Quotable Quote

"We have become so unequal as a nation that we increasingly occupy two different economies -- one for the rich and one for everyone else -- and the latter has been in a recession, if not a depression, for a long, long time. Not all economists can bring themselves to admit this."

"Middle-class Americans’ paychecks are flat or dropping, while health care costs continue to rise and home heating costs are skyrocketing. U.S. trade deficits and the borrowing from China to fund tax cuts will have real and harsh impacts on future generations. Recent news about cuts in workers’ pay and insecurity about their pensions is also increasing the economic concerns of the American people. And yet the Bush administration is cheerleading policies that help the wealthy while doing nothing to address these fundamental problems."

"It’s time to return to a world where workers obtain their fair share of the nation’s economic growth. The best way to do so is to give them a stronger voice in the workplace…"

"And let’s be clear. It’s not as if America hasn’t been successful economically these past years. But the measure of success doesn’t relate what’s happening in households across our country, because, while productivity and corporate profits are up, the fruits of that success just hasn’t reached many of our families. It’s like trickle-down economics, but without the trickle. As a result, the gap between those who are enjoying the fruits of the modern economy and those who aren’t is growing wider."

"In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy--that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today."

"The president claims he has created a strong economy, but working Americans are telling a different story. They feel the American dream slipping further from their grasp and they know the reality is that this economy is not delivering for middle-class families. The Bush administration’s call for another round of tax cuts for the wealthy few when middle-class families are struggling to pay their bills is another example of misplaced Republican priorities."

"Economic policy can result from governmental inaction as well as governmental action."

"…[N]o business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living."