Workers wearing anti-OPEC shirts listen during the U.S. State Department's...

Workers wearing anti-OPEC shirts listen during the U.S. State Department's open hearing for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline at the Port Arthur Civic Center in Port Arthur, Texas. If constructed, the planned pipeline would connect TransCanada tar sands to refineries in Port Arthur and Houston. Hundreds attended the event to show support of the jobs that the pipeline's construction would bring to the area. (Sept. 26, 2011) Credit: AP

For many, big government is a four-letter word, but recently released poverty and income data signal the need to invest in large-scale programs that have the potential to turn the country around. Quickly.

In the last 10 years, median household income has declined 7 percent, and the number of people living in poverty has increased to 47 million.

For racial and ethnic minorities, the statistics are even starker. The unemployment rate for African-Americans is 16.7 percent, and for Latinos it is 11.3 percent.

Not since the Great Depression have the earnings and unemployment numbers been so dismal.

Congress and the Obama administration have to do more, not less.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 did not spend nearly enough to get us out of the hole we're in. And the president's most recent job creation legislation will not be enough to penetrate this seemingly impenetrable national crisis, either.

In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt boldly created many social programs and invested heavily in initiatives to create jobs and ease the financial strain not only for individuals, but for states as well. The trillion-dollar question is: What should be done today? We need a bold set of new policies and initiatives rooted in today's economic reality. Heavy investments in infrastructure, education and our social safety net will be critical to creating pathways out of poverty rather than a bridge to nowhere.

We need more than snickers and hisses from Congress and fiscally conservative Republicans to get the country back on its feet. Tea partiers, for all of their anti-government rhetoric, have failed to provide a sensible alternative to government intervention.

The country can no longer afford a wait-and-see approach to recovery.

I've seen.

I've waited.

It's not working.

Americans need a new New Deal.

It's up to the president and Congress to deliver us one.

C. Nicole Mason is a political scientist and the executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues. Distributed by by MCT Information Services.

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