• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Anisha Desai, Program Director, United for a Fair Economy

Today, the Democratic Party-controlled Congress is set to kick off their “first one-hundred hours” agenda. Included in the party’s agenda are populist proposals aimed at increasing the minimum wage and reducing the interest rates on college student loans. As their first one-hundred legislative hours will coincide with the annual observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, United for a Fair Economy has released a new report analyzing the measures put forth by Congressional Democrats, from the perspective of King himself. The report is entitled “State of the Dream 2007: Voting Blue, Staying in the Red.” It claims that the Democratic proposals ignore racial inequalities and therefore will not adequately reduce them. Key findings assert that the proposed reduction of college loan debt will benefit whites more so than Latino and Black students, as black college graduates, in particular, earn less than their degree holding counterparts. The State of the Dream Report also criticizes the fact that issues such as Katrina and housing have been omitted from the Democrats’ Congressional agenda.

For more information, visit www.faireconomy.org.

Download the entire report, State of the Dream 2007 at: http://www.faireconomy.org/reports/2007/StateOfTheDream2007.pdf