Washington, D.C. – Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina, the effects of the disaster are still evident in the city. Houses and stores remain dilapidated and empty throughout the city, thousands of residents are still living in trailer homes, and others are only just now beginning to return to their neighborhoods.
Serena Kefayeh, an intern with the Center for American Progress, visited New Orleans this spring. Her video documents the current state of the city through photos, video, and interviews with residents.
Later this morning, Sen. John McCain will visit the Lower 9th Ward as he continues his tour of impoverished America. His rhetoric is great, but so far the scorecard for his “poverty tour” is four days, one new idea: another corporate write-off, this one allowing “companies to write off the cost” of providing high-speed Internet in low-income communities.
Sen. McCain is proposing $3 trillion in tax cuts that would offer nothing to people living and working in poverty. More than half would go to corporations, and much of the rest to high-income taxpayers in the form of AMT relief.
Even McCain’s one tax cut that really will help the middle class — doubling the personal exemption for dependents from $3,500 to $7,000 – will do little or nothing for working poor families. These families usually do not pay any income taxes and thus will not benefit, even though they pay thousands of dollars in sales and payroll taxes. Meanwhile, the largest tax cuts will go to families at the top.
Click here to read more.