McDonough: We’re Going to Tax the Wealthy To Boost Optimism Among Middle Class

‘‘The crisis having been passed, now we have to get at the one remaining issue: How does the middle class get the fair shot that they deserve?’

“The president did tick through several things that we have made progress on, unemployment from 10 down to 5.6 percent, 10 million people with now access to health care, health care costs at the lowest level in more than 50 years now for four years in a row, more energy production, be that clean energy, or be that oil and gas, in this country than ever before. That’s leading to new jobs. So, there are good data. But the other thing the president said is, there’s a big unfinished piece of business. And you put your finger on it.

Middle-class families like the ones you grew up in Doylestown, or the ones I grew up with in Stillwater, Minnesota, have not seen the kind of wage growth that they deserve. Wages have been stagnant now for three decades. So the president laid out a plan the other night that said, let’s make sure that the wealthiest few give back a little bit, that we invest in things like child care, like training, like community college, and make sure that we’re making — we’re going to keep the good jobs that we have here and bring more of them back home.

That’s what the president is going to do. He won’t trim his sails on that. The middle class deserves a shot at this now. The crisis having been passed, now we have got to get at the one remaining issue, which is, how does the middle class get the fair shot that they deserve?” 

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