By Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson
Income inequality poses a tremendous threat to the American way of life, and the future of our nation. As long as increasing numbers of people are excluded from relative prosperity there will always be social uncertainty, and an inability by many to improve their economic standing.
A study by the Congressional Budget Office found that income grew by 275 percent for the top one percent of American households between 1979 and 2007. The growth rate for the bottom 20 percent of American households was only 18 percent during that same period. The top ten percent of wage earners in our country earn half of the income that is produced, according to economists at the University of California at Berkeley.
Leading economic thinkers and financial analysts have rightly concluded that this overwhelming concentration of wealth in the hands of a few will result in a society that is more unequal and unjust. They say that such a situation will inevitably lead to economic instability, and a sluggish growth rate.
With all of the abundant wealth that exists in our country, it is inexcusable that 46 million of our fellow citizens live in poverty, including 16 million children, according to the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.
Fifty years ago when former President Lyndon Baines Johnson declared a “war on poverty,” I am certain that he did not foresee the situation that we now find ourselves confronted with. I believe that he would be dissatisfied with the vast economic gaps that exist between people, and that he would urge that they be eliminated.
Unlike many of the Republican leaders in Texas and those in Congress, President Johnson believed that fighting poverty was a moral obligation. Programs introduced by President Johnson helped to reduce the number of Americans living below the poverty line by 43 percent. Today, nearly 18 percent of all Texas residents live in poverty. It is simply unacceptable!
While there are a few who are doing very well in our country, we have millions of people in our midst who are just holding on. We also have too many political leaders who willingly turn their backs on the economically marginal.
The House Republican agenda for 2014 does not include restoring federal unemployment insurance benefits for the long-term unemployed. Republicans allowed those benefits to expire on Dec. 28 of last year for 1.3 million people. If Republicans remain recalcitrant during the next six months, another 1.9 million Americans will lose benefits. In Texas, 174,000 residents stand to lose these critical benefits.
Rather than expending so much energy in attempting to kill the Affordable Care Act, Republican legislators should focus their attention on job creation, and other measures that will help to create a robust economy.
Political and religious figures, including Pope Francis, President Obama and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, have recently spoken out against income equality in the country and the world. “We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city that we love,” Mayor de Blasio said during his inaugural address on January 1st.
In a major religious position paper Pope Francis wrote that economic systems which produce income inequalities challenge the very foundation of a safe and democratic world. He described such systems as “unjust at its roots.”
Our President has said that “increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe.” I could not agree with him more.
As legislators we must strive to create jobs for our people, and we must pursue a livable minimum wage. As a society, we cannot allow citizens who have worked hard for income security to be pushed aside and treated as though they were insignificant. This is not who we are as a country. This is not what we stand for, and what we represent around the world.
