Dem Economic Message: Great webpage from Congressman Miller.

[Armstead]

Congressman Miller (D-California) has started a weekly webpage on the "Middle Class Squeeze" on his website. This is wehat we need to shoot down the Bush and Media talking points about the "great economy."

I hope Kerry pays attention to this. Miller has summed it up very well, and aims straight at the heart of the Big Economic Lie. This is what the Democratic campaign ought to be pounding at relentlessly as the real situation.

http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/middleclass/middleclass.html


I'm posting the first issue, as I assume it's in the public domain.

Middle Class Squeeze, Issue #1
PAYCHECKS: Workers Feeling the Squeeze
Summary: Declining real wages are putting the squeeze on middle class Americans. Meanwhile, tax policies shower huge benefits on the wealthiest 5 percent of taxpayers, and corporate profits have soared.
Middle class Americans are noticing their paychecks don't stretch as far as they used to. And yet some economists and the Bush Administration insist that the economy is recovering, leaving most Americans to wonder what has happened to the better wages that should come with a recovery.

The short answer: they’ve gone to corporate profits, CEO pay, and tax cuts that reward wealth, not work.

In the last three months, average wages in the United States increased at an annual rate of just 2.2 percent (and the last two consecutive quarters have seen the slowest wage growth for any six-month period on record). Meanwhile, over the last three months the inflation rate was 3.9 percent. That means that during the most recent stage of this so-called recovery, most American workers actually took a pay cut.

This pay cut has taken place amid continued gains in worker productivity – the amount that workers produce in an hour. If middle class workers are performing so well, and if their hard work is paying off and making the economy grow, then why are their wages falling?

Middle-class Americans are getting squeezed by their employers and by government policies. Since March of 2001, corporate profits skyrocketed by 57.5 percent, while wages and salaries decreased by 1.7 percent. American companies raked in an enviable $1 trillion in profits in the last three months of 2003 alone. But even while profits soared, companies froze pay.

Of course, corporations weren’t freezing pay for their top executives, including the people that brought us Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, and other economy-shattering scandals. The median base salary for CEOs rose to almost $1 million in 2003. When you add in all the perks, the average CEO of a large company was pulling down a cool $8.1 million annually. Big company CEOs are now earning 300 times as much as the average worker.

Unfortunately, Uncle Sam is only making matters worse, shifting the tax burden from wealth to work. Taxes on wages now average almost 24 percent. Taxes on income from investments, like stocks and bonds, average less than 10 percent.

On top of that, President Bush’s trillion-dollar tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans have helped to create a budget-busting record deficit of over $500 billion, which adds to the burden on middle-class families through future debt repayments, rising interest rates, and a scarcity of federal funds to help alleviate rising college and health care costs.

And that’s why we call it the “middle class squeeze.”

[Armstead]

1. Kick

I posted this as a constructive example of the type of message this ol'leftie believes Kerry ought to be pushing that would both address a core problem and resonate with bothe the mainstream and the "base."

[sangh0]

2. Not quite "middle class SQUEEZE" but heading in the right direction

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0413.html

New Flash Ad Brings Bush's Middle-Class Misery to Life
April 13, 2004

For Immediate Release
Washington, DC

The John Kerry campaign today launched a new flash ad on its website illustrating its new report about the devastating effect George Bush's reckless, out-of-touch policies have had on middle-class families.

Although President Bush says his economic policies are helping the middle-class, yesterday's Middle-Class Misery Index report and an accompanying analysis of how much George Bush is costing a typical family in each state show that middle-class Americans are having a harder time than ever making ends meet. While the president continues to push failed economic policies, families are struggling to keep up with every day costs.

"President Bush is out of touch with the American people," said Kerry campaign spokesperson Chad Clanton. "His failed policies are driving health care, education and other costs through the roof, and it's as if he can't even see the problem. The American people are ready for real leadership to get this economy back on track. While the president sits by and lets the Middle-Class Misery Index Grow, John Kerry has offered a new direction. Kerry will provide real relief for the middle- class, including middle-class tax cuts, 10 million new jobs, affordable health care and accessible education."

Yesterday's report details the Middle-Class Misery Index, which takes a look at the status of the middle-class by combining seven different indicators: median family income, college tuition, health costs, gasoline costs, bankruptcies, the homeownership rate and private-sector job growth. The report finds that in the last three years, the middle-class has been squeezed by rising costs like health care, college tuition and gasoline, while wages and incomes are stagnating and personal bankruptcies are at record levels.

According to the report, the Middle-Class Misery Index fell 13 points - the largest three-year fall on record. The four largest contributors to the declines in the Index from 2000 to 2003 - in order - were rising college tuition, falling private-sector jobs, rising health premiums, and declining family incomes.

The new flash ad and a copy of the Middle-Class Misery Index report are available at http://www.johnkerry.com/features/misery_index/