Relief fund

“ I ask that you fund the Millennium Challenge Account, so that American aid reaches the people who need it, in nations where democracy is on the rise and corruption is in retreat. And let us continue to support the expanded trade and debt relief that are the best hope for lifting lives and eliminating poverty. ”

“ By the system adopted the donations of the charitable are sure to do the most good to those who are made destitute by the flood. Wise precaution is taken to avoid the encouragement of idleness by strictly withholding relief from such as find work on lands not overflowed, and who refuse to labor; a precaution which I commend and approve. Careful, systematic economy is employed in all relief measures.
At their request and yours, I have examined your accounts as Treasurer of the relief fund and the accounts and vouchers of the committees, finding all correct and in order. ”

“ But of course in large families with children the small earnings of the breadwinner being now totally absent, this sum must be replaced by the creation of a relief fund so that there may not be any serious want.' Exactly, but under no circumstances must the people complain of hunger. ”

“ The Citizens’ Relief Committee, composed of their first citizens, has the Honorable S. C. Miles, Mayor of Marion, as Chairman, and Mr. Albert G. Woods, as Treasurer. In conclusion, the emergency may be thus summed up: Our prospects are very discouraging. Money is superlatively required. It must be had if human lives are to be saved. The final analysis of the case reads thus: Food or starvation, life or death. Only with money can the evil be averted. It would be unreasonable to expect more from the Red Cross fund. ”

“ This is no time to be bungling at trivial remedies; let a loan of a million and a half be raised on this £74,000 a year, which, at four per cent., would leave a portion of it for a sinking fund; let absentees be taxed fifty per cent., and every resident ten per cent. By these means abundant funds would be found to keep the people alive. Let there be got up in each county machinery for carrying out the relief: let the projected railways be commenced, and let the people be put to work from one end of the country to the other, and let them be paid in food. ”

“ If such an emergency arises, there now exists no clear and undoubted executive power of relief. Heretofore the redemption of 3 per cent bonds, which were payable at the option of the Government, has afforded a means for the disbursement of the excess of our revenues; but these bonds have all been retired, and there are no bonds outstanding the payment of which we have a right to insist upon. The contribution to the sinking fund which furnishes the occasion for expenditure in the purchase of bonds has been already made for the current year, so that there is no outlet in that direction. ”

“ The Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 opened with a declaration that the economic depression created a serious emergency, due to wide-spread unemployment and the inadequacy of State and local relief funds, resulting in the existing or threatened deprivation of a considerable number of families and individuals of the necessities of life, and making it imperative that the Federal Government cooperate more effectively with the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia in furnishing relief to their needy and distressed people. ”

“ There have been, I believe, over 2,200 applicants for relief to the fund which has been raised for the benefit of the sufferers of so-called Philanthropic Finance, and among the number it appears there are nearly 1,400 single women and widows. ”

“ Nobody will pay rent, and 435 the savings banks are overflowing. With the money they get from our relief funds they buy arms instead of food, and then shoot the officers who are sent over to regulate the distribution of relief. ”

“ During the hours of urgent need men donated their goods, workmen gave their labor, and professional men, their services, who when later they saw the size of the relief funds could not resist the insidious craving to have a share of the big whole. There is the instance of men belonging to one of the building trades who did work for which they expected no pay but later were not satisfied to take the $4.00 a day offered as payment by the Finance Committee. ”

“ But between the lines we can read an admission of its own shortcomings, since it provides for the appointment of a committee to make proposals for amending the act, it being presumed and that is indeed characteristic that in cases where the support received through the Unemployment Societies is inadequate for the support of a workman's family, the deficit must be made good from the Municipal Relief Funds. ”

“ Trask, came to Washington personally to urge our compliance with the request that we accept the charge of this distribution of relief funds. Accustomed to the trials, responsibilities, and hardships of field relief labor, this proposition seemed something to be shrunk from rather than accepted and we naturally hesitated. The idea, however, became public, and a general importunity on the part of the people became prevalent. ”

“ The American Rescue Plan finishes the job of getting a total of two hundred thou- — or $20,000 to — direct payments to people. Getting direct relief to people is a lifeline for them and it bumps our economy into higher gear. ”

“ Effort should be made to locate projects where they will serve the greatest unemployment needs as shown by present relief rolls, and the broad program of the National Resources Board should be freely used for guidance in selection. Our ultimate objective being the enrichment of human lives, the Government has the primary duty to use its emergency expenditures as much as possible to serve those who cannot secure the advantages of private capital. ”

“ The government, in lending public money, is entitled and should make sure to protect the public interest.
Further, when mere loans cannot clear up the situation, the necessary readjustments ought to be provided as a part of the plan of lending. In its railway relief, as elsewhere, the last administration has lent money, not in accordance with a plan for relieving fundamental difficulties, but only with the hope that within a year or two the depression would end.
Facing the facts squarely, we may as well realise, first rather than last, the fundamental issues. ”

“ After careful investigation, we are satisfied that relief on an extensive scale will have to be furnished for months to come, and that the coming winter will to the utmost tax the capacity of all the relief agencies at work, even if the funds at their disposal are very materially increased beyond the present ratio of contribution. ”

