Forward To Your Friends and Family
"Restoring Opportunity for All"
(Op-Ed by Jim Himes, originally published in the Stamford Advocate, April 30th, 2008)
The great question facing America in the 21st Century is not whether we will be successful, but who gets to share in that success.
The answer to that question is particularly important here in Connecticut where income inequality is growing faster than in any other part of America, according to a study released this month.
While the top fifth of Connecticut residents are doing extraordinarily well (their income grew 45% over the last 17 years), the working class has lost real ground, losing 17% of their household income. Disturbingly, Connecticut is the only state where income for the worst off among us has actually significantly decreased.
As a result, Stamford and Norwalk are growing less and less affordable for middle class families every day. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that rents in Stamford and Norwalk are the most expensive in the country. Neighborhoods in Stamford that have historically been affordable for young families breaking into the middle class – Glenbrook, Springdale, the East Side, and the Cove – are now too expensive for most working families. A worker wishing to rent a simple two bedroom apartment here must earn more than $31 an hour, nearly twice the national average hourly wage.
Simply put, our middle class families are being squeezed.
How can we reverse this trend? ...
(Read the rest of Jim's op-ed and forward to your friends and personal contacts below.)
First, we need to fix Washington’s broken economic policies. For thirty years now, Republicans have told us that if we cut taxes for the very wealthy, everyone else will make more. That was the theory behind President Bush’s special tax breaks for the very wealthy. It’s the theory behind John McCain’s promise to do more of the same. But the reality is trickle-down economics just do not trickle-down far enough.
My opponent, Chris Shays, has championed these failed policies right down the line. Not only did he support Bush’s tax breaks for those who needed them the least, he is the first Republican to call in this session of Congress for making them permanent. He voted against reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax, so now an increasing number of Connecticut’s middle class families are being victimized by inexorable bracket creep. And just this month Shays called for a twenty-cent a gallon hike in the gas tax at a time when families in our district are struggling to fill their cars.
That’s not fair, and it’s not wise. How will we attract first rate teachers, police, and firefighters if they cannot afford to live in or near the communities they serve? Do we want communities where the elderly are forced from their homes by rising prices?
We need a tax policy that will give working and middle class families a break before we give even more tax breaks to the very wealthy. Every day on the campaign trail, I hear from families facing tremendous burdens in our district. They are paying record prices for housing, are coping with skyrocketing property taxes, and face record prices at the pump – all while healthcare and quality schools become less and less accessible.
Next, we need to ensure that good public schools remain the gateways to the American dream for every child. I was raised by a single working mom who supported me and my two sisters in a small town with good public schools, and it was that foundation that opened doors for educational and career opportunities in my life. For perhaps the first time in American history, we’re now facing the real possibility that the generation after us will be worse off than we are.
To restore economic opportunity for the next generation, we must invest in great public schools. That means actually supporting schools, not just testing kids and cutting funding if they fail. Worse, the unfunded federal mandates in NCLB have dealt a huge blow to school budgets in Norwalk and Stamford, driving up our already high local property taxes.
Finally, we need to start creating jobs that provide access to the middle class. Prior to running for Congress, I led the New York office of Enterprise Community Partners, an affordable housing non-profit. There, we found that by building green we were able to support well-paying career track jobs for skilled laborers, jobs that could not be outsourced and which contribute to a clean environment. By providing federal tax credits for green building, we can create jobs here in our district, increase affordable housing, and do a better job protecting the environment. And best of all these kind of good “green collar” jobs cannot be exported.
It will take the right priorities to make these changes – a focus on the economy we haven’t seen from the Bush Administration and its supporters like Chris Shays. But if we are to make sure that we restore opportunity to seek the American dream, we have to start now.
Jim Himes is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress. A former Vice President at Goldman Sachs, Himes is on leave from Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit that seeks business-oriented solutions to urban poverty.