Bush vs Workers -
5 years and counting

Hard Times in the Land of Plenty
By Jon Melegrito

Every day, in myriad ways, American workers are falling farther behind economically. And the bitter truth is hitting home. A recent Gallup Poll found that 63 percent of Americans are not happy with George Bush’s handling of the economy. By 58 to 36 percent, they say economic conditions are getting worse, not better.

Photo: Randy Kusaka

"Two-wage earner families simply can’t afford higher rent. These hard-working people in our service industry — with kids who excel in school — are now taking out camping permits to live in our public beaches or parks." -- Dwight Ishiguro, shop steward, Hawaii Government Employees Association/AFSCME Local 152

Pollster Celinda Lake says this economic discontent is real: “A majority of Americans are now pessimistic in their expectations for the next generation’s economic future.” This attitude, she says, “spans the country and crosses virtually every important political fault line.”

What fuels all this discontent? Corporate profits have soared more than 50 percent since 2001, yet workers’ real wage and salary income has actually declined over the same period; during a typical post-recession recovery, wages and salaries have at this point grown by more than 7 percent. Meanwhile, real median household income dropped for the fifth year in a row.

The income gap between CEOs and workers has widened drastically. An average hourly employee at Wal-Mart earned only $13,000 last year, but the company’s chairman, Lee Scott, made $27 million. If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the United States would now be earning $23.03 — not $5.15 — an hour.

Photo: Jack Filac

"My husband and I have been child care providers for 11 years. We are deeply troubled by the federal budget cuts to child care subsidies. It’s like a double-edged sword: Parents who lose their eligibility may have to quit their jobs to care for their kids, and providers like us could end up losing our livelihood as well." — Devlyn Jones, Child Care Providers Together/Ohio Council 8

ALARMING GAP  With the help of tax cuts, promoted by Bush and enacted by his congressional allies, the gap between the super rich and everyone else has grown ever larger. Economist Laura Tyson foresaw the dangers inherent in the cuts way back in 2000, when she declared that, “Upper-income people have done very well.… But middle-income people have a lot of burdens. They’re not saving enough for their retirement. They have trouble paying education bills. They have trouble taking care of their loved ones, who are old and need long-term care. They have trouble insuring their children.” Those and similar problems have greatly worsened as years of Bush administration economic policies have failed to address the needs of most Americans. Since he took office, a staggering 38 million Americans have fallen below the poverty level; that’s an increase of well over 20 percent since 2000.

With health care costs rising and companies eliminating coverage, there has also been a huge surge in the number of uninsured Americans — a rise from 39.8 million to almost 46 million during Bush’s time in office. Families lucky enough to have health insurance face annual premiums that have nearly doubled, to an average of $7,500.

ALARMING DEBT. Americans are also falling deeper into debt — more than ever before. “This level of indebtedness is at a record high,” says Robert Reich, secretary of labor under Pres. Bill Clinton and a professor at the University of California. “Most households are worse off than they were in 2001. In order to maintain their standard of living, they’ve had to borrow more and more. Bush policies — which have driven down wages — are directly responsible.”

There is, as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman puts it, “a remarkable disconnect between overall economic growth and the economic fortunes of most American families” — who have actually lost economic ground.

Corporate profits have risen 62.2% from 2001 to 2004, while wages have dropped to 0.6% during this same period.  This is the fastest rate of profit growth in a recovery since World War II. -- "Economic Snapshot," Economic Policy Institute Only the top 5 percent of households experienced real income gains in 2004. Incomes for the other 95% of households were flat or falling. -- The New York Times

Bush’s anti-union policies have had a significant impact in these areas, especially on wages. More and more employers today are aggressively combating union organizing efforts (see story, Page 24). Recent data indicate that 82 percent of employers hire union-busting consultants to fight organizing drives, and 30 percent fire pro-union workers. Intimidated workers are unlikely to push for better wages and benefits; unorganized workers are just as unlikely to get them.

In this special Public Employee report, we take a close look at how America’s working families have been doing since Pres. George W. Bush took office.

Photo: Linc Cohen

We successfully fought off a legislative push for a twotiered pension system. As a solution to the budget crisis, the state’s proposal would have reduced the pensions of new hires. Given Bush’s attacks on retirement security, I hold him partly responsible. — Caryl Wadley-Foy, president, Local 29 and treasurer of Illinois Council 31 in the thousands 128,041 plans 26,000 plans

Only one-quarter of American workers receive a traditional corporate pension when they retire. That proportion is likely to shrink drastically in the next decade. Many corporations have decided that paying for that type of pension, with a monthly payment for the lifetime of a retiree, is too costly. — USA Today, The Conference Board

cont...