But it gets worse. Census figures show that half of all Americans either live in poverty, or have an income less than 50% above the poverty line (which means they are only a paycheck or two from dropping into poverty themselves. And now a new Associated Press survey shows an even more shocking fact -- that 79% of Americans (about 4 out of 5) have experienced poverty for at least a year by the time they reach the age of 60.
Folks, this is a picture of a nation (and an economy) in deep trouble. This same survey lists the main causes of this to be the loss of American jobs, and the widening gap in income between the rich and the rest of America.
And what is Congress doing about this problem. Nothing. The Democrats would like to create new jobs by rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, increase education and social program funding to give the poor and disadvantaged a step up, stop the exporting of American jobs, and pay for this by making sure rich Americans and corporations pay their share of taxes. But the Republicans have blocked all of these efforts.
The Republican "solutions" are to cut government spending and cut taxes for the rich and the corporations -- both of which would just make the problem worse. Cutting spending in this troubled economy would just take money out of the economy -- depressing demand, which would then depress job creation. And lowering taxes for the rich and corporations would just widen the gap between the rich and the rest of America -- shrinking the middle class and put this country on a path to third world status (where there are only the "haves" and "have-nots").
The Republicans refuse to give up their shared delusion that whatever is good for the rich is good for all Americans. That has never been true, but it is the basis for all of their economic policies. And it is one more reason (among many) why they must be voted out of power in the 2014 election. Failure to do so will just mean more years of economic struggling for 90% of Americans.