of the areas regional airport, scale back funding for job training, and leave the local tourism office without critical grant money.
Most crucially, Trumps fiscal plan would eliminate two federal agencies, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and Delta Regional Authority (DRA), that invest millions of dollars annually toward boosting not simply Alabamas rural communities but also many of the other rural states populated with the presidents most ardent supporters.
Spanning 13 states, the ARC covers a 205,000 sq mile region from the mountains of New York state to the Mississippi gulf coast. In less than two years, the ARC has poured upward of $11m into Alabama alone including a grant of roughly $1m awarded last year to the Shoals Entrepreneurial Center, which by supporting startup companies has proved an epicenter for economic development in the region.
It might seem like a paltry amount, said Giles McDaniel, the centers executive director, but the expected return on investment is $10m, the creation or retention of 110 jobs and the launch of 20 new businesses.
I've often thought of what would happen to these states if the flow in of money were turned off. Redistribution of wealth from wealthy to poor states is the reason why this whole region isn't living at "third-word" level. Rural electrification, rural running water, eradication of epidemic disease, modern hospitals, universal education were all brought to this area by federal programs and maintained with the help of federal money.