Smith Double Bogeys On The Middle Class
Yesterday, we wrote about Gordon Smith’s penchant for million dollar golf clubs and exotic golfing locations.
Today, we learn about how he has whiffed on helping the middle class.
Smith received a D on TheMiddleClass.org 2007 Congressional Scorecard released today. The scorecard, a service from The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, also gave Smith an F in 2005 and an F in 2004. So, that’s two Fs and a D for the middle class.
Oregon’s other U.S. Senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, received an A for his 2007 work.
“Do we need any more evidence that Gordon Smith votes for the special interests, not working families?” DPO Chair Meredith Wood Smith asked. “Do Oregon’s working families have to schedule a tee time with Gordon Smith to get his attention? Gordon Smith may be a golf fanatic, but when it comes to working families, he can’t find the fairway. Once again we see how Ron Wyden scores birdies for working families while Gordon Smith bogeys on their interests.”
According to TheMiddleClass.org the scorecard analyzes the impact of domestic legislation on America’s current and aspiring middle class.
What Is The Middle Class?
The middle class is more than an income bracket. Over the past fifty years, a middle-class standard of living in the United States has come to mean having a secure job, the opportunity to own a home, access to health care, retirement security, time off for vacation, illness and the birth or adoption of a child, opportunities to save for the future and the ability to provide a good education, including a college education, for one’s children. When these middle-class fundamentals are within the reach of most Americans, the nation is stronger economically, culturally and democratically.
Most Americans identify themselves as middle class. Yet DMI is concerned not only with those who currently enjoy a middle-class standard of living, but also with expanding the middle class by increasing the ability and opportunities of poor people to enter the middle class. The middle class is strengthened when more poor people are able to work their way into its ranks. In a nation that is increasingly polarized between the very wealthy and everyone else, DMI sees the poor and middle class as sharing many of the same interests. Simply put: what strengthens and expands the middle class is good for America.
Posted March 12, 2008 Economy 0 comments
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