Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise as well to speak about the single most important issue facing the American people today, and that is the state of the economy. Let's consider three facts and lay them side by side. First, over the last decade, even though the economy was growing modestly, middle-class incomes declined for the first time since World War II. The average middle-class family, which had always seen things get better and better, did not from 2001 to 2010. By the way, this did not just occur during the recession which began in 2008. It was constant throughout this decade. The great American dream, what is it? I submit it is very simple. Not everyone wants to try to become rich, and everyone knows they are not going to become rich, but they certainly know one thing: In America, the odds are very high you will be doing better 10 years from now than you are doing today. And the odds are even higher your kids will do even better than you. When incomes decline over a decade, that American dream burns a little less brightly for people and the whole tenor of America changes and we see the kind of anger we have seen, which is not typical of this great land of ours with its amazing people. That is unusual. So, first of all, middle-class incomes have gone down. Secondly, in the last decade, one group did very, very well--the highest in income among us, the millionaires and billionaires. God bless them.…”