"... when programs help the middle and lower classes, we all win." Only if the Republicans cooperate, however!

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Another Voice: Political collaboration will help the nation prosper
By Edward Cuddy, December 13, 2014

Ever since the 1920s, Republican leaders have followed the “trickle down” philosophy, the idea that if the rich get richer their wealth will “trickle down” to the lower classes. In fact, those policies contributed to the Great Depression and the recent Great Recession.

Today the GOP’s trickle down policies have enriched the wealthy, increased the income gap, ravaged the poor and middle class – and the economy, according to several economic experts, including Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman (quoted by the Associated Press). A recent study by the Harvard Business School warns that our wealth gap is “unsustainable.”

The key to restoring our fragile economy is to boost “the purchase power of the middle class and drawing people out of poverty,” according to Standard & Poor’s. Facing our greatest economic breakdown since the 1930s, President Obama took actions that put millions of people to work repairing our broken infrastructure and bailed out General Motors and Chrysler, enabling them to continue in the automobile business. Other policies, such as the Affordable Care Act, expanding unemployment compensation and cutting payroll taxes, helped our struggling families and strengthened our consumer economy.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that his top priority was to make Obama a “one-term president.” Thereafter, the Republicans thwarted most of Obama’s economic policies by reducing infrastructure investment and food stamps, blocking an increase in the minimum wage and higher taxes for the super rich – even when 95 percent of the nation’s economic gains went to the top 1 percent of people, according to economic specialist Robert Reich.

Nevertheless, Obama had passed enough policies during his first two years to help reduce joblessness from 10 percent to less than 6 percent. Officially, the recession is over – but not for millions of people who gave up searching for work, students burdened by massive debts and workers who found jobs with reduced wages.

Now, the Republicans will be in charge of the Congress and Obama is a lame-duck president. But the president can fight back with his “bully pulpit,” executive orders and his veto pen to demonstrate that when programs help the middle and lower classes, we all win.

If citizens are lucky enough to have enough moderate Republicans and progressive Democrats willing to collaborate, they could address the wealth gap, strengthen the purchasing power for all classes en route toward a more prosperous consumer economy. As President John Kennedy put it, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”
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