NEWSBYDERRICK BRAZIEL

When Abraham Lincoln presented his Gettysburg Address, he said that the United States government was "of the people, by the people, for the people." Guess the modern-day GOP didn't get the memo.

With just a few days left to extend unemployment insurance benefits for millions of Americans, it seems as though Republican leaders will simply do nothing. These benefits stop at the end of the month, putting more than two million Americans under further financial hardship during the holiday season.

Many Democrats are still seeking ways to circumvent the GOP opposition, with little success.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) says that his chamber is "in the process of trying to establish the schedule of the lame duck session, in terms of the remaining days of the session, so no specifics, but think we all understand that this is something that is going to have to be done."

He acknowledges, though, that there is no plan for a vote on an extension. "At this point it's not been scheduled," he said. "We're trying to make a case that there be action but at this point I can't point to a specific time it will come up for a vote this week." (The House defeated an extension yesterday.)

Here's the hypocrisy of the situation: the wealthiest Americans have captured "half of the overall economic growth" between 1993 and 2007 while poverty rates continue to rise. When we should be discussing aiding those who are most affected by the recession, we have Republicans who are adamant about extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while doing nothing to guarantee unemployment insurance for the ones truly suffering.

With American unemployment dangerously close to 10 percent, and studies claiming that our economy won't recover until 2020, what can we do to turn this thing around?

One word: Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship, according to Robert Litan of the entrepreneurship-focused Kauffman Foundation, is the core concept of taking "new ideas" and "mov[ing] them from the garage (or the lab) to the marketplace as part of businesses that create jobs."

Over 30 years, the Kauffman Foundation has proven that businesses that have been in operation for less than five years are responsible for creating nearly all of our economy's net new jobs.

It would be fantastic if every one had opportunities to start their own businesses. Unfortunately, people in poverty simply have not had the same opportunities for entrepreneurship.

Recognizing the need to improve computer access and literacy among the poor, entrepreneur Drew Little created The Illuminated Ventures Project with the help of several college students at Virginia Commonwealth University. He believes that new media and the internet can be used to create economic self-sufficiency among under-served and under-represented groups in the United States.

Unfortunately, despite Little's best efforts, he continues to have a very difficult time finding the capital needed to become self-sustaining.

Just hours after winning office, Republican governors-elect have managed to do the unthinkable. John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin have already begun the process of terminating thousands of potential jobs slated to be created by federally-subsidized passenger train projects.

"Passenger rail is not in Ohio's future,'' Kasich said at his first news conference after defeating Gov. Ted Strickland last week. "That train is dead."

Kasich was referring to the $400 million project to restore passenger rail between Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, along the 3C  corridor. If completed, the project would help restore Ohio's crumbling infrastructure while also providing a rail service that would serve an estimated 480,000 travelers in its first year of operation.

In Wisconsin, Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi has said that his state will suspend work on an $810 million Milwaukee-Madison rail line after Governor-elect Walker similarly vowed to derail the project. Walker pledged throughout his campaign to "kill the train," saying it would cost the state too much money without helping enough people.

Kasich had previously called the 3C corridor train the "dumbest idea" he had ever heard. Like Walker in Wisconsin, he said he believed the money could be better used elsewhere. Tell him that money can't be spent any better than putting Ohioans back to work!

What do you get when you combine Indiana with expiring unemployment benefits?

If you guessed beefed-up security, you're right!

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development has decided to increase security measures in advance of an expected seasonal surge in unemployment claims as well as the perceived fragile temperaments of the unemployed who are left broke during the holidays.

Don't let Indiana add armed guards to unemployment offices!

If Congress does not act soon, the National Employment Law Project projects (pdf) that more than 1.2 million unemployed workers will lose their benefits by the end of December. That would make people upset, of course, but violent, unhinged and dangerous?

Department spokesman Marc Lotter tried to blame the ramped up security on "stress, especially among the long-term unemployed, and also the upcoming expiration of these federal extensions [which] will add additional stress."

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development seeks to fight this stress by placing armed guards at each of the 36 WorkOne Centers that process unemployment benefits across the state. While these measures may help "standardize the delivery of service," when you increase the presence of armed guards, won't that amplify an already tense environment?

In the lead up to an election day with the potential to change the course of our country, one particular piece of local legislation has garnered international buzz.

A legalization measure, known as Proposition 19 in California, seeks to "legalize various marijuana-related activities, allow local governments to regulate these activities, permit local governments to impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorize various criminal and civil penalties." In other words, this legislation will allow adults to grow up to 25-square-foot plots of marijuana and possess up to an ounce of the substance.

Leaders from around the world, from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Mexican President Felipe Calderon have condemned the measure, with Calderon concerned that a growing demand for the drug would increase the power of Mexican drug cartels.

Nonetheless, some advocates believe that this legislation could deal a major blow to domestic poverty.  This past week, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece that presents Prop. 19 as legislation that would significantly help state and local governments fight poverty.

Consider these facts: California now spends $200,000 more detaining juveniles than on educating children in impoverished Oakland. Each year, approximately 750,000 Americans, many of them low-income, are arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Further, our drug enforcement laws have led to a proliferation of poverty among African-Americans. According to a study by the Drug Policy Alliance, blacks in Los Angeles are arrested for marijuana possession at a rate seven times higher than that of whites. To make matters worse, studies now show that more black males end up going to jail than college. These barriers keep black males from finding work; it hinders black women from finding "suitable husbands," as Kristof says; and black children become less likely "to grow up in stable families with black male role models."

