The American people aren’t stupid. The official optimism did nothing to obscure the increasingly harsh economic climate in which ordinary Americans found it harder than ever to hold onto a middle class standard of living, with a well-paying job, health insurance, the chance to own or keep a home, the opportunity to provide a good education to their children and the security of looking forward to a dignified retirement.

Congress played no small part in driving the American Dream further out of reach for ordinary citizens in 2005. Congress at the Midterm: Their 2005 Middle-Class Record takes a closer look at the decisions made by Congress, from creating new obstacles for families overcome with debt to declare bankruptcy to a disastrous budget that aimed to pay for tax cuts benefiting the rich with dramatic cuts to student loans and health programs for the poor. In vote after vote, Congress disdained the concerns of middle-class Americans and opted instead to favor the already wealthy and powerful: a surefire recipe for a shrinking middle class.

Congress at the Midterm: Their 2005 Middle-Class Record is our third annual scorecard. DMI’s goal through this effort is to increase governmental accountability. To further accomplish this objective, DMI has launched a thirty-day Google AdWords campaign. DMI's groundbreaking utilization of Internet technology will ensure that any person within the United States who searches for a member of Congress on Google will be instantly informed of the grade that specific elected official received on DMI's scorecard and provided a link to follow for more information. DMI has also established a separate website, Congress at the Midterm: Online Edition, to allow individuals easy access to all the information in the scorecard.

From health care to economic justice to Social Security, Congress missed dozens of opportunities to improve conditions for the middle class and did so much to squeeze it even more.

Main Findings

• Neither chamber of Congress demonstrated acceptable levels of support for middle-class Americans. In both the House and the Senate, more than half of the legislators failed. In the House, only one in five representatives received an A, while the proportion of As was fewer than one in ten among Senators.

• Both parties in both chambers of Congress fared worse than they did in last year’s report, but the slide among Democrats was particularly pronounced in 2005. Compared to last year, the proportion of Senate Democrats earning As declined by more than half. The House Democrats, who had no failing members in 2004, experienced a failure rate of 11 percent in 2005.

• While Democrats received lower grades than last year, the Republicans did still worse, with only a handful among them even managing <BR>to eke out a passing grade on the issues of concern to their middle-class constituents.

• While Democratic support for the middle class was admirable when it came to issues like raising the minimum wage, preventing harmful budget cuts and saving Social Security, support dissolved when powerful industries lobbied for legislation that would increase their profits at the expense of the middle class, such as the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (HR 6), Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (S 256) and the Class Action Fairness Act (S 5).

• Republicans showed the most support for the middle class on the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (HR 3045), also known as CAFTA, where party leadership had to work intensively to ensure the legislation’s narrow passage. Even on this bill, though, overall GOP support was not sufficient to rise above an F grade.

• Out of the 16 votes considered, the middle-class position was never successful at any point: each bill opposed by the middle class passed and each bill supported by the middle class failed. Nevertheless, there were a number of very close votes, where just a few legislators changing their minds would have altered the results on momentous legislation like CAFTA, the minimum wage and budget cuts.

• Both Republicans and Democrats must do a better job of representing their middle-class and aspiring middle-class constituents. In the midst of stagnant wages and increasing economic insecurity, Congress consistently voted to undercut the middle class and those who strive to join its ranks.

Looking to 2006:

2006 brings both new issues and old concerns to the middle-class agenda, from immigration to health care to pension security and affording a college education. Among the bills covered in this report that are pending in 2006 are the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (HR 4437), the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act (HR 8) and the Small Business Health Fairness Act (HR 525), all of which passed the House in 2005 and await consideration in the Senate or reconciliation with a related Senate bill.

In Conclusion:

In 2005, Congress disdained the concerns of middle-class Americans and opted instead to favor the already wealthy and powerful in vote after vote. This is a surefire recipe for a shrinking middle class and the wrong direction for the vast majority of Americans striving to attain or hold onto a middle-class standard of living. But the nation will not change course unless citizens have the information they need to hold their elected representatives accountable.

We hope Congress at the Midterm: Their 2005 Middle-Class Record will be a useful tool both for both evaluating Congress and for pointing those concerned about the American middle class in the right direction on key pieces of legislation. While many organizations issue scorecards based on a single issue, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy is distinctive in its focus on an overall agenda of expanding opportunity for middle-class and aspiring middle-class Americans. We believe better policy can be created when ordinary citizens—not just political insiders—know how their legislators voted on the issues that matter most to them and when legislators know that their constituents are watching.