Democrats: Middle class 'losing its place at the table' (CNN)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/23/sotu.democrats/index.html?eref=rss_politics

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional Democrats challenged President Bush on Tuesday night to take "the right kind of action" on the Iraq war and the economy, and promised to back him if he does.

"If he does not," Virginia Sen. Jim Webb said in the Democrats' official response to Bush's State of the Union address, "we will be showing him the way."

Webb's speech ignored other key issues Bush touched on - such as health care and energy - to focus on foreign policy and economic disparity. (Watch Webb talk about 'mismanaged war' Video)

Webb cited the actions of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, who took on economic imbalances Webb compared to today's, and Dwight Eisenhower, who brought an end to the Korean War.

"Those presidents took the right kind of action," Webb said, "for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world."

Webb said the positive aspects of the American economy "are not being fairly shared."

He noted that wages and salaries are low related to national wealth, college tuition rates are high and much of the country's manufacturing jobs are heading out of the country.

"In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table," Webb said.

He touted the House's recent passage of a bill to raise the minimum wage as an example of the way forward.

"We've established a tone of cooperation and consensus that extends beyond party lines," he said. "We're working to get the right things done, for the right people and for the right reasons."

On the foreign policy front, Webb directed his remarks to the president's current strategy in Iraq and his plan to increase U.S. forces there by more than 20,000 troops.

Displaying a photograph of his father as an Air Force captain more than 50 years ago, Webb said that the nation's elected officials owe American troops "sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for (their) welfare, (and) a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it."

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