Cross-posted at Aggressive Progressive
Nearly one in every ten breadwinners isn’t bringing home any bread tonight. The right-wing, extremist agenda tells us that the solution to this problem is tax breaks for the wealthy to "stimulate" the economy and cutting social programs to reduce the deficit. They choose deficit-reduction over job creation. But we know that the best way to reduce the deficit is to put America back to work. This is the narrative for November 2nd – the true narrative of the future.
Americans are anxious, and we are angry. Americans believe our current tax code favors the rich, and they’re right. The rapidly-shrinking middle class rightly worries that our children won’t have the same chances we had: both Republicans and Democrats have to own up to that fact if we’re going to make progress as a nation.
As progressive investment advisor Robert Zevin notes:
In the United States, where the purchasing power of the median family’s income has barely increased since 1973, a majority have experienced no economic improvement for the last 37 years.... In effect, the top two deciles of income earners in the U.S. have increased their share of the pie by about the same amount as the pie has grown, leaving everybody else not much better off than their counterparts thirty-five or forty years ago.
We are worried about our financial futures – everyone has friends or family members who have lost their jobs and few of us can be certain that we’re not next.
Ms. K. Webb, a 46-year old single mother of two, was laid off after 20 years of office management in October of 2008. Ms. Webb was one of 2.5 million workers whose unemployment insurance was cut off this summer, and was forced to rely on a local food pantry to feed her family, after already having given up her home. At the end of November, more than a million more long-term unemployed will lose their unemployment insurance, and another million at the end of December, if Congress fails to act.
Progressive champions like Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire and Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania want to help Ms. Webb and millions of others get their federal jobless benefits that they have earned. Now these champions need our help to get re-elected this November. Shea-Porter and Murphy, among other progressive champions, stood up for the people who needed them. We need to show them that these actions were appreciated and will be rewarded at the polls.
The way back to prosperity and jobs is through a balanced, fair approach to expand our economy and stop shrinking the middle class. It’s time we tax fairly and cut wisely, not tax the middle class and the poor and cut services for children, senior and our public safety. Restoring federal jobless benefits and taxing the richest Americans so we can invest in job creation are at stake this November. Let’s get out there these next six days to keep our champions fighting.