Thomas Daschle: “Last month the Department of Commerce reported that my home State of South Dakota had the Nation's second-highest rate…”

“Last month the Department of Commerce reported that my home State of South Dakota had the Nation's second-highest rate of growth in per-capita personal income during 2003. This surely comes as welcome news to many South Dakotans who have struggled to make ends meet during our Nation's recent economic downturn. But now is not the time for us to congratulate ourselves. Too many Americans still can't find work. Too many Americans still don't have health insurance. And of those lucky enough to have health insurance, too many Americans can barely afford it. Last Thursday, Alan Greenspan warned that rising deficits threaten the long-term stability of our economy and he is right. We need sound fiscal policies that preserve and protect the health of our economy. We must do everything we can to ensure that the economic recovery finally takes hold, and that the benefits of the recovery extend to all Americans, not just to a privileged few. Unfortunately, even after last year's encouraging growth in personal income, South Dakotans still tend to earn far less than the national average, and the same is true for many other rural States in our region. Even worse, average income figures conceal wide disparities in wealth between those at the top and those at the bottom even within our States. Sadly, rates of poverty in many parts of rural America are worse than we find in countries we often consider to be 'developing.' This is a quiet national crisis that we must address.”