Stephanie Tubbs Jones: “Since 2001, in the city of Cleveland alone we have lost 60,000 jobs, and those 60,000 jobs were high-paying jobs. These…”

“Since 2001, in the city of Cleveland alone we have lost 60,000 jobs, and those 60,000 jobs were high-paying jobs. These were jobs of steel workers; these were jobs of people in the auto manufacturing area. And when you start talking about unemployment, the discussion always is that these folks have gone back to work. They have gone back to work, but what kind of money are they making? They are making $5, $6, $7, $8 an hour instead of the $20 that they were making. So they move from being part of the middle class to part of the working poor, where they are working every day, they are getting paid wages, and they are still very poor. Let me give you an example. President Bush talks about economic change that has occurred since he has been in this administration. But the reality is that economic change has not hit those of us who go to work every day. Let's take a look at this chart here. If you look, the minimum wage has not increased any in 9 years, but whole milk, the cost of whole milk has increased 24 percent.”