Why a Strong Economy Means Nothing to the Poor and Middle Class

Concerning the current state of discretionary cash for the American Middle Class: Sept. 9 - There were over 1.6 million bankruptcy filings last year, up 7.4 percent from the previous year. And according to a new book, more people will end up in bankruptcy this year than will suffer a heart attack, than will be diagnosed with cancer or graduate from college, and it’s not who you would think. Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard law professor and bankruptcy expert and discusses these findings in her new book “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.” She discusses the book on “Today.” Read an excerpt here: MSNBC.com

It just keeps getting worse. Warren says in her book “The Two-Income Trap is thick with irony. Middle-class mothers went into the workforce in a calculated effort to give their families an economic edge. Instead, millions of them are now in the workplace just so their families can break even. At a time when women are getting college diplomas and entering the workforce in record numbers, their families are in more financial trouble than ever.” If it’s this bad for the Middle Class with college degrees under their belts, what’s it like for the desperately poor. Food banks, DSHS, welfare, and other programs are targets for the GOP cutting block. Bush and the GOP says to let the Faith-Based programs pick up the slack, but Faith Based programs rely almost exclusively on donations from Middle Class folks, who are tightening their belts because the current economy is not friendly the those on the lower half of the economic ladder. President Carter used the Misery Index (unemployment + interest rate) to illustrate how bad things were for Middle Class America in order to mobilize people to get out and vote. Regan used it, and Bush points to it today to show hoe good things are. It’s true that the index is down to about 7.4 percent, but the index has never taken into account how much discretionary cash is left in the purses of the middles class. We already know that there is virtually no discretionary cash in the pockets of the poor. The squeeze that Elizabeth Warren writes about is a fact that the GOP doesn’t want you to know about. Right now the discretionary income is about $2,400.00 less than last year, and the trend is for even less discretionary cash in the future. The AP said this: “Bush does not fare as well under a new version of the “Misery Index,” created by Kerry strategists, that measures seven indicators they say are a better indication of middle class welfare — the prices of gasoline, health care and college tuition, the number of jobs, median family income, personal bankruptcies and homeownership.” See the entire story at http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5270959/ Top 20% of Americans and Corporations receiving the benefit of this economy. So the rich get richer and he poor get poorer.

1. The gap between the Upper Class and the Lower Class gets bigger.
2. The number of Middle Class Americans is dwindling away.
3. The on-the-ground forces for the security and safety of the Nation falls on the shoulders of the Middle Class and the Poor, yet Bush has sought over and over to reduce the benefits of the Veterans that have paid the price for freedom.

The message is clear. The GOP doesn’t give a damn about anything Middle Class or Poor, except how to glean their votes from their cold, hopeless hearts and minds.