On May 26, 2009, he observed that during the George W. Bush Administration
"middle-class incomes actually fell -- they fell more than 3 percent... [M]iddle-class Americans actually saw their share of the pie shrink by 3 percent. Folks, that's not acceptable. That's not the way this country is supposed to work. And we're about setting about to change that.
The President and I have set a very basic and measurable goal that we'll be held to, I'm sure. We said that our -- judge us in terms of our economic policy, not merely on whether or not the Gross Domestic Product begins to grow. That's not sufficient. But when middle-class incomes begin to grow, and when people aspiring to the middle class get a shot to become part of it -- that's the measure."
A very basic and measurable goal. Joe, we wholeheartedly agree with you, Joe. You asked for a quantitative judgement day.
Here it is:
Every year the United States Census Bureau divides the national income pie into five equal portions from richest to poorest. It then determines what share of the pie went to each fifth. The data are here: Historical Income Tables: Households. Go to "Table H-2. Share of Aggregate Income Received by Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Households, All Races: 1967 to 2018." 2018 is the latest year for which figures are available.
The middle portions 2, 3, and 4 comprise a quantitative definition of "middle class." In 2009, the first year of the Obama/Biden Administration, the middle class received 46.4% of the national income. In 2013, the figure had fallen to 45.5%.
Folks, that´s not acceptable. Where did the missing .9% go?
Not to portion 1, the poorest group. During the Obama-Biden administration, their share of the income pie fell from 3.4% to 3.1%.
That leaves only one alternative.
The share of national income going to the wealthiest portion in 2009-13 rose from 50.3% to 51.4%. Particularly noteworthy is that the share going to the top 5% of households jumped from 21.7% to 22.2%.
Conclusion: during the Obama/Biden Administration the rich got richer, the poor poorer and the middle class smaller.
In 2009, Joe Biden became Chairman of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force. He announced he would boldly go where no Democrat or Republican had gone before in over 40 years: reverse the impoverishment of the middle class.
Look at the Census Bureau data again. Biden failed.
Our summary judgement is shared by at least one person of note: Joe Biden. On October 2, 2012, he acknowledged that the "middle class has been buried the last four years."
Biden does not deserve a chance to fail again. He is not fit to lead the American people, and must go.
My second reason for not voting for Biden: he is a thief.
Turn the clock back 32 years.
In 1987, Biden was running for president when he plagiarized a speech delivered by UK Labour Leader Neil Kinnock. When other incidents of plagiarism surfaced involving speeches by John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, as well as Biden´s student paper in a legal methodology class at Syracuse University, Biden was forced to withdraw. His presidential campaign lasted only three and a half months.
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We take seriously a Joe Biden bid for the presidency CNN reports (September 25, 2019) he is leading the field of Democratic primary contenders with close to 30%.
I know, I know -- many readers will say that if I and others like me stay home in the general election, Trump will be re-elected.
To that argument I have two answers:
First, the reasoning that " Biden may be bad; however, he is better than Trump" is exactly what got the country in the mess it is in today. To vote for the lesser of two evils is to commit The Third Evil.
Second, sometimes things must get a lost worse before they can get better. I dislike making that statement -- but it is true.