Close the Widening Gap Between the Wealthiest Americans and the Rest of Us

America should be a country of boundless opportunity, where everyone has the chance to realize his or her dreams through education and hard work. I expect a government that is committed to the common good, not one that serves only narrow special interests.

Unfortunately, our government has gotten off track and has put in place policies that have served to benefit the wealthiest of the wealthy while putting the middle class in jeopardy. In 2005, a year in which the economy grew at a respectable rate, the income of most non-elderly families lagged well behind inflation. The number of Americans in poverty has risen even as our overall economy has grown, as has the number of Americans without health insurance.

Meanwhile, corporate profits have doubled. The gap between the nation's CEOs and average workers is now ten times greater than it was a generation ago. And while Bush's tax cuts shaved a few hundred dollars off the tax bills of most Americans, they saved the richest one percent more than $44,000. In fact, once all of Bush's tax cuts take effect, it is estimated that those with incomes of more than $200,000 a year -- the richest five percent of the population -- will pocket almost half of the money. Those who make less than $75,000 a year -- eighty percent of America -- will receive barely a quarter of the cuts.

The divide between the rich and the poor grows wider in this country every year. Ordinary Americans are finding it harder than ever to hold on to a middle class standard of living, to have a well-paying, secure job that provides health insurance, the chance to own a home, the ability to provide a good education to their children, and to save for a decent retirement.

The widening gulf between the wealthy and the rest of us is most glaringly apparent in the compensation for the nation’s CEOs. In 1969, General Motors was the country's largest corporation and paid its chief executive, James M. Roche, a salary of $795,000 -- the equivalent of $4.2 million today, adjusting for inflation. While that was considered high at the time, ordinary GM workers did pretty well too. The average paycheck for production workers in the auto industry was almost $8,000 -- more than $45,000 today. GM workers also received excellent health and retirement benefits and were considered solidly in the middle class.

Today, Wal-Mart is America's largest corporation. It’s chairman, H. Lee Scott, is paid almost $23 million -- more than five times what GM’s CEO was paid, even adjusting for inflation. The wages paid to Wal-Mart's workers, on the other hand, are low even by current standards. On average, Wal-Mart's non-supervisory employees are paid just $18,000 a year, less than half what GM workers were paid thirty-five years ago, adjusted for inflation. And few of its workers receive decent health and retirement benefits.

Congress and the Bush Administration have chosen to favor the already wealthy over the shrinking middle class. Tax cuts have gone disproportionately to high-income households under the misguided belief that the benefits would “trickle down” to the rest of us and help create more jobs. But it hasn’t happened. Job creation has been much slower under President Bush than under President Clinton. It’s ironic that the real economic boom -- the one in the 1990s -- followed tax changes that were the exact opposite of Bush’s policies. Clinton raised taxes on the rich, and the economy prospered.

If I am elected to Congress I will fight for a government that puts working families first.

First, we need to repeal Bush’s disastrous tax cuts for the rich. We can also close the loopholes that allow millionaire hedge-fund managers to pay a lower percentage of income taxes than average workers. Even the richest man in the US, Warren Buffett complains that it’s not right that that his secretary making $60,000 a year pays about 30 percent in taxes, while he only pays 17% (attempts to reform this egregious loophole have been beaten back by the hedge fund industry which contributes tens of millions of dollars to candidates and political parties).

Second, we can do more to help provide access to affordable education because the more you learn, the more you earn.

Third, strengthen labor laws. Federal law is supposed to provide workers with the right to unionize, but employers routinely violate the law by retaliating against workers who try and form unions.

Increase the federal minimum wage. In 2001, a $1 increase in the minimum wage alone would have lifted an estimated 900,000 people out of poverty.

Enact better trade policies. Any new trade agreements must include strong labor and environmental standards. We also need to reform our international tax code to remove incentives for companies to move their plans overseas.

This growing gulf between the super-rich and middle class is creating inequities that threaten the very foundation of our government. This is the gulf war I want to wage.