The Reading Blog

During his Wednesday, August 27 2008 speech at the Democratic National Convention former President Bill Clinton told us,

Look at the example the Republicans have set: American workers have given us consistently rising productivity. They’ve worked harder and produced more.  What did they get in return? Declining wages, less than ¼ as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s.  American families by the millions are struggling with soaring health care costs and declining coverage.

This increase in poverty and inequality brought about by 8 long years of Republican miss-administration is something that should not be forgotten as we go to the polls in November and as we make our list of expectations for the next administration.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel’s The Nation Editor’s Cut report “Taking on Poverty and Inequality” nicely sums up the dire scope of the problem and the differences between the Democrats and Republicans’ views of it. Clearly, the Republicans don’t even see it as a problem. Here are some excerpts from Heuvel’s piece,

The theme at the Democratic Convention in Denver yesterday was “Renewing America’s Promise”–the Democrats’ plan to grow the economy and restore fairness so that it works for all of us. The 2007 Census data on poverty, income and health insurance was also released yesterday and it showed just how tall an order Senator Obama and the Democrats face in reversing eight years of failed Bush economic policies – policies we will continue to pay a price for in 2008 and beyond. While the 2007 numbers don’t even include the devastation wrought by the housing and credit crisis, and high energy costs, they nevertheless paint a bleak picture with poverty on the rise and working people’s pay stagnating despite increased productivity.

Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said, “Though 2007 was the sixth (and likely the final) year of an economic expansion, 4.4 million more Americans were poor, the median income of non-elderly households was $1,100 lower, and nearly six million more Americans were uninsured than in 2001 – even though the economy was in recession that year…. Never before on record has poverty been higher and median income for working-age households lower at the end of a multi-year economic expansion than at the beginning. The new data add to the mounting evidence that the gains from the 2001-2007 expansion were concentrated among high-income Americans.

“We have the biggest gap between the rich and everybody else since the Great Depression,” said Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on Vermont Public Radio. Jared Bernstein, Director of the Living Standards program at the Economic Policy Institute, agreed with Sanders. He suggested that we have the greatest concentration of wealth in the richest 1 percent of the country than we’ve had since 1928. Bernstein noted that the economic expansion failed to lift working people’s incomes despite that fact that “output per hour, or productivity, rose 2.5 percent per year during the 2000 to 2007 cycle, compared to 2 percent in the 1990s, when family incomes fared much better….”

…When it comes to vision on poverty there is little comparison between the presidential candidates. Senator Obama is talking about a new energy economy, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, union organizing, pay equity and a more progressive tax system. While his policies may not be bold enough during the campaign, the facts on the ground—mounting foreclosures, more people out of work–will demand more of a Democratic administration. Senator McCain, on the other hand, is hopelessly out of touch–saying the economy is “fundamentally sound” and poverty isn’t even listed as an issue on his campaign website.

These recent figures show there is a powerful need for Obama and Democrats to put poverty back on the national radar. The grim stats on the ground and the lives intertwined with them demand a bold agenda. Beyond Obama and the Democrats, such an agenda needs independent organizing to drive it, much the way the 1963 March on Washington eventually helped drive the War on Poverty. Ending a trillion dollar war and redirecting some of those resources back home is key as well.

Unless (and until) we tackle the gap between the very rich and the rest of America–including the growing number of people falling into poverty –it will be increasingly difficult to confront the major challenges of our time. The truth is, lifting the boats at the bottom has historically been good for all Americans.