Sen. Sanders: Rebuilding the American middle class

By Sen. Bernie Sanders

POSTED: 01/14/2015 08:56:54 PM
There is, in Vermont and across this country, widespread frustration about the inability of Congress to address the most important issues facing the American people. The simple truth is that, over the last 40 years, the middle class of this country has been in decline. Millions of working families have seen a reduction in their incomes, young people are finding it harder to afford higher education and seniors are struggling to pay for their food, heat and medicine. At the same time, the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well, corporate profits are soaring and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider.

While the economy has significantly improved over the last six years, we still face a major crisis in terms of high rates of unemployment and underemployment. The official unemployment rate is 5.6 percent, but real unemployment is 11.4 percent, youth unemployment is 17.7 percent and African-American youth unemployment is close to 30 percent. The fastest way to create jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. Every day we see bridges in disrepair, congested roads with potholes and inadequate transit services. Nearly a quarter of the nation's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and more than 30 percent have exceeded their design life. Almost one-third of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and 42 percent of major urban highways are congested.

Our airports and seaports desperately need upgrades. Our passenger and freight rail lines are obsolete. Our water and wastewater systems, energy grid, dams and levees, schools and parks all need improvements.
If we want our country to be more productive, efficient and safe we need to make a substantial and sustained investment in infrastructure. The bad news is we must invest $1.7 trillion by 2020 just to get our nation's roads, bridges and transit to a state of good repair — more than four times the current rate of spending. The good news is that a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure will create and maintain 13 million jobs. That is what we should do and I will introduce legislation to try to make that happen.

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http://www.reformer.com/localeditorials/ci_27322086/sanders-rebuilding-american-middle-class