The economy: Shrinking along with the middle class

Democrats voiced their concern for the U.S. economic slump and its main victim: The middle class. At a press conference, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep Rahm Emmanuelle (D-Ill.) blamed the declining economic situation on the Bush Administration.

The Clinton Administration saw a 1.47 million job increase from January to July of 2000, said Hoyer, but during the same six-month period of 2008 under President Bush, Americans lost 463,000 jobs. In the p ast year, Americans lost 400,000 jobs, said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). From 2000 to 2006, the percentage of people in the upper and lower classes grew 1 percent respectively, but the middle class shrunk 2 percent, Israel said.

Hoyer said although presidential candidate John McCain wants to follow the Bush “economic formula”, the troubling economy goes beyond mere politics. He said the main concern is “thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people who don’t have a job to support themselves and their family.”

People talk about the beginning of a recession nowadays, but the recession began hitting families across America four years ago, said Emmanuelle. Hoyer said the Republicans continue to deceive the public by accusing Democrats of not wanting to drill for oil and “giving the American public the impression that somehow we don’t want to explore and use America’s resource.”