President Bush: The economy is strong and improving.

• “The future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy – and that is what we have… Unemployment is low, inflation is low, and wages are rising.”

DMI SAYS: “The President’s glowing report of the condition of the American economy, while reflective of the views of corporate CEOs and Wall Street bankers, is out of touch with the average American’s experience.  Faced with escalating health care and college costs, personal debt rising to unsustainable levels, and an ever weakening system of retirement security, the middle class is not feeling nearly as positive as the President about their economic future.”

• These days, corporate profits are growing and CEOs are picking up enormous paychecks. But ordinary Americans are just trying to get by. The costs of health care and of putting a kid through college keep on going up. And with the housing market continuing to weaken, middle-class Americans who only managed to buy a house or find a job because of this industry's growth will be hit hard. For the 7 million Americans still unemployed and 46.6 million Americans uninsured, the economic recovery has not even begun.
• Working people are just now beginning to see the benefits of economic growth, even as the prospect of a worsening housing slump threatens to bring on a slowdown.
• Economic recovery may have come too late for the millions of Americans who cashed in equity from their homes to pay basic living expenses or relied on high-interest credit cards to make ends meet. More than 2 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2005, even as legislation championed by President Bush made it harder for cash-strapped families to dig themselves out of debt in 2006. 
• The President's economic policies have done little to address these issues, primarily because he has refused to acknowledge a middle-class squeeze characterized by increased obstacles to accessing the American Dream. While middle-class Americans aspire to build up equity in their homes, send their children to college and save for a secure retirement, even hardworking families with good jobs are finding it harder to meet these goals and get ahead.
• Despite recent gains, job creation has been slow compared to previous economic recoveries, employers like Whirlpool, AOL and General Motors that offered well-paying middle-class jobs have just announced thousands of lay-offs, and many of the new jobs that replaced those that were lost during the recession are lower-paying and offer fewer benefits.

Relevant Statistics:

• According to exit polls in the midterm elections, percentage of Americans who think life for the next generation will be about the same or worse, respectively: 28, 40
• Increase in the number of Americans living in poverty between 2000 and 2005: 5.4 million
•  Number of indebted households using credit to cover basic living expenses, according to Demos: 7 in 10
• Percentage of personal bankruptcies that can be traced back to a serious illness or other medical cause: 54.5
• Percentage of debtors who went without food before declaring bankruptcy: 19.4
• The percentage of the GDP belonging to wages and salaries has never been lower than it was in 2006 at any point over the past 77 years where data was available.
• Percentage increase in the cost of health care premiums in 2006: 7.7 - two times the rate of inflation. 
• Percentage increase since 2000 in the cost of premiums for employment-based health care coverage: 87
• Percentage increase in tuition and fees at the average public four-year college over the past five years: 35

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