“America’s Middle Class Is Under Attack”

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Cries Elizabeth Warren on the campaign trail. But here’s an inconvenient truth: the economy is doing well. Warren’s mantra is that all the benefits have gone to the rich and to big corporations. As Stephen Moore points out in the WSJ, the latest data from the Census Bureau’s numbers tell a different story from Warren’s.

Real median household income—the amount earned by those in the very middle—hit $65,084 (in 2019 dollars) for the 12 months ending in July. That’s the highest level ever and a gain of $4,144, or 6.8%, since Mr. Trump took office.

By comparison, during 7½ years under President Obama—starting from the end of the recession in June 2009 through January 2017—the median household income rose by only about $1,000.

Senitier Research – a Nonpartisan Research Group

“These statistics were published by two former census income-research specialists with 50 years experience who now run Sentier Research, a nonpartisan research group,” continues Mr. Moore.

A Crushed Middle Class and Blue Collar Squeeze

Sentier’s income data dates to 2000 and tells the story of the past two decades. The recession of 2008-09 crushed middle-class incomes so dramatically that the median income when Mr. Obama left office was no higher than it was when George W. Bush arrived. That was the middle-class and blue-collar squeeze Donald Trump tapped into.

Under Obama, The Weakest Recession Recovery Since the 1930s

Mr. Obama inherited a financial mess, but the median income continued its decline during almost all of his first term and rose only slowly in his second term—the weakest recovery from a recession since the 1930s. “We never saw a recovery where incomes took such a long time to recover the lost ground,” says Sentier founder Gordon Green.

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