President Barack Obama and Occupy Wall Street are speaking the same language.
In his weekly address to the nation, Obama cited an economic report showing that the middle class has lost ground to “the top one percent.”
“The average income for the top one percent of Americans has risen almost seven times faster than the income of the average middle class family,” he said. “And this has happened during a period where the cost of everything from health care to college has skyrocketed.”
Obama explained that Americans should not spite the wealthy, but that prosperity should be available to all classes.
“Now, in this country, we don’t begrudge anyone wealth or success — we encourage it. We celebrate it,” he said. “But America is better off when everyone has had the chance to get ahead — not just those at the top of the income scale. The more Americans who prosper, the more America prospers.”
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, at his Friday briefing, tried to tie the “Occupy” movement’s frustration to the administration’s counterparts in Congress.
“The President has said that he understands people’s frustrations,” Carney said. “He understands that those frustrations are felt very broadly by the American people — at least those frustrations that have to do with the fact that the economy isn’t strong enough, the fact that unemployment is too high, and the fact that Washington is dysfunctional because of obstructionism by Republicans in Congress.”
The Daily Caller has recently reported on progressive politicians seeking to co-opt the movement and how their efforts have mostly been futile, due to the protesters’ diversity of demands. Whether the White House can carry the protests into voting booth results remains to be seen.