Voices
equality and the teachings of the
Catholic Church. All that seems
like a long time ago now.
Income inequality itself, of
course, has not gone away in the
weeks since its brief moment in
the media sun. The damage income inequality is doing to the
American middle class and to the
country more generally, and the
potential for organizing around
the issue is still real, but it seems
that it is no longer receiving a lot
of attention in Washington.
This is more of a reflection of
problems within the Democratic
Party than the Republican Party.
The Republican Party, after all,
has no interest in reducing income inequality, and vacillates
between not viewing income inequality as a problem and not
believing it exists at all. For
them, removing income inequality from the legislative and media agenda is a clear, if perhaps
overlooked, victory. The Democratic Party, however, is in a different situation. Leaders of that
party, beginning with the president have sporadically talked
about the issue while consistently doing very little about it.
This is a failure of both politics
and policy. Democrats in Congress
LINCOLN
MITCHELL
HUFFINGTON
03.09.14
and in the White House have been
unable to propose laws or legislate effectively in a way that will
ameliorate income and wealth disparities and the corrosive effect
they have on our system. President
Obama has raised the minimum
wage for federal employees, but
this is a far cry from a comprehensive policy. Moreover, this has
contributed to the income inequality discussion being limited to a
Democrats in Congress
and in the White House have
been unable to propose laws
or legislate effectively in a way
that will ameliorate income
and wealth disparities.”
debate about raising the minimum
wage. While the minimum wage
should be raised, that is not the
ideal terms for progressives to be
fighting the income inequality fight.
Creating a comprehensive
plan to address income inequality beyond raising the minimum
wage, it should be recognized, is
extremely difficult. There are no
easy answers, although several
valuable first steps, to solve this
problem. Moreover, the political