As the Great Recession supposedly ends and triage units assess the damage, we see that nearly every sector of society has been hurt. People, businesses and now charitable organizations are now considering the long-term lifestyle and operations changes necessary due to record drops in charitable giving.

A new report shows that our nation's 400 biggest charities recorded an 11 percent overall decrease in donations last year, which marks the sharpest decline in the 20 years that  the Chronicle of Philanthropy has been keeping track. Even though larger organizations such as the Salvation Army and the United Way are resilient, smaller organizations are feeling the weight of the drop in donations.

When unemployment lingers around 10 percent, and when demand continues to overwhelm supply, many social service organizations simply cannot meet their community's needs. In fact, since the United Way and other charitable organizations have limited funding for smaller non-profits, many have had to merge, close or drastically scale back services simply to stay afloat. This has many fearful that essential services such as food, shelter and job support will vanish completely for the people who need them most.

Take Homeboy Industries, known for reforming ex-gang members, which recently had to lay off nearly 300 employees including all of the organization's senior staff and administrators. The Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, which has helped more than 1,000 low-income high-school students go to college, folded as well.

Professional football players are rich. No one can deny that. The median NFL salary in 2009, depending on the team, ranged from $488,000 to $1.3 million. Still, how could any athlete justify spending $55,000 on dinner?

While this tab was paid by Dallas Cowboys player Dez Bryant as a result of some rookie hazing, how could anyone condone the brashness of these athletes in the midst of the worst economic decline since the Great Depression?

If you're not familiar with Dez Bryant's story, he was one of the most talented wide receiver prospects in last year's NFL draft. Before he was even drafted, though, he was caught up in controversy after a Miami Dolphins employee asked whether Bryant's mother had ever been a prostitute. The employee apologized, but it's hard to deny that Bryant's mother does have a troubled history. She has served time in prison for selling crack cocaine. In August, she was sentenced to 10 years probation for another drug charge. Dez Bryant, now 21 with an $8 million contract, is no stranger to poverty. That's what makes his astronomical dinner bill all the more outrageous.

Instead of holding these pampered athletes accountable, we let society glorify them. David Wells, Bryant's adviser, simply said, "They [his teammates] got the young fella. What could he say? He had to pay it unless he wanted to wash dishes for a month." How many of the 44 million Americans in poverty wash dishes every day and don't make close to $55,000 in a year?

When President Obama first came into office, he wisely blamed the recession on the Bush Administration. Bad policy here, tax cut there and voilá — the Great Recession. He's finding that it's easier to get into a recession than out of one, though.

We are now awaiting new poverty data from the Census Bureau, and the Obama Administration will have to answer some tough questions concerning the progress of its economic policies. Here are 10 recent poverty statistics that are making his job more difficult than ever.

1.) The number of Americans in poverty is on pace for a record increase this year. Demographers expect the poverty rate to increase from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent, the highest number since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures in 1959.

2.) The U.S. poverty rate is now third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

3.) According to some estimates, the United States has lost eight million jobs since 2007.

4.) For the first time in U.S. history, 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million in 2011.

5.) An estimated 45 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009.

As primary season heats up, so too does talk of whether or not the Bush tax cuts should be extended. This mixing of economic policy and politics is nothing new. Ronald Reagan and his future vice president, George H.W. Bush, argued about "Reaganomics" 30 years ago, with Bush lambasting the "voodoo economics."

Conservative economists, namely Arthur Laffer in the Wall Street Journal, have foretold the doomsday scenario that awaits if we allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. Laffer writes: "As a result of higher tax rates on those people in the highest tax brackets, there will be less employment, output, sales, profits and capital gains — all leading to lower payrolls and lower total tax receipts. There will also be higher unemployment, poverty and lower incomes, all of which require more government spending. It's a catch-22. Higher tax rates on the rich create the very poverty and unemployment that is used to justify their presence. It is a vicious cycle that well-trained economists should know to avoid."

Laffer's article raises some interesting questions about whether the Obama administration should in fact extend the Bush tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003. His philosophies have inspired the "Laffer curve," which essentially asserts that when tax revenues go down, tax rates go up to a certain degree. Theoretically, the Laffer curve may have some verity. But real world statistics paint a different picture.

The Census Bureau reports that there were over eight million more people living in poverty at the end of Bush's term than at the beginning (which is a 26 percent jump since the Clinton administration, which had higher taxes). Median income also declined over four percent, which hasn't happened during a two-term presidential cycle in over 40 years. Moreover, the gap distancing the rich from the poor is at an all-time high.

If you're an American teenager looking for work, chances are you'll be looking for quite some time.

Job prospects for young people continue to decline as more than a quarter of American teens are now unemployed. This number has steadily increased since 2000, as teens and young adults without four-year college degrees have seen their employment opportunities all but disappear.

To make matters worse, a July report (pdf) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that teen employment has fallen to levels not previously experienced in the post World-War II era.

In an urban context, these statistics hit low income youths particularly hard. As a result of the economic downturn, these teens must now compete not with other high schoolers, but with the millions of adult workers out of a job, many of whom have been unemployed for months.

With all of the negative effects that perpetual unemployment has on adults, consider the lasting consequences that come from teen unemployment.