The Income Gap: An American Nightmare By US Representative Michael Honda Washington Post[WEBSITE VERSION] June 22, 2011
The article on America’s income gap illuminates our unprecedented inequality. In fact, we hardly have a middle class: The average household income for 90 percent of America is $31,244. The bulk of our growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top 0.01 percent of America’s population, which makes an average of $27 million per household.
We can defend the American dream and ensure fairness for working-class families — which is why I worked with my Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues this year to develop a “People’s Budget” that puts America to work building a competitive economy, invests in our schools, protects Social Security and represents a fair deal for working families.
Since America has stacked the deck against working people, our budget, in response, made the tax code fair and asked the wealthiest individuals, corporations hiding money overseas, oil companies raking in record profits and Wall Street banks that gambled away our money to pay their fair share.
Michael Honda, Washington
The writer, a Democrat from California, is a member of the House of Representatives.