Obama offers millions in technology fund

NEWS & COMMENTARY

Obama offers millions in technology fund
good news for NC?

October 26, 2009
While Americans struggle with the highest unemployment in decades, and in some areas with rates that qualify for being classified as a "depression," President Obama has just announced a potentially massive new technology fund designed to "catalyze and facilitate private sector investments..." throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

"Before this year, the state's highest unemployment rate was 9.7 % in March, 1983. Last September, North Carolina's unemployment rate was 6.8 %. In January of this year, it had soared to 9.7 %.

After ramming the largest tax increase in our nation's history down the throats of American tax payers, that percentage changed drastically. According to statistics released this last week by the NC Employment Security Commission, the state's unemployment rate, as of September 30, is 10.8%.

In September, over 472,429 North Carolinians filed for unemployment benefits - 2,366 of those in Beaufort County.

From October, 2008, to September, 2009, Beaufort County, alone, paid out $19,385,622.00 in unemployment benefits. Total benefits paid out by the state of North Carolina was a whopping $3,999,865,330.00 – just short of 4 billion dollars.

However, according to Breitbart, help may be on the way.

Mr. Obama may yet get around to deciding if and when more American troops will be sent to Afghanistan and he is certainly busy working the phone to make his Health Care Plan a reality for all Americans but he worked quickly and swiftly to fulfill his promise to those he stood before just four months ago. Speaking this past June, Mr. Obama said that "education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century" and he made a vow to forge a "new beginning."

Last Friday, the President acted on that promise. White House officials announced funding of "between 25 and 150 million dollars for selected projects" that will "catalyze and facilitate private sector investments" that "would advance economic opportunity and create jobs in areas like technology, education, telecoms, media, business services and clean technology."

"Proposals must be submitted by the end of November, and managers of funds … will make presentations in Washington in January."

Even more, "Obama also said he will host a summit on entrepreneurship this year to deepen ties between business leaders" and "…communities."

The President has opened the financial floodgates, allowing funding for private sector investments to create jobs in technology, education and business services. Surely, North Carolina – indeed our entire country – must be heading for better employment figures in the coming months.

His summit to bring business leaders and communities together has the potential to help our bleak employment picture brighten.

American families count on that weekly paycheck to pay the bills, feed the family and maybe even pad the nest egg as well. Losing a paycheck puts the mortgage in jeopardy, cuts the grocery budget and, since millions of Americans get their health insurance from their employers, leaves a family unable to afford medical care.

Therein lies an added bonus to the President's initiative – though they have nothing to do with the President's Health Care Plan, funding these projects will give American families access to health care again.

The times that this reporter has had praise for Barack Obama have been so rare as to be, well, nonexistent.

This time is no exception. Look more closely at Breitbart's column.

There will be no money for American jobs. No floodgates will open on American soil. Not only is there to be no money for creating jobs, but American workers will continue to see their jobs exported to other countries. American workers will continue to file for unemployment benefits.

Grasping for at least a small straw of change in the political status quo, American voters elected a man who promised a rainbow in every pot, a unicorn in every backyard. However, from the moment he ascended his throne, Mr. Obama has sought to tend the needs of Islamic countries, having conveniently walked away from the myriad of promises made in his campaign speeches across all 57 states

Americans will have to continue cutting their budgets, tightening their belts. It is to Islam that he promises a "new beginning." It is to those who wish America's freedoms crushed and her people enslaved that Obama promises 'to purge years of "suspicion and discord."

In his June 2009, speech in Cairo, Mr. Obama said –

This is important because no development strategy can be based only upon what comes out of the ground, nor can it be sustained while young people are out of work. Many Gulf States have enjoyed great wealth as a consequence of oil, and some are beginning to focus it on broader development. But all of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century, and in too many Muslim communities there remains underinvestment in these areas. I am emphasizing such investments within my country. And while America in the past has focused on oil and gas in this part of the world, we now seek a broader engagement.

On education, we will expand exchange programs, and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities. And we will match promising Muslim students with internships in America; invest in on-line learning for teachers and children around the world; and create a new online network, so a teenager in Kansas can communicate instantly with a teenager in Cairo.

On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries. And I will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world..

On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the so they can create jobs. We will open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new Science Envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, and grow new crops. And today I am announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health.

A strategy to develop jobs, exchange programs and scholarships. An economic development plan. A "fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create jobs."

American workers may not benefit from any of those plans but we sure do get to pay for them.

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