The potential 2016 candidates are working to prove that Democrats aren’t the only ones sensitive to the nation’s growing economic inequality. The GOP is also trying to move past serious stumblessuch as Mitt Romney’s infamous 47% commentthat created an impression among some middle class voters that the party is out of touch.
The effort was on full display Wednesday when Jeb Bush went to Detroit, one of America’s most economically distressed cities, to bemoan the challenges faced by the middle class.
“The recovery has been everywhere but in the family paychecks,” Bush said. “The opportunity gap is the defining issue of our time.”
Bush has plenty of competition from fellow Republicans seizing on the economy as they eye the White House. Marco Rubio has devoted a book to the issue. Ted Cruz recently sounded more like a Democratic populist than a GOP firebrand when he lamented the share of income earned by the top 1%. Scott Walker often stresses his humble origins while Rand Paul boasts of shopping at Walmart.
Of course, there are plenty of political upsides to the GOP refining its economic messaging. The appeal to the middle class could blunt similar Democratic talking points and create a contrast to criticisms of Hillary Clinton’s more refined lifestyle.
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Progressive commentators say they are glad Republicans are talking about income inequality but doubt their sincerity.
David Madland of the Center for American Progress said the GOP might not be denigrating those struggling in today’s economy, but their policies still are a case of “slapping lipstick on a pig.”
“There is a radical shift,” he said. “To acknowledge a problem is a huge first step. (But) the real opportunity lies with the public in making demands that will force the politicians to listen.”
Other analysts argue that while Republicans are talking about helping the middle class, they are blocking attempts by the President to pass laws that would do just that — for instance, on raising the minimum wage, creating jobs through infrastructure investment and hiking taxes on the rich to pay for middle class tax breaks.
“One thing that you have to watch for is people just tacking the words poverty and inequality onto a pre-existing agenda that has very little to do with addressing those problems,” said Jared Bernstein, a former top chief economics adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. “For the most part, I hear lots of the same trickle-down economics that helped to get us into this mess in the first place.”
