Here are some questions that astoundingly were not asked by Tim Russert or Brian Williams during the Democratic presidential candidate debate on MSNBC last Wednesday night (in Russert’s windy, hectoring style):
The Internal Revenue Service recently issued a report saying that in 2005 the richest Americans’ share of income hit a postwar record with the wealthiest 1 percent in our country taking home 21.2 percent of all income and the bottom 50 percent getting only 12.8 percent. CEOs are now making 400 times what an average worker makes. Economists from across the political spectrum are raising warning signals about the growing income disparity in our country. What will you do as president to close what has now become the widest wage and wealth gap of any industrialized nation in the world?
Wages in our country have been stagnant for more than 30 years. Median individual incomes are at just over $31,000 per year, meaning that half of all workers make less than that. When adjusted for inflation, wages are lower than they were in 1973 and working families are keeping their heads above water only by sending more and more family members into the workforce. For the first time in the history of our country, our children are expected to be less well off than we are. What is your plan as president to reverse this trend and restore the vitality of the middle class in our country?
Millions of American families are now caught up in the sub-prime mortgage scam and stand to lose their homes. Personal bankruptcies are at an all time high, right along with credit card debt. Housing starts and home prices are plunging. Consumer spending, which accounts for about 80 percent of our economic activity, has begun to tail off. What will you do as president to ease the squeeze on working families and the working poor and prevent us from sliding into a recession?
With money, or the lack of it, foremost in the minds of every voter, it is stunning that two of the top broadcast commentators in the country failed to ask a single question about an economy that just isn’t working for working families.
But even more shocking was the failure of the candidates to say a single word on their own about the issues that are top priorities for working class voters.
No expression of concern from famous fair-trader Dennis Kucinich about the corporate-crafted trade policies that have destroyed millions of good manufacturing jobs and created the biggest and most dangerous trade deficit in our history.
Nothing from Chris Dodd about mortgage foreclosures. Nothing from Joe Biden about tax breaks for the rich and smaller government safety nets for the rest of us. Nothing about anything from Bill Richardson.
Not a peep about poverty from John Edwards, who started out his campaign trying to duplicate Robert Kennedy’s passion for the poor. Not a peep, period, from Obama.
Hillary? Nary a mention of the dwindling authority of the trade unions whose endorsements she covets, or the members of those unions who are being routinely bludgeoned at the bargaining table.
Funny, all these things came up over and over again at the AFL-CIO Democratic presidential candidate debate last summer in Chicago, also on MSNBC, and all the candidates took forceful positions.
But on Wednesday night, all we heard was non-stop bleating and blathering about corruption, experience, who’s lying, who can beat Rudi, who can come down hardest on immigrants, who has the health plan most attractive to employers, and who can get us out of Iraq the slowest and into Iran the fastest.
Have the moderators of these debates just decided it’s no longer “the economy, stupid?”
Or have the debaters suddenly just gone stupid?
——
P.S. On the day after the debate, the stock market tanked again. Then on Sunday, the newest ABC-Washington Post poll showed American voters are “pessimistic, want change” and are particularly soured out and anxious about the war, the economy, and the sorry state of politics in our country. Hey guys, it’s a three-wheeled chariot just waiting for someone to climb aboard, grab the reins and drive to victory.
Here are some questions that astoundingly were not asked by Tim Russert or Brian Williams during the Democratic presidential candidate debate on MSNBC last Wednesday night (in Russert’s windy, hectoring style):
The Internal Revenue Service recently issued a report saying that in 2005 the richest Americans’ share of income hit a postwar record with the wealthiest 1 percent in our country taking home 21.2 percent of all income and the bottom 50 percent getting only 12.8 percent. CEOs are now making 400 times what an average worker makes. Economists from across the political spectrum are raising warning signals about the growing income disparity in our country. What will you do as president to close what has now become the widest wage and wealth gap of any industrialized nation in the world?
Wages in our country have been stagnant for more than 30 years. Median individual incomes are at just over $31,000 per year, meaning that half of all workers make less than that. When adjusted for inflation, wages are lower than they were in 1973 and working families are keeping their heads above water only by sending more and more family members into the workforce. For the first time in the history of our country, our children are expected to be less well off than we are. What is your plan as president to reverse this trend and restore the vitality of the middle class in our country?
Millions of American families are now caught up in the sub-prime mortgage scam and stand to lose their homes. Personal bankruptcies are at an all time high, right along with credit card debt. Housing starts and home prices are plunging. Consumer spending, which accounts for about 80 percent of our economic activity, has begun to tail off. What will you do as president to ease the squeeze on working families and the working poor and prevent us from sliding into a recession?
With money, or the lack of it, foremost in the minds of every voter, it is stunning that two of the top broadcast commentators in the country failed to ask a single question about an economy that just isn’t working for working families.
But even more shocking was the failure of the candidates to say a single word on their own about the issues that are top priorities for working class voters.
No expression of concern from famous fair-trader Dennis Kucinich about the corporate-crafted trade policies that have destroyed millions of good manufacturing jobs and created the biggest and most dangerous trade deficit in our history.
Nothing from Chris Dodd about mortgage foreclosures. Nothing from Joe Biden about tax breaks for the rich and smaller government safety nets for the rest of us. Nothing about anything from Bill Richardson.
Not a peep about poverty from John Edwards, who started out his campaign trying to duplicate Robert Kennedy’s passion for the poor. Not a peep, period, from Obama.
Hillary? Nary a mention of the dwindling authority of the trade unions whose endorsements she covets, or the members of those unions who are being routinely bludgeoned at the bargaining table.
Funny, all these things came up over and over again at the AFL-CIO Democratic presidential candidate debate last summer in Chicago, also on MSNBC, and all the candidates took forceful positions.
But on Wednesday night, all we heard was non-stop bleating and blathering about corruption, experience, who’s lying, who can beat Rudi, who can come down hardest on immigrants, who has the health plan most attractive to employers, and who can get us out of Iraq the slowest and into Iran the fastest.
Have the moderators of these debates just decided it’s no longer “the economy, stupid?”
Or have the debaters suddenly just gone stupid?
——
P.S. On the day after the debate, the stock market tanked again. Then on Sunday, the newest ABC-Washington Post poll showed American voters are “pessimistic, want change” and are particularly soured out and anxious about the war, the economy, and the sorry state of politics in our country. Hey guys, it’s a three-wheeled chariot just waiting for someone to climb aboard, grab the reins and drive to victory.