News Journal: Let’s not forget that people are still out of work

“Five years after the Great Recession ended” were the first words in a USA Today article I read last week on the latest unemployment numbers. That same morning I met a neighbor coming out of our local grocery store and, within 30 seconds of our hellos, he asked me: “Is the gridlock ever going to end in Washington?” No connection? I beg to differ. I live in a neighborhood where just about everyone has been doing well. The stock market is way up. Many are making more money than ever. The recession ended five years ago – they read that in their newspapers – and some wonder what all the fuss is about income inequality and stagnant wages. In many other parts of Delaware, they know USA Today has got it wrong. The current national unemployment rate of 6.1 percent isn’t much comfort for the 9.5 million people who are officially listed as out of work, a third of them for more than 27 weeks. Nor for the 2 million unemployed who are not accounted for in the official rate because they had not looked for work in the preceding four weeks. Add to them another 7.5 million Americans who are working part time, not because they want to, but because they can’t find full-time jobs. And there are uncounted millions who are stuck in low-paying jobs, overqualified but unable to quit because of the weak job market. A job is more than a job for most of us. When so many of us are without one, or are unhappy with the ones we have, this country has lost one of its core strengths and is in real trouble. A few months ago, The Washington Post conducted a poll with the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. Among its conclusions: “Forty percent of those calling themselves middle class felt less financially secure than they were just a few years ago. Forty-five percent said they worry ‘a lot’ about having enough money stashed away for retirement, and 57 percent said they worry about meeting their bills. Less than half said they expected their kids to do better.” The Economic Policy Institute says that real annual wages for the top 1 percent have grown by 153 percent in the 34 years since 1980, by 61.6 percent for the top 5 percent, 39.2 percent for the top 10 percent, and only 17.1 percent for the bottom 90 percent. Real wages of the lowest 20 percent have actually declined in that period. One of the most dependable truths about democracies everywhere is that when voters are economically unhappy, they soon become politically unhappy. Is there any reason, given the statistics above, for 90 percent of Americans to be happy with their economic progress? That’s where gridlock began – not in Washington but with an angry electorate. As evidence, I remind you there was no gridlock in Washington in 2009 and 2010, when most observers agree more legislation was passed than at any time since LBJ’s first years in office. The gridlock began after the midterm elections in 2010, when voters who were unhappy with economic conditions blamed the government and sent to Congress a number of new members who shared their anger. These new members were a new breed – many of them believers not in limited government but in virtually no federal government at all. They were and still are unwilling to compromise on anything that resembles “established” ways of governing. Despite their unwillingness to compromise, we have seen a few positive breakthroughs in the past few months. Agreements have been forged on the debt limit, and both the House and the Senate have passed budget bills. That’s not much progress, but whatever cracks we have seen in the gridlock are the result, I believe, of the slow but real improvements in the economy. So – is the gridlock ever going to end in Washington? You won’t find the answer there. Gridlock will end when voters around the country feel better about their economic well-being and reflect that in whom they send to Washington. Ted Kaufman is a former U.S. senator from Delaware.
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