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Lack of jobs is the deepest concern facing communities in rural America, according to a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. President Trump carried rural areas in 2016, and the foundation wanted to understand the experiences and political views of individuals in these areas. For this study, researchers polled voters in Ashtabula County in Ohio. Fifty-four percent said they approve of Trump’s handling of his job compared with 40 percent who said they disapproved. Fifty-one percent of rural voters were confident that Trump's policies would create jobs, 57 percent said they believed his policies would keep the country safe from...

In keeping with President Donald Trump’s executive order establishing the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue launched the effort on Thursday along with representatives from 22 federal agencies that are taking on the wide-ranging initiative. The task force will work to find ways to increase jobs, housing and educational opportunities for America’s rural communities, and to remove obstacles, such as burdensome regulations, and to improve infrastructure and access to technology. advertisement The task force held its inaugural meeting in Washington, D.C., and attendees included Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Secretary of...

No one listened to Tom Vilsack. As agriculture secretary during the entire Obama administration, the former Iowa governor has for years been telling anyone who will pay attention — farmers, members of Congress, even Hillary Clinton — that Democrats need a better message for rural America. And he’s spent most of his tenure focusing on rural development, trying to revitalize areas that ultimately voted for Republican Donald Trump in this year’s presidential election. “The Democratic Party, in my opinion, has not made as much of an effort as it ought to, to speak to rural voters,” Vilsack said Tuesday in...

The Obama administration snuck in two new climate change-related programs when it rolled out a major new study on the nation's challenged energy system. The first installment of a major four-part energy analysis, dubbed the Quadrennial Energy Review, was issued Tuesday morning after several months of persistent delays. Included with the 350-page review, which focused on the nation's energy infrastructure hurdles, were two new executive actions: one addressing climate change resilience, and another for clean energy improvements in rural America. The administration hinted that the new initiatives may be part of a speech the president plans to deliver Wednesday in...

Amidst the worship and sugar highs this past Easter Sunday, some somber moments shed light on what the American public—especially in the heartland—is really concerned about. I’ve always said that I grew up in the belt buckle of the Bible Belt, attending school and church in the small hometown of Chattanooga, Oklahoma. It’s in this town that you will find hard working, God-fearing people who have faith in the future, lift others up, and pray for our leaders. In a town like this, pollsters would advise their candidate that this community’s top concern this week would be the news in...

The long-tortured farm bill cleared Congress Tuesday, ending a two year struggle that split the old farm-food coalition as never before and dramatized the growing isolation of agriculture and rural America in an ever more urban House. Written off as dead just months ago, the giant five-year measure won final approval from the Senate on a 68-32 roll call and goes next to President Barack Obama for his signature.

PEOSTA, IOWA – At the White House Rural Economic Forum in Iowa today, President Obama made his case to “enlist” Iowans in the fight to end partisan gridlock in Washington, which he said is to blame for the lack of economic growth. “The only thing that is holding us back is our politics… The refusal of a faction in Congress to put country ahead of party. And that has to stop. Our economy cannot afford it,” Obama said at the Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa. The president is spending the second day of his three-state Midwest bus tour...

3 Years After Bitter-People-Clinging-to-Guns Speech, Obama Creates ‘Rural Council’ Thursday, June 09, 2011 By Fred Lucas Barack Obama in Iowa Barack Obama, during the 2008 presidential campaign, stumps in Adel, Iowa. (AP photo/Charlie Niebergall) (CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama, who during the 2008 campaign famously referred to small town Americans as bitter people clinging to guns and religion, today issued an executive order establishing a White House Rural Council. The council will be chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Democratic governor of Iowa. Iowa—and other northern Midwest states—have been key swing states in recent presidential elections. “Strong rural...

On June 9, 2011, an Executive Order established the White House Rural Council with 25 executive branch departments including Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, National Drug Control, Environmental Quality, Labor, Commerce, Interior, EPA, Housing, Health, Education to name just a few. The order covers 16% of the American population who lives in rural counties because they “supply our food, fiber, and energy, safeguard our natural resources, and are essential in the development of science and innovation.” “Strong, sustainable rural communities are essential in winning the future and ensuring American competitiveness in the years ahead.” What kind of future are we supposed...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama plans to create a special advisory council to recommend ways to boost the economic outlook and quality of life for the estimated 60 million people who live in rural areas of the U.S., a White House official said. Obama was expected to sign an executive order Thursday establishing the White House Rural Council and naming Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, of Iowa, to be its chairman.

