Put 15 Million Back to Work Fixing $2.2 Trillion in Infrastructure: the Works Progress Administration

[NOTE: The Oregon Progressive Party (OPP) has become the first party in the nation to endorse the resurrection of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) as a major solution to hiring millions of the 15 million unemployed to work on the $2.2 trillion needed repairs on America's infrastructure.

The author of this article is Barbara G. Ellis, an OPP member. It appeared in TruthOut, a major internet new/analysis website dealing with progressive issues. The first third of the article involves the current spate of nationally known columnists strongly urging a WPA-II: Paul Krugman, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Bob Herbert, Rich Lowry, Michael Moore, and others. The middle third gives a brief history of the WPA and its accomplishments during the Great Depression. And the last third includes a suggested plan for the program to be implemented under the co-direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Navy’s Seabees (the construction batallion).

The Corps of Engineers directed the program throughout the 1935-43 period of the Great Depression. Some 8 million of the 25 million unemployed were WPA-ers, and almost every county in the nation were touched by the many programs under its umbrella, especially Oregon with the Bonneville Dam and Timberline Lodge, and Government Camp.

The full article is presented, if you click on its title above.]

by: Barbara G. Ellis Ph.D.
Truthout July 23, 2011

Perhaps all is not lost for the republic's economic future, even as its leaders let this nation hurtle toward the abyss of the Great Depression II. An immensely successful, sensible and practical solution is being signaled by increasingly thunderous shout-outs from prominent people: pundits Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Rich Lowry, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, filmmaker Michael Moore and two new web sites - not to mention millions of voters with long memories and the friends and families of the nation's 15,000,000 unemployed.

Their solution? Resurrect the phenomenally successful Works Progress Administration (WPA) of 1935-1943. It put food on the table, kept a roof overhead and put spending money in the pockets of nearly nine million jobless. They built everything from roads, bridges, dams and utility systems to schools and hospitals. They staffed libraries and taught more than a million adults and 90,000 draftees how to read.     Read more at Truthout...