Bernie Sanders -- America's Shrinking Middle Class

[Armstead]

From website of Cong. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
http://bernie.house.gov/documents/releases/20030926171353.asp

For Immediate Release, 9/26/2003
The Shrinking Middle Class


As President Bush moves into the end of his 3rd year in office, the economy continues to decline and the middle class continues to shrink. Since January 2001, 3.3 million jobs, including 2.5 decent paying manufacturing jobs, have been lost. Poverty is up for the second year in a row and has grown from 11.7 percent in 2001 to 12.1 percent in 2002. This means an additional 1.7 million Americans are now living in poverty and, for the first time in a decade, poverty has increased for 2 years in a row. In addition, the Commerce Department has just announced that median household income is down for the 2nd year in a row – declining by 1.1 percent.

On top of all of that, a recent study indicates that the gap in income between the rich and the poor in America is now higher than at any time in modern American history. The richest one percent of Americans in 2000 had more money to spend after taxes than the bottom 40 percent.

To read a recent article in the New York Times which discusses this study click here. http://bernie.house.gov/documents/articles/20030926164946.asp

Excerpt:
Published on 9/25/2003 in the New York Times
U.S. Income Gap Widening, Study Says
by Lynnley Browning

The gap between rich and poor more than doubled from 1979 to 2000, an analysis of government data shows.

The gulf is such that the richest 1 percent of Americans in 2000 had more money to spend after taxes than the bottom 40 percent.

In 1979, the wealthiest 1 percent had just under half the after-tax income of the poorest 40 percent of Americans, analysis of new data from the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The figures show 2000 as the year of the greatest economic disparity between rich and poor for any year since 1979, the year the budget office began collecting this data, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research organization in Washington that advocates tax and federal spending policies to benefit the poor. It released its analysis on Tuesday.

[patdem]

1. I have faith that bush* can fix this disparity

simply stop putting out the reports...all is corrected instantly and without pain (for the rich). :grr:

[Armstead]

9. He's already done that about some figures

Wasn't there recently a rejiggling of how unemployment figs are released?

[LittleApple81]

2. kick n/t

[wryter2000]

3. Unfortunately

Unfortuntely, that study ends before Bush took office. It actually makes Clinton look bad. I wish it were separated out by Reagan/Bush and Clinton.

[JanMichael]

4. Bernie is my man! It's a shame he isn't a Dem.

That poverty info is something that I posted threads on a couple of times this week...I hope this one gets more attention.

[Armstead]

8. Bernie vs. Greenspan

Sanders telling the truth to Alan Greenspan at a recent Congressional hearing.

Compare this to the usual butt kissing that Greenspan gets from both parties:

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/articles/20030813152457.asp


SANDERS: "Mr. Greenspan, I have long been concerned that you are way out of touch with the needs of the middle class and working families of our country; that you see your major function and your position as the need to represent the wealthy and large corporations. And I must tell you that your testimony today only confirms all of my suspicions.

"And I urge you -- and I mean this seriously, because you're an honest person, I think you just don't know what's going on in the real world. And I would urge you, come with me to Vermont; meet real people. The country clubs and the cocktail parties are not real America. The millionaires and billionaires are the exception to the rule.

"You talk about an improving economy while we have lost three million private sector jobs in the last two years, long-term unemployment has more than tripled, unemployment is higher than it has been since 1994, we have a $4 trillion national debt, 1.4 million Americans have lost their health insurance, millions of seniors can't afford prescription drugs, middle class families can't send their kids to college because they don't have the money to do that, bankruptcy cases have increased by a record-breaking 23 percent, business investment is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, CEOs make more than 500 times of what their workers make, the middle class is shrinking, we have the greatest gap between the rich and the poor of any industrialized nation -- and this is an economy that is improving! I'd hate to see what would happen if our economy was sinking.

"Now, today -- you may not have known this; I suspect that you don't -- but you have insulted tens of millions of American workers. You have defended, over the years, among other things, the abolition of the minimum wage and giving huge tax breaks to billionaires. But today you reached a new low, I think, by suggesting that manufacturing in America doesn't matter, it doesn't matter where the product is produced.

"We've lost two million manufacturing jobs in the last two years alone -- 10 percent of our workforce. Wal-Mart has replaced General Motors as the major employer in America, paying people starvation wages rather than living wages. And all of that does not matter to you? Doesn't matter if it's produced in China, where workers are making 30 cents an hour, or produced in Vermont where workers can make 20 bucks an hour, it doesn't matter! You have told the American people that you support a trade policy which is selling them out, only working for the CEOs who can take our plants to China, Mexico and India...

"Does any of this matter to you? Do you give one whit of concern for the middle class and working families of this country? That's my question."

GREENSPAN: "Congressman, we have the highest standard of living in the world."

SANDERS: "No we do not! You go to Scandinavia and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs."

GREENSPAN: "For a -- for --"

SANDERS: "Wrong, Mr. Chairman!"

GREENSPAN: "May I answer your question?"

SANDERS: "You sure may."

GREENSPAN: "Thank you. For a major industrial country, we have created the most advanced technologies, the highest standard of living for a country of our size. Our economic growth is crucial to us. The incomes, the purchasing power of our employees, our workers, our people, are by far more important than what it is we produce. I submit to you that -- may I? I submit to you --"

SANDERS: "I'm just making a face, I'm not making --"

GREENSPAN: "-- the major focus of monetary policy is to create an environment in this country which enables capital investment and innovation to advance. We are at the cutting edge of technologies in the world, we are doing an extraordinary job over the years, and people flock to the United States.

"Our immigration rates are very high, and why? Because they think this is a wonderful country to come --"

SANDERS: "That is an incredible answer."

And with that, the committee chairman rapped the gavel, signaling that Sanders' time was up.

[newyawker99]

10. Thanks for the article Armstead!

:-)

[uhhuh]

5. This needs more attention.

n/t

[Armstead]

7. Needs a LOT more attention

[LittleApple81]

6. kick n/t