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WASHINGTON, DC -- Most workers are losing ground in the Bush economy and feel like the American Dream is moving further out of their reach, economic experts and worker advocates said at a House Democratic forum on the economy today. The forum participants said that Republican economic policies are taking Americans in the wrong direction, and they offered ideas to ensure that all Americans can benefit from a growing economy.
“There is no question that working American families are feeling increasingly squeezed in today’s economy. While the economy is growing and productivity is up, workers are not seeing the fruits of their labor in their paychecks. While families’ incomes have been shrinking, the costs for all of life’s basic expenses have been rising. Too many families are struggling to afford child care, health care, groceries and rent,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and one of the lawmakers who convened today’s forum.
The economists and labor experts all agreed today that raising the minimum wage, protecting workers’ rights to join unions, increasing access to affordable health care and making college more affordable – all key Democratic proposals – would be critical steps to ensuring a better economic future for families.
“Families are working longer, they are working harder, and they are bringing home very little more in terms of additional family income. People need a living wage, universal health care, high quality and affordable child care, paid vacation days and paid sick days. We are able to afford these kinds of policies,” said Eileen Applebaum, the Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.
“If the average real wage is lagging behind productivity and low real wages are lagging way behind average real wages, you’ve got the double whammy for the unfortunate many,” said economist Alan Blinder of Princeton University, a former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Rosemary Miller, a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines, and a single mother of two, said that Democratic leaders’ and experts’ statements at the forum spoke directly to what she and other workers were experiencing. “Each of you said something today that is real. The middle class squeeze is real. Corporate profits soaring and worker compensation plummeting is real. I looked at my pay stubs over the past 16 years, and the income I will make in 2006 would bring me back to an income I earned in the early 1990s.”
“This forum allowed us to have very honest and helpful discussions about the economic challenges facing most Americans – discussions that are not being encouraged by the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress. Our country urgently needs a new direction that puts the American Dream and all the opportunities it promises back in reach for working families,” said Rep. Miller.
Click here for a report on how the Democrats’ New Direction agenda will help working families. Click here to see the full list of panelists at today’s forum.
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