“ Now you know the truth: $500 billion in deficit reduction, equally divided between cuts and revenues; 80 percent of the new revenue is going to the top 1.2 percent of our people; a trust fund so that all the money goes to reduce the deficit; real investments to help the working poor, to help middle class families sending their children to college, without undue cuts on the elderly. ”

“ That is not only our moral responsibility – to lend a helping hand to our fellow Americans in times of emergency – but it also makes good economic sense. If you don’t have money, you can’t spend it. And if you don’t spend it, our economy will continue to decline.
For that same reason, the plan includes $1,000 of badly-needed tax relief for middle class workers and families, putting money back in the pockets of nearly 6.9 million workers and their families here in Florida. ”

“ There is the crudest form, that of direct money relief, such as is involved in Old Age Pensions. There is the subsidising of socially desirable economic operations, such as insurance against sickness or the acquisition of freehold by tenants. There is the expenditure of money on various forms of education, in the scientific assistance of industry and agriculture, in promotion of forestry, drainage, or the improvement of local communication. ”

“ This plan will balance the budget and invest in our people while protecting Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment. It will balance the budget and build on the Vice President's efforts to make our Government work better, even as it costs less. It will balance the budget and provide middle class tax relief to pay for education and health care, to help to raise a child, to buy and sell a home. ”

“ Where, however, the state aid comes without any contributory savings from the individual or his employer and where to qualify for its benefit all must have an income of very small proportion, it is in effect a class measure and obviously for the relief of the very poor.
The higher family interest demands that every system of insurance or of subsidy, or of occasional aid to any member of the family, should tend directly and powerfully toward and not away from thrift, work capacity, and sound business principles. ”

“ In the provision against distress during this winter, the great private agencies of the country have been mobilized again; the generosity of our people has again come into evidence to a degree in which all America may take great pride. Likewise the local authorities and the States are engaged everywhere in supplemental measures of relief. The provisions made for loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, to States that have exhausted their own resources, guarantee that there should be no hunger or suffering from cold in the country. ”

“ A lot of Americans are struggling with debt and some have borrowed against their homes to repay it. These families could certainly use extra money-money that my tax relief plan will offer. Other families will buy some things they need, or save for college or retirement.
Tax relief is good for our economy precisely because it is good for American families. When millions of families have some extra money to save and spend, it helps kick-start our economic growth. When families are more confident about the economic future, that future gets brighter for us all. ”

“ Since 2001, the tax relief we delivered has left $880 billion in the hands of American workers, and small businesses, and families like yours, and you used that money to help produce more than four years of uninterrupted economic growth. ”

“ I know many of you listening this morning are anxious about the state of our economy and what it means for your personal finances. I am confident that the implementation of this relief package can begin to address those concerns. I'm confident by getting our markets moving, we will help unleash the key to our continued economic success, the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. ”

“ The President wants to -- obviously wants to move the process forward, but also wants to have a package that is -- meets the principles that he has in moving forward -- are we going to create jobs? Are we going to meet the size and the scope of those problems with something that's appropriate enough to save or create the more than 3 million jobs that he's talked about? Is the tax relief going to be focused on those who need it the most in the middle class? Is the spending that's involved also laying down important investments for the future? ”

“ And there’s more to the American Rescue Plan, and much more it will do: provide flexible aid to your cities and states to help essential workers stay in the job and essential services keep going. It provides rent relief, food, and nutrition, and assistance to millions of children and families facing hunger. ”

“ And the recovery package that we are moving forward is designed to provide states relief, to make sure that people who are laid off from their jobs are still able to get unemployment insurance, are still able to get health care, and that we are putting in place the infrastructure of rebuilding roads, bridges, waterways, other projects at the state levels that allow us to put people back to work. And we want to create or save 3 million jobs, and we want to put the investments in place that are going to ensure long-term economic growth. ”

“ This Congress produced a budget that cut the deficit by half a trillion dollars, cut spending and raised income taxes on only the wealthiest Americans. This Congress produced tax relief for millions of low-income workers to reward work over welfare. ”

“ Well, number one, the American Rescue Plan has been documented by several independent experts as providing a tremendous amount of relief all by itself to lower-income and middle-class families. Between the economic impact payments, the checks, the changes to the Child Tax Credit, this — there’s going to be an enormous infusion of relief for lower-income and middle-income families.As you know and as the President has said, this is only step one. Step two is the Build Back Better agenda. ”

“ The President is also issuing an Executive Order that will launch an all-of-government effort to provide equitable emergency economic relief to working families, communities, and small businesses across the nation. ”

“ It was the hope of the Rehabilitation Committee that the large proportion of persons who came empty-handed, would, on receipt of a lump sum in itself insufficient to establish a business, develop latent resources. Such was often the result. Of the 93 cases mentioned above as having no before-fire resources, 46 received cash gifts other than the relief grant, negotiated friendly loans, or were allowed credit with former dealers. The manifestly right function of a relief grant of money for business is distribution such as will not supplant aid from other sources. ”

“ I think that the plan that we've put forward is the right one, but obviously over the next several weeks and months, we are going to be continuing to take a look at the data and see what's taking place in the economy as a whole. But understand: the goal of my plan is to provide tax relief to families that are struggling, but also to boost the capacity of the economy to grow from the bottom up. ”