One Nation – Two Countries

The President, rested after five weeks of paid vacation, returns to the White House with new data showing so much is up under his Administration.

Gasoline prices are up, dramatically. Oil Company profits are up, obscenely. And Americans know the sky is the limit in other important economic indicators as well. Bankruptcies are up. Poverty is up. And the number of uninsured Americans is way up.

The President is proud of the state of the nation. He says so time and time, in one scripted, invitation-only, stage-managed event after another. The last time he saw an average American was when his motorcade whizzed by Cindy Sheehan on the side of a Texas road without stopping. But there was no time to stop and talk because there was another fundraiser to attend.

Every year for the last four years, the Administration has shredded the hopes and aspirations of average Americans while it printed money for Republican benefactors.

New census data recount a grim story for ordinary Americans over the last four years under this President and Republican majority.

Poverty climbed to 12.7% under President George W. Bush. That’s one out of every nine Americans.

The number of Americans who work but live in poverty increased by half a million on The President’s watch. So much for all those good jobs he claims.

Americans without health insurance soared 5 million to over 45 million.

With so much up under this President, is there anything down? Well, yes. Real median income among the working-age population has fallen.

The percentage of people with employer based health care has dropped to a level last seen in 1933.

The federal minimum wage stands at 69% of poverty, the lowest point in the last half century.

And, last but not least, real family income for those in the lowest bracket went down 5% while the top bracket enjoyed a 40% increase.

Put simply, the rich are getting a lot richer under this President and the other 80% of America is getting gouged at the pump.

The President is turning America into a two country nation, one where the rich can afford $3 a gallon gas because they own the pump, and one where the vast majority of Americans can’t work enough hours or enough jobs to make ends meet.

The middle class existed in the year 2000. If this President has his way, we will witness the fastest extinction in history of an entire economic class.