For the past few years, news article after news article lamented the state of America’s working and middle class families and rising inequality. From January 2014 to October 2015, the New York Times had approximately 1,470 articles that included discussions about income inequality. Even the more conservative Wall Street Journal got in on the action, reporting that inequality was damaging the U.S. economy. This coverage is in sync with public opinion: 65 percent of Americans think that the gap between the rich and the poor in this country is a problem that needs to be addressed now.
With all this concern concentrated on the challenges facing working and middle class families, it’s no surprise that many GOP presidential candidates have oriented their rhetoric in that direction. Jeb Bush touts about the “need to create economic opportunity for every American, especially middle class families and those trying to rise out of poverty.” Meanwhile, Marco Rubio bemoans how families “see their cost of living rising while their paychecks remain stagnant.”
But despite all the professed concern about working and middle-class Americans, the majority of the Republican presidential candidates are still peddling much of the same old top-down ideas that they claim would grow the economy.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Huffington Post.
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