- Originally published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on 7/11/04 [here]
By now, Karl Rove and his minions had expected that improved jobs
reports would have boosted the president's election prospects
immeasurably. After all, the stock market is doing just fine and
corporate profits are going gangbusters. How come so many workers are
still worried?
Well, most workers don't get to share the bounty of those corporate
profits. Even with the popularity of 401(k)s, which are replacing
traditional pensions, only about half of all Americans own stock. The
average American is still feeling what John Kerry and his running mate,
John Edwards, call the "middle-class squeeze."
Already, jobs growth, which picked up in March, has begun to slow
considerably. The report from the month of June showed a disappointing
112,000 new jobs, fewer than necessary to keep pace with population
growth. Even more telling is this: When President Bush came into
office, 64.4 percent of all American adults were working. That figure
has now dropped to 62.3 percent.
For those who are working, hourly wages have declined slightly over the
last year after adjusting for inflation. And many of the manufacturing
jobs that boosted generations of Americans into the middle-class are
probably gone forever -- lost to computers and Chinese workers.
Add to that soaring health care costs. Workers are having to pay more
of their insurance costs, reducing their take-home pay. Or they are
stuck with jobs that provide no health insurance.
As if that were not enough, Alan Greenspan recently raised interest
rates and is expected to keep raising them for the next several months.
As he does, many average Americans will find it harder to pay off their
monthly credit cards bills or get a mortgage. During the recession,
they had used those credit cards to keep up their standard of living
(and buy the nation out of that recession). Many families now have
substantial credit card debt.
Bush is not responsible for the global tidal wave that has swamped U.S.
manufacturing or the credit card debt that threatens to bankrupt many
families. The president didn't create an out-of-control health care
system or push down hourly wages. But his natural affinity for the
wealthy and well-connected has produced policies that are much more in
tune with their interests than with those of average working folk.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, yearly median family income is
$51,407. In terms of income distribution, the largest group of American
families -- nearly 21 percent -- earn between $50,000 and $75,000 a
year. Nearly 16 percent of families live off incomes between $35,000
and $50,000 annually. That paints a picture of a substantial midsection
-- nearly 37 percent of families -- with incomes between $35,000 and
$75,000 a year.
Now take a look at the distribution of the Bush tax cuts. The American
families earning between $43,000 and $76,000 have received only a 17
percent share of the tax cuts, according to an analysis by the
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. By contrast, the top 1 percent of
income-earners has received a 24.2 percent share.
I know, I know. Those wealthy Americans paid more of the taxes, so they
deserve more of the tax cut, right? Actually, they got more than they
deserved, even by that measure. And they haven't used their tax cuts to
produce substantial numbers of good-paying jobs for Americans. Wealthy
investors are concerned only about increasing their profits. If
replacing factory workers with robotic arms does that, they gladly
install the robotic arms.
Much of the economy is beyond the control of any president. But shoring
up the general welfare is not. Bush had a responsibility to expand the
social safety net -- extend unemployment benefits, create access to
health care -- for those Americans who are falling further behind,
despite their best efforts.
Instead, the president has coddled the wealthy.