John W. Olver: “I think that the discussion here that has been going on really is most appropriate because tomorrow we are going to be…”

“I think that the discussion here that has been going on really is most appropriate because tomorrow we are going to be talking about the beginning of the debate on the middle-class tax cut. We have all heard a great deal about the middle-class tax cut over the last couple of years, and the reason why we have been talking about a middle-class tax cut is that the middle class really is very anxious. Jobs have been insecure for a number of years, for quite a few years. The cost of health care in the last 15 years has gone up by an enormous amount. The cost of educating your college-age kids has gone up tremendously, much faster than inflation. In sum total, I think it can be summarized in this chart, which shows what has happened over the last 15 years or thereabouts, or at least the 15 years from 1979 to 1993 when for different parts of the electorate, different parts of the citizenry and the electorate, of course, the rate at which people's income has gone up has been very different from the rate at which inflation has gone up. People's income, for people who are relatively low- and middle-income folks down here at the left side of the chart, has actually been going up slower than inflation for that 15 years, and so the broad middle class in here has seen their incomes erode for a long period of time.”