Kick Middle Class while Down

Rendell and his legislative allies want to kick middle class while we are down. I do not understand their thinking. In his latest budget press show, Rendell is complaining he won't have tax dollars to give to wealthy developers and company owners.

Some legislators and the Gov. continue to fight to raise taxes on the middle class in PA.

"The State of Working Pennsylvania is an annual checkup on the state economy with a focus on working families. The 2009 edition documents how the middle class has been particularly hard hit by the worst recession since the GreatDepression. (See Fact Sheet below for detailed findings. A copy of the full report is available at

http://keystoneresearch.org/sites/keystone-research.zivtech.com/files/SWP2009.pdf)

Inflation-adjusted wages for middle-class workers have declined over the past year, the report notes, which comes on the heels of a seven-year stretch of wage stagnation for most Pennsylvania workers. Between 2001-2002 and 2008-2009, all but the top 5% of earners experienced a decline in inflation-adjusted wages.

Meanwhile, the incomes of the wealthiest Pennsylvanians have surged to newhighs. Between 2001 and 2006 (the latest year these data are available), the top 1% of earners captured 68% of all growth in personal income."

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS85934+05-Sep-2009+PRN20090905

I'm no fan of Rendell's but wage statistics mirror national ones.

Bush/Cheneny had 3 million net new jobs over 8 years versus 22.7 million with previous admin.

No jobs..........no competition for wages

Bush On Jobs: The Worst Track Record On Record

President George W. Bush entered office in 2001 just as a recession was starting, and is preparing to leave in the middle of a long one. That’s almost 22 months of recession during his 96 months in office.

His job-creation record won’t look much better. The Bush administration created about three million jobs (net) over its eight years, a fraction of the 23 million jobs created under President Bill Clinton’s administration and only slightly better than President George H.W. Bush did in his four years in office.

Here’s a look at job creation under each president since the Labor Department started keeping payroll records in 1939. The counts are based on total payrolls between the start of the month the president took office (using the final payroll count for the end of the prior December) and his final December in office.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/