It's the Economy, Stupid

The Democrats have grabbed onto one issue: the economy. They're attacking the jobless recovery with proposals to shift the tax breaks from the very rich to the middle class. It's hard to believe the Dems can lose on this issue: Wages are stagnant, and prices for health care, housing, tuition, gas, and food all have increased dramatically. The middle class is taking on more and more of the tax burden. Because the job market is soft, wages are tending down, not up. Benefits are being pared. Workers make little more than they did 20 years ago. Jobs go abroad. New jobs are in health care, food services, and temp work—temp agencies account for one-fifth of the new jobs, but three in five pay below the national median wage of $13.53.

One might think the working-class traditional Democratic base would be up in arms, but the GOP spins them silly, ignoring economic issues and instead urging them to vote not on economic issues but on more meaningful social issues like abortion, prayer in the schools, promiscuity, stem-cell research, and gay marriage.

Bottom line: It's the economy, stupid. The Republicans quietly doff their hats to Wall Street, home base for the jobless recovery, where the money's made in the sucker economy. In this election campaign so far, the finance, real estate, and insurance industries are the number one campaign contributors, with expenditures so far of $189,725,622. Thirty-nine percent of this money goes to Democrats, 61 percent to Republicans.