Pelosi: Census Report Shows Middle-Class Families Bearing Burden of President’s Economic Mismanagement

September 26, 2003

Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today after the announcement by the Census Bureau that median household income declined 1.1 percent between 2001 and 2002 and the number of Americans living in poverty increased for the second year in a row:

"Today’s announcement by the Census Bureau confirms what many Americans already know - President Bush’s economic policies are making it more difficult for middle-class families to succeed. After seeing their incomes increase steadily during the 1990’s, middle-class families are now bearing the burden of President Bush’s economic mismanagement, the worst economic record since Herbert Hoover.

"President Bush’s only economic plan -- ill-advised tax cuts for those who need them least -- has not created jobs. It has only created obstacles for Americans working hard to get ahead.

"Since he took office nearly three years ago, President Bush has lost 3.3 million private sector jobs, so it should come as no surprise that incomes are down and poverty is up. But the Republican response is astonishing: denying the expanded child tax credit for families making less than $26,000 a year, underfunding education by $8 billion, undermining the successful Head Start program, and continuing to push for more reckless tax cuts for the elite few. These Republican policies only hurt middle-class families.

"Democrats are working for everyday Americans. Democrats are fighting to create jobs with a fair, fast-acting, and fiscally-sound economic plan that would create more than one million new jobs without adding one penny to the national debt."

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