The Tampa Tribune's William March has a story out entitled, "Candidates seize on income disparity," in which he writes that "claiming the mantle of middle class champion is emerging as the moral high ground in politics," and likely will be an issue in the 2014 elections in Florida and the country.
The issue is one thatprogressives have been complaining about for years and is now being picked by some Republicans – the growing inequality in this country, something that began to happen in the 1970's and was highlighted by the Occupy Wall Street crowd in 2011.
But talking about income inequality really isn't enough, is it? We can all bemoan how the rich get richer and everyone else gets squeezed, but isn't it up to our leaders to actually craft some policies to try to address this growing gap? Interestingly, last Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford mentioned income inequality as one of three measures he hopes to work in the 2014 legislative session in Tallahassee.
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2013.