 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted
Did your representative make the grade?
Executive Summary
2004 was a challenging year for America's middle-class families. Inflation grew faster than wages, so that the same middleclass paychecks bought fewer daily necessities. The cost of everything from food to gasoline was up relative to pay, but housing prices, college tuition and the cost of prescription drugs grew especially quickly. Meanwhile, even as the pace of job creation started to pick up, a record number of jobless Americans used up their unemployment benefits, leaving them unable to support themselves or their local economies. The 'Middle-Class Squeeze' Became A Household Term Last Year, And For Good Reason. In 2004:
Read Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted in its entirety
Did your representative make the grade?
Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted issues each member of Congress, as well as the House and Senate as a whole, a letter grade based on their 2004 votes on selected pieces of legislation affecting the middle class. We chose bills that, if passed, would have an impact on the squeezed middle class, as well as the aspirations of low-income Americans who want to work their way into the middle class.
Executive Summary
2004 was a challenging year for America's middle-class families. Inflation grew faster than wages, so that the same middleclass paychecks bought fewer daily necessities. The cost of everything from food to gasoline was up relative to pay, but housing prices, college tuition and the cost of prescription drugs grew especially quickly. Meanwhile, even as the pace of job creation started to pick up, a record number of jobless Americans used up their unemployment benefits, leaving them unable to support themselves or their local economies. The 'Middle-Class Squeeze' Became A Household Term Last Year, And For Good Reason. In 2004:
€ Real hourly wages adjusted for inflation fell 0.8 percent
€ The cost of medical care rose 4.2 percent
€ College tuition and fees rose 8.6 percent on average
€ 1.3 million jobless Americans used up their unemployment benefits without finding work
€ One in six middle-class households lacked health insurance
€ An estimated 6 million Americans lost their legal right to overtime pay
While the U.S. Census Bureau has no official definition of the 'middle class,' conventionally it has come to represent the large swath of the American people with incomes between approximately 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold and those of the nation's top five percent income earners‹roughly $25,000 to $100,000 a year.
The middle-class squeeze isn't a coincidence; it is the result of decisions made by our nation's policymakers. In 2004, Congress voted on several pieces of legislation that would substantially impact America's middle class. The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy examines this legislation in detail in Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted, assigning a grade to each member of Congress based on his or her support for the middle-class position.
Middle Class 2004 concludes that Congress did not rise to the occasion when presented with the opportunity to support policies strengthening and expanding the middle class.
Main Findings
€ Neither chamber of Congress did an adequate job of supporting the middle class. In both the House and the Senate, about half the members passed, half failed and less than a quarter received As.
€ Despite a more lenient grading system than last year's report, Congress did significantly worse overall in 2004.
€ While the vast majority‹90 percent‹of Senate Republicans received an F, nearly half of Senate Democrats received an A for their support of the middle class.
€ The same partisan pattern is observable in the House, where 99 percent of Republicans failed to support the middle class and slightly fewer than half of Democrats received an A.
€ Democratic support for the middle class dropped off most drastically when it came to the American Jobs Creation Act (HR 4520) and the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Act (S 1920). In both bills corporate special interests lobbied heavily against the interests of the middle class.
€ The Republicans showed the most support for the middle class on the Pension Funding Equity Act (HR 3108), which was also championed by large companies with pension plans.
€ Out of the 14 votes considered, the middle-class position won out six times. However, even this feeble 43 percent success rate masks an even worse outcome, since bills like the Overtime Compensation Amendment ‹supported by the middle class‹ won votes in the House and Senate but never became law.
Both parties must act more vigorously to address the shrinking wages and growing economic insecurity that threaten to overwhelm the middle class and those striving to join it. This is especially so for congressional Republicans, who have failed the Scorecard.
Looking To 2005
2005 will be another significant year for the middle class, with many of the same issues on the agenda. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention & Consumer Protection Act, the Small Business Health Fairness Act and The Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act were all reintroduced early in the new session. All three bills are harmful to the middle class and were successfully stopped in 2004. A range of retirement security, health care, education, civil justice, tax fairness, homeownership, debt and workplace issues of importance to the middle class will also be considered.
In Conclusion
Congress let the American middle class down in 2004, repeatedly falling short on efforts to strengthen middle-class families and expand their ranks. If Congress continues to vote as it did in 2004, the American Dream will become a relic of the past instead of an inspiration for our future. Yet this dismal trend will not change unless citizens have the information necessary to hold their elected representatives accountable.
We hope that Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted will be a tool both to evaluate Congress and to point those concerned about the American middle class in the right direction on key pieces of legislation. We believe better policy can be created when Americans know how their legislators voted on the issues that matter most to them and when legislators know that their constituents are watching.
Read Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted in its entirety