Gary R Patterson

America at the Precipice: Restoring the Plummeting Middle Class Standard of Living Gary R Patterson

Neither political party has been able to stem the plummeting fall in the Middle Class Standard of Living that has occurred since the Economic Meltdown of 2008. Moreover, in recent years, the average 1%-2% annual Cost of Living Index (CPI) calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics only belies, masks and understates the frightful upsurge in the dominant CPI Index cost components of Health Care, College Tuition, Energy, as well as Federal income tax hikes, which have economically devastated Middle Class Americans over the last five years. Innovative, yet pragmatic and equitable solutions must be formulated to not just stem the rise of these four major CPI cost factors, but go beyond and strive to achieve justifiable, permanent "rollbacks" and cost decreases as well. Together these four specific CPI cost factors have incrementally contributed to an actual, staggering 19% plunge in the American Middle Class Standard of Living just since 2009. And, even though Barack Obama, as President, has presided over this precipitous Middle Class economic decline, alternatively, the Republican Party has, for years, been successfully portrayed by Democrats as being "tone deaf" and indifferent to the plight of Middle Class America. Rightly or wrongly, perceived as primarily safeguarding the financial interests of the Wealthy, the GOP is further regarded by many as failing 1) to elevate and give priority emphasis to the dire economic straits that the Middle Class in America is currently facing and 2) to pro-actively devise specific common sense and apolitical solutions (as presented herein) that are, indeed, justifiably equitable and meant to rectify and justly remediate the disproportionate economic burden that Middle Class Americans have been relegated to endure. Unless and until the Republican Party is perceived as pro-actively adopting a Middle Class priority emphasis, it will continue to struggle to alter its elitest perception in the minds of a wide swath of Middle Class an