Recovery Act Signed -- Middle Class Relief Next

President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act today setting the course for the long journey to economic recovery. President Obama said this legislation represents only the first part of the broad strategy we need to address our economic crisis. Every recognizes the need to stabilize, repair, and reform the banking system, get credit flowing again, halt the wave of foreclosures and falling home values and usher in an era of corporate and personal responsibility. However I stand resolute on the fundamental need to address the systemic economic inequalities in our system that has led to the greatest disparity in wealth that this country has seen. And this is the greatest economic threat to the middle class.

As one simple example of the inequity you can look at CEO pay. According to the Economic Policy Institute in 1965, U.S. CEOs in major companies earned 24 times more than a typical worker; this ratio grew to 35 in 1978 and to 71 in 1989. The ratio surged in the 1990s and hit 298 at the end of the recovery in 2000. The fall in the stock market reduced CEO stock-related pay (e.g., options), causing CEO pay to tumble to 143 times that of the average worker in 2002. Since then, however, CEO pay has recovered and by 2007 was 275 times that of the typical worker. In other words, in 2007 a CEO earned more in one workday than the typical worker earned all year.

Another way to look at this is to examine wealth inequality. This wealth gap continues to grow larger over time. EPI says the richest 1 percent of wealth holders had 125 times the wealth of the typical household in 1962; by 2004 they had 190 times as much. These conditions are at the heart of what ails the middle class and their borrowing binge. When you're working harder and harder to just break even, then it is time to examine the rules of the game. Hopefully Vice President Biden's White House Council on the Task Force on the Middle Class will take a serious look at this problem as seek to solve our nation's economic woes.

Remember to visit www.recovery.gov for the latest progress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Obama to Sign Stimulus Plan

President Obama announces Recovery.gov where you can monitor how the money is being spent. Everyone will also be watching to see if the plan saves or creates more than 3.5 million jobs.

Economic Worries Call for Bi-Partisan Approach

According to Gallup Poll Daily tracking, Americans, on average are currently spending 40 percent less in stores, restaurants, gas stations, or online as compared to the same period a year ago. Gallup says consumer confidence remains low as nearly a quarter of working Americans are worried facing cut backs in wages and hours. A Pew Center poll finds 80 percent of people that say jobs are difficult to find in their local communities. And things are likely to get worse. President Obama has said that the stimulus plan will have only a marginal impact in the short term. Now even more affluent families are feeling the pinch and they have become much more pessimistic . The survey finds that only about a third of those with family incomes of $100,000 a year or more say they expect national economic conditions to be better a year from now. That is down 22 points from 56 percent in early October 2008. These statistics point to the need for big bold action. While I support the plan going to the president's desk, I think more is needed to address this problem. In addition to addressing our issues at home we must be mindful of how other countries are responding to this global economic crisis. To succeed, we'll need to work more cooperatively with countries around the world than what was displayed in the halls of Congress this past week. We need to remind Congress that this is not the time for partisan gamesmanship.