The economy is recovering, why not the people?

The economy is clearly recovering and experiencing accelerating growth. GDP growth estimates are up for the year and the US Dollar is trading better on currency exchanges.

Corporate profits are up sharply, but employment is not. Nevertheless, it is clear that the US is doing better economically than in the recent past and that the relief and recovery measures signed by presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama are responsible for our gains.

With corporations raking int he cash you might ask why jobs aren't being created and why the living conditions of the working class aren't improving. With leaner governments - millions of federal, state and municipal employees have lost their jobs over the past 10 years - there are fewer jobs, less spending and smaller incentive for businesses to hire on additional workers. Corporate profit is accumulated, not trickled down. The stimulus has saved and created millions of corporate jobs at the expense of public jobs.

For those of us who are still employed, the cost of living has increased. Thanks to rising fuel prices heating and food costs have ballooned.

And now the GOP wants to cut up to a million perfectly good jobs, threatening the country with the specter of yet another recession. Such a recession would reduce government revenue even further, forcing Congress and state legislatures to cut even more programs and more jobs from ever more essential programs.

If revolutions continue to occur in the oil producing areas of the world, fuel prices will continue to rise. Combined with the spending cuts being considered today, it could squeeze the American middle class out of existence.