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led their party in earlier years. The Republican Party is now controlled by ideological extremists who reject any meaningful role for government in expanding economic opportunity or preventing the abuses of private economic power. Some of them even openly proclaim that their goal is to "starve the beast" - cut taxes so low that government will not have the resources to play a meaningful role in the economy. These latter day Social Darwinians clearly believe that those who assemble great concentrations of wealth should be unfettered and permitted to dominate the nation's economic life, much as they did in the late 19th century.
Given such developments, it is not surprising that progressives today are being forced to re-fight battles which our predecessors won decades ago. Today's Republicans want to make the tax code the exclusive domain of large corporations and the wealthy, not a means of expanding opportunity for all Americans. They want to repeal the estate tax and end the progressivity of the income tax which have stood as pillars of our tax code for nearly a century.
Now, with control of both Congress and the White House for the first time nearly half a century, Republicans want to tilt the scales against workers and in favor of employers by denying overtime pay, abolishing the 40-hour work week, allowing the minimum wage to whither on the vine, ignoring workplace health and safety rules, and repealing any environmental rules that become inconvenient to the corporate world.
Because of Social Security, generations of working men and women have been able to count on having a financial foundation in retirement and benefits at any age if they became disabled. But today's ideologically extreme Republicans do not believe in the concept of social insurance. So they have made the campaign to privatize Social Security one of their most passionate causes.
They have made the Medicare program a source of even greater profits for pharmaceutical companies and the insurance industry, instead of meeting America's commitment to give a reliable, and affordable prescription drug benefit to senior citizens.
One by one, issue by issue, program by program, the Republican Right has methodically turned away from policies which brought about a century of progress for working Americans. They want to build the 21st century economy on 19th century economic values, as if the last 100 years had not occurred. For them, the law of the jungle is the best economic policy for America - not equal opportunity, not fairness, not the American dream. Their policies will inevitably result in a lesser America, and have already meant a growing gulf between rich and poor.
Between World War II and 1980, the incomes of high, middle and low-income families rose in unison. With the government policies then in place, a rising tide did lift all boats, as President Kennedy once said. But beginning in the 1980's, with Republicans in control of the White House and the Senate, the positive economic climate began to change, and income inequality began to grow. In the last twenty years, the rising tide has sunk many smaller boats. For decades, the philosophy behind the minimum wage and many other progressive economic polices was that no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty. It is shameful that for so many of those in control today, the philosophy is, "Pull up the ladder, now that I'm aboard."
And today, the gulf between rich and poor is the widest it has been in nearly 70 years. The percentage of national income going to the middle class has also shrunk. Since 1980, the average after-tax income of the wealthiest 1% rose by more than 200%, increasing by $567,000 in real dollars. In stark contrast, the average after tax income of middle-income households rose by only 15% during the same period, increasing by just $5,500. And the average after-tax income of the working poor rose by an even smaller percentage, just 9%, growing by a mere $1,100.
In fact, in recent years, 90% of all gains in personal income have gone to the wealthiest 1% of Americans. The number of Americans living in poverty is growing. These disturbing statistics vividly demonstrate that the widespread prosperity which progressive policies helped to create over the past century can easily erode if those policies are abandoned.
By the mid-20th century, the federal government had ensured basic worker rights, and there was a relatively strong correlation between the prosperity of the corporation and the welfare of its workers.
If a company product was in demand, the size of the workforce would grow and workers' wage and benefit demands would more likely be met. But, that correlation no longer exists throughout much of today's econ
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