Political Quotes

“we are at an extraordinary crossroads in American history, both from a moral perspective as well as an economic perspective. The reality today, as I think most Americans understand, is that the middle class of our country is collapsing. Over the last 10 years, median family income has gone down by $2,500. Millions of Americans who have lost their jobs secured new jobs at substantially lower pay. Younger workers are finding it very hard to get a job at a livable wage. Furthermore, what we don't talk about terribly often here on the floor of the Senate or certainly in the corporate media is the rather unfortunate reality that in the United States, we have the most unequal distribution of income and of wealth of any major country on Earth. Today, the top 1 percent of earners make 23 percent of all income. The top 1 percent earn 23 percent of every dollar, and that is more than the bottom 50 percent. The top 1 percent make more money than the bottom 50 percent. The percentage of income going to the top 1 percent has nearly tripled--nearly tripled--since the 1970s. Between 1980 and 2005, 80 percent--80 percent--of all new income in America went to the top 1 percent. Today, when we talk about distribution of wealth--not income--the numbers are, frankly, beyond belief.…”