Martin O'Malley Quotes

If you want to do something to destroy consumer spending, just eat away at the middle class because the other problem we have is the structural problem of middle class America.

Local economies are suffering as people spend more on fuel and less on consumer goods and travel.

Folks in the bottom half of the economy are already squeezed hard. They will be bloodied and bankrupt if economic policy inadvertently induces a recession.

Millions of people are falling out of the middle class into the ranks of the poor.

Between stagnant wages and the cost of everything going up - particularly health care and college tuition - people have less money to save and less money to spend.

In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled. Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before.

I would say that workers in general, and white workers particularly, are correct that their economic wellbeing is deteriorating.

It doesn't do Costco any good if nobody can afford to buy anything.

There's no recovery on Main Street, I can tell you that for sure. And in a re - in an economy like this, we don't need to be raising anybody's taxes.

High gas prices are eating away at consumer's disposal income and could lead to a further economic downturn, especially for those whose livelihood depend on gasoline and diesel fuel.

My own experience in the third world was that even if people started to make more money, the cost of living and housing increased often faster than the wages.

When we think of the state of the economy, we are not thinking in terms of money flow. We are thinking in terms of the effect on everyday lives of people.

My generation will actually be the first generation that is tamer than the one that came before it, and it will probably be poorer; less fun and less money.

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will benefit about 28 million workers across the country. And it will help businesses, too - raising the wage will put more money in people's pockets, which they will pump back into the economy by spending it on goods and services in their communities.

Why are people unemployed? Because there is no work. Why is there no work? Because people are not buying products and services. Why are people not buying products and services? Because they have no money. Why do people have no money? Because they are unemployed.

Our businesses can't create jobs when they're losing revenue, and the unemployed can't apply for jobs when they can't pay their phone bill.

Let me tell you something: I have members in my charter who, after paying their rent and house bills and taking care of their families, don't even have enough money left over to pay the fifteen dollars a week dues.

You can't run the economy on BMWs alone. If the average person is in a pickle, how do you have a healthy economy?

This is the middle-class equivalent of raising the minimum wage.

The American economy cannot be considered healthy when most of its workers and consumers are not.

Since the working-class lives from hand to mouth, it buys as long as it has the means to buy.

Inequality saps the economy by draining the buying power of Americans whose incomes have stagnated, forcing them to rely on debt to fund education, housing, and health care.

The middle class today would be poor by the standards of the 1950s. Today, with two people working, they would still live paycheck to paycheck.

Unfortunately, in a recession, the people who suffer the most aren't the rich, but the wanna-be rich and the poor.

I remain deeply concerned about falling wages and the lack of good jobs for Americans. Too many of our citizens are either stuck in place or falling behind, and too often their needs are forgotten.