President Barack Obama's stimulus plan cannot reach all industries

Eastern Connecticut once was the Mecca of the textile industry, with active and occupied mills and factories on nearly every street corner that came to define the town. Thousands of western European immigrants traveled just to the area for the certainty of a paying occupation in the textiles, in mills thriving from Danielson to Willimantic. However, the last century’s technological outburst left those mill workers seeking employment elsewhere, and the cornerstone mills currently vacant.

Now, as America continues on its economic downturn, many around the country still surviving in the mill and factory industry had hoped that President Barack ObamaBarack Obama’s stimulus plan would positively reach them before their industry met the same fate as the residents of the Quiet Corner in the 20th century.

The recent American recession has forced mills and factories across the Midwestern and Southern United States to cuts thousands of jobs as plants continue to close and profits remains stagnant at a minimum. As many owners and employees had sought the assistance of Obama’s stimulus plan to ease their economic suffering, but only 2,500 of the 650,000 stimulus jobs announced to the public Friday are in the manufacturing industries.

So, small towns that depend on the financial security of one factory or mill operation are likely to be left on their own, because although the intention of the stimulus was to assist “those most impacted from the recession”, an industry in a century-long downturn will never be at the apex of the Obama’s Administrations’ “to do” list.