Where, exactly, does the U.S. Constitution authorize the federal government to create "sustainable communities" in order to: "... expand access to the capital necessary for economic growth, promote innovation, improve access to health care and education, and expand outdoor recreational activities on public lands." Clearly, the Constitution provides no such authority, and the Tenth Amendment prohibits the federal government from engaging in activity not explicitly enumerated and authorized in the Constitution. This fact meant nothing to Bill Clinton, who created the President's Council on Sustainable Development by executive order. Nor does this fact have meaning to Barack Hussein Obama. On...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rural America now accounts for just 16 percent of the nation's population, the lowest ever. The latest 2010 census numbers hint at an emerging America where, by midcentury, city boundaries become indistinct and rural areas grow ever less relevant. Many communities could shrink to virtual ghost towns as they shutter businesses and close down schools, demographers say. More metro areas are booming into sprawling megalopolises. Barring fresh investment that could bring jobs, however, large swaths of the Great Plains and Appalachia, along with parts of Arkansas, Mississippi and north Texas, could face significant population declines. These places...

President Barack Obama is headed to the Midwest after a summer of discontent over a debt showdown with Republicans and the downgrade in the nation's credit rating. Obama's bus tour begins Monday. It's his first as president and will take him to prairie communities in Minnesota and through Iowa and Illinois. There are stops in the farmland and rural towns that launched his first White House bid. Obama won a clean sweep in 2008 of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. But Obama's standing in these states, like elsewhere, has grown precarious as the economy has slumped.

Today, the President announced several important new initiatives to continue strengthening the rural economy and to create jobs in rural areas. As part of the White House Rural Council’s efforts to improve federal government coordination on rural economic development, the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have been focused on rural small business growth. And for good reason: Half the people who work in America either own or work for a small business, and two out of three new private sector jobs are created by small businesses. Many of these small businesses are in...

So, zero disdains suburban America like the msm types so often and readily do? This shouldn't surprise anyone as he is a product of the urban mindset. The one thing that zero and his campaign are missing is that they can't win this election with just the urban vote. And with Mac, with all of his flaws, will bring out suburban voters like crazy. And, with SarahPower, we draw rural voters out like no one has since Ronaldus Magnus.

Where have all the cowboys gone?Roughly 60 million people (20 percent of Americans) live in 80 percent of America's landmass – classified as "rural." While much has been done in past years to save this precious domain, many rural areas remain on the brink of economic bankruptcy. Tragically, because of globalization, outbidding, outsourcing and youth migration, some have already turned into pastoral wastelands and ghost towns. There is a light of hope in the rural tunnel, as Calvin Beale, senior demographer with the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, notes, "The number of declining non-metro counties was...

WHEN FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, businessman Howard Dahl boards a plane for the East Coast or flies to Europe and beyond, he is often struck by the views of the people he encounters, especially their preconceptions about his part of the country. "There's a lot of condescension. You'd think no one here ever read a book," Dahl says, "or ever had a thought about anything. They think we're religious fanatics."To Dahl, a successful international exporter of agricultural technology, this contempt is sometimes hard to understand. A devout Christian who spent three years at a Lutheran seminary, he comes from an increasingly...

Stenholm gears up to duel Neugebauer in District 19 By SEBASTIAN KITCHEN AVALANCHE-JOURNAL U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, a West Texas congressman for 26 years, kicked off his first-ever campaign in Lubbock on Tuesday vowing never to bow to partisanship at the expense of his constituents. "I think one of the big issues in this campaign is going to be I'm an independent," the Abilene Democrat said. "I vote my district. I don't mind differing with my party. It appears that one of the differences is going to be a rubber stamp for (House Majority Leader) Tom DeLay's version of what...

<p>WHITESBURG, Ky.— From his modest office in the Whitesburg City Hall, Dee Davis has a global vision for improving the image and conditions of rural America.</p> <p>When CBS announced plans last year for a reality television show based on "The Beverly Hillbillies," Davis spearheaded a nationwide protest of the proposed series in which an Appalachian family would be uprooted to Hollywood and showered with money and luxury as the cameras rolled.</p>

80-55 Coalition for Rural America Unifies Rural Voice; Nonpartisan Movement Challenges Candidates to Confront Decline of Small Towns 11/15/03 12:00:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk Contact: Jerome Uher, 703-243-8977 (Sat. & Sun.), or 202-331-4323 ext. 3036 (After Nov. 16), for the 80-55 Coalition for Rural America DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- From Main Street U.S.A. to Washington, D.C., the 80-55 Coalition for Rural America will make the voice of 55 million rural Americans heard at the Iowa Caucus and throughout the 2004 campaign season, coalition leaders today announced. A nonpartisan coalition of rural leaders and organizations,...