Economy: Putting Americans Back to Work and Rebuilding a Fair Economy for the Middle Class

ECONOMY

Putting Americans Back to Work and Rebuilding a Fair Economy for the Middle Class

Over the last few decades, middle-class security had been slipping away for millions of families. Wages stagnated while health care costs soared. Fewer employers offered retirement and health benefits. College tuition costs skyrocketed. And then the Wall Street meltdown and housing market crash cost 8.8 million jobs and sent the economy into a deep recession. In January 2009 – just as the President took office – more than 700,000 Americans lost their jobs.

From day one, President Obama took immediate action to address the crisis and began laying the foundation for a job-creating economy that’s built to last. President Obama’s recovery program supported as many as 3.5 million jobs by cutting taxes; investing in clean energy, roads and bridges; keeping teachers in the classroom; and protecting unemployment benefits. The private sector has now created nearly 3 million jobs during 21 straight months of private-sector growth – but our work is not done. His proposed American Jobs Act would put even more people back to work now and put even more money in people’s pockets, but Washington Republicans are blocking it.

As we recover from the greatest economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression, President Obama is fighting to restore the basic values of balance and fairness that made our country great. We are now at a make-or-break moment for the middle class.

The President believes Americans should be able to earn enough to raise a family, send their kids to school, own a home and put enough away to retire. That can only happen when hard work pays off, responsibility is rewarded, and when everybody plays by the same rules, does their fair share and has a fair shot at success. To create true middle-class security, we can’t just cut our way to prosperity, as some have suggested. An economy that creates the jobs of the future and exports goods stamped “Made in America” will not come by outsourcing, but by out-educating, out-innovating and out-building the world.

Posted on Thu, December 15, 2011 by Wallace Collins filed under

2 comments (Add your own)

1. ron mitchell wrote:: do we even have a democratic party in oklahoma anymore?
All I hear about is the repubs this and the repubs that, but I never hear a democratic voice in this state. Are you all gutless or resigned to the fact that the republican taliban runs this state
Fri, December 16, 2011 @ 1:07 PM
2. Karen Avey wrote:: I grew up in Okmulgee 1948-1967 and my mother and father always took us kids to the Labor Day parade in Henryetta. My mother never let us cross a picket line. My father worked for the Frisco railroad and respected all union work. My mother and father believed in work and the middle class and honored them. In those days the Democratic party was well represented in the state. I am sad that my home state has become a state of Republicans, a so-called "red state." I believe Republicans now use fear of your neighbor, your ethnicity, your religion, and question your love of country. My mother and father taught me respect for our neighbors, their ethnicity, religion, and our country. Recently, I read about this nation's medal of honor winners from all wars. Many of them fell on grenades to protect their fellow soldiers. I don't believe their last thought was, "I will die for my country," when they made that sudden leap. I believe they were trying to save their friends, their fellow soldiers from certain death. While we love our country and protect it, we also need to protect each other with the same courage as our valliant Medal of Honor heroes. If we sought to protect our countrymen, rather than malign them and our differences, we could win the war of fear and prejudice and thereby heal our America. My parents provided me with a life lesson on those trips to the Labor Day parade in Henryetta.
Mon, January 23, 2012 @ 8:37 PM

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