if it’s only 15 million people affected?
Yet, they claim to care about the 4% of LGBs.
Mr. Obama doesn’t care because he wants single payer and that is where this is headed.
WORCESTER Almost exactly one year ago, State Sen. Eric Lesser visited Union Station to chat about East-West Rail.
He revisited the station Wednesday, and a lot has changed in a year.and not just that Lesser was now wearing a face mask.
“The stars are aligning I think in a very key and high stakes way this year,” Lesser, a Democrat from Longmeadow, said in a meeting at Union Station Wednesday. Most importantly, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has completed a 2 ½ year feasibility study of East-West Rail.
“The study came out with a number of conclusions. One is that it’s not an easy project, not an inexpensive project, but a project that can happen,” Lesser continued. “For the first time in anybody’s memory, there’s a real road map or a real train map there’s a real blueprint put out there on how to make statewide rail from Boston to Pittsfield a reality.”
He spent years advocating for construction workers. Now he could shake up the gig economy
Marty Walsh may not seem like the person to overhaul the gig economy. He spent years advocating for construction workers and less time on the intricacies of on-demand work at billion-dollar tech companies.
But now Walsh, a former union leader and the outgoing Mayor of Boston, is on the cusp of becoming the next US Labor Secretary at a pivotal moment for the industry and the broader economy. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs as the health crisis created an economic crisis. And many turned to working with companies like Uber, Instacart, and DoorDash as a backstop for their livelihoods. Instacart alone added hundreds of thousands of contract workers last year to meet demand for grocery delivery spurred by the pandemic.