Is Obama Helping the Middle Class?

August/26/2012 18:24PM
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Obama’s Campaign Theme

On the campaign trail Obama is a one-trick pony. Here’s the plan in a nutshell. The Romney plan will give to the rich and take from the middle class. Obama is the solution to that. He is the self-proclaimed protector of the middle class. He  will take from the rich and help the middle class. That, alone, will solve everything that ails the economy. Really?

Let’s examine that just from a gasoline price perspective. As the data below will show the middle class has taken a beating under Obama. Two big reasons, gasoline prices and food prices.

If you were president right now and you knew the drought will raise corn prices, raise gasoline prices(ethanol mandate) and raise food prices what would you do? Suspend the ethanol mandate right now, right? Have you heard Obama say one word about that? No. And, you won’t. That would be  proactive protection of the middle class. Given his preferences , Obama would initiate cap and trade today, raising gasoline prices higher.

Here are the facts about how well Obama has looked after the middle class.

Typical U.S. family got poorer during the past 10 years

By Dennis Cauchon and Barbara Hansen, USA TODAY

Updated
9/14/2011 11:49 AM

 

A typical U.S. family got poorer during the past 10 years in the first decade-long income decline in at least a half-century, new federal data show.

  • People wait in line during a job fair in August at Atlanta Technical College in Atlanta. The weak economy has driven median household income down, hitting poor people and minorities the hardest. The median income for black households fell 3.6% to $32,206 last year.By Bob Andres, APPeople wait in line during a job fair in August at Atlanta Technical College in Atlanta. The weak economy has driven median household income down, hitting poor people and minorities the hardest. The median income for black households fell 3.6% to $32,206 last year.

By Bob Andres, AP

People wait in line during a job fair in August at Atlanta Technical College in Atlanta. The weak economy has driven median household income down, hitting poor people and minorities the hardest. The median income for black households fell 3.6% to $32,206 last year.

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Median household income fell 2.3% to $49,445 last year and has dropped 7% since 2000 after adjusting for inflation, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. Income was the lowest since 1996.

Poverty rose, too. The share of people living in poverty hit 15.1%, the highest level since 1993, and 2.6 million more people moved into poverty, the most since Census began keeping track in 1959.

“It’s premature to say this is a permanent change,” says economist Michael Pakko, Arkansas’ state economic forecaster. “We’re still dealing with a severe recession and a slow recovery.”

Standard of living may have declined less than income because the Census doesn’t count most anti-poverty programs — food stamps, medical care, earned income tax credit — as income, he says.

The poor, the young and minorities had the biggest income drops last year. Median income for black households fell 3.2% to $32,068, while non-Hispanic white income fell 1.3% to $54,620, a decline that wasn’t statistically significant.

“It’s all about joblessness,” says Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for the Research of Poverty at the University of Wisconsin. “Young guys don’t have work, and poverty would be even higher if so many 25- to 34-year-olds weren’t living at home with their parents.”

Hard times are forcing people to “double up” — live with their parents or other family members, says Trudi Renwick, the Census Bureau’s chief of poverty statistics. The number of households doubling up grew from 19.7 million in 2007 to 21.8 million in spring 2011, Renwick says.

Car salesman Tim Ticknor of Reno suffered an income drop from nearly $100,000 during boom years to $30,000 last year and even further this year when his dealership went bankrupt. His family has moved in with his mother-in-law. “Just surviving is difficult,” he says.

Other key findings:

•Health insurance. The share of Americans without coverage rose to 16.3% in 2010 from 13.1% in 2000. Government is insuring more people; employers are insuring fewer.

•Seniors. People 65 and older were the only group to prosper during the decade. Household income rose 7.5% adjusted for inflation over the decade, helped by Social Security.

Contributing: Jeff DeLong of the Reno Gazette-Journal

Quote of the Decade:“The fact that we  are here today to debate raising America ‘s debt limit is a sign of leadership  failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a  sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries  to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America ‘s debt  weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, “the buck  stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today  onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and  a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
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