MARTIN H. SIMON-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
OBAMA 2.O / MIDDLE CLASS CHALLENGE
with historic levels of debt, skyrocketing health care costs and
flat wages. By most accounts,
middle-class Americans are no
better off than they were when
the president took office in 2009,
in the wake of an unprecedented
financial crisis and in the midst of
the Great Recession.
The arithmetic is stark. Median household income is lower
than when Obama took office, according to Census Bureau data —
lower even than when President
Bill Clinton left office in 2001. The
middle 60 percent of households
— those earning between $20,262
and $101,582 — captured a smaller share of aggregate income in
2011 than they did in 2009, while
the top fifth, which already made
more than the other groups combined, captured more. Surveys
of public opinion reveal a middle
class that is smaller, poorer and
less optimistic than ever. And although the unemployment rate
fitfully has fallen below 8 percent
for the first time since Obama’s
2009 inauguration, most new jobs
are too low-paying to sustain middle-class families.
There is more to the plight of
HUFFINGTON
01.27.13
Obama exits
after making
a statement
following a
meeting of
the Middle
Class Task
Force at the
White House
on Jan. 25,
2010.