Good evening and welcome to kqed news room. President obama made resolving income inequality the cornerstone of his state of the Union Address this week. Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher. And those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. But lowincome families may face another hurdle, cuts to food stamps are expected as part of the new farm bill passed by the house. Joining me to discuss the impacts for california are amy allison, Senior Vice President of power pac, a social justice advocacy association. Joe garafoli, wealth and politics reporter for the San Francisco chronicle. Joe, lets turn to you. Why did the president highlight income inequality and how does that issue play out in the bay area . This is something hes talked about sort of in the background for years. And this puts it on the national map. Now, hes going to have a tough time getting this thr
Good evening and welcome to kqed news room. President obama made resolving income inequality the cornerstone of his state of the Union Address this week. Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher. And those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. But lowincome families may face another hurdle, cuts to food stamps are expected as part of the new farm bill passed by the house. Joining me to discuss the impacts for california are amy allison, Senior Vice President of power pac, a social justice advocacy association. Joe garafoli, wealth and politics reporter for the San Francisco chronicle. Joe, lets turn to you. Why did the president highlight income inequality and how does that issue play out in the bay area . This is something hes talked about sort of in the background for years. And this puts it on the national map. Now, hes going to have a tough time getting this thr
Good news story for the administration. How does he take it back . I think he has reached a moment that every other president has reached, where he has lost control to shape his own destiny from a Public Policy agenda. So, congresswoman, as we look at this Health Care Debacle as its unfolded in the last couple months, well find out whether its a website problem or a structural problem with the program. I believe its a structural problem with the program, and this is an issue that touches every american, and so i think this will be the dominant political issue, health care, heading into 2014 elections. And i think the president and his team may not want to talk about it, but they have no choice but to deal with it, and its going to supercede all these other debates because its so much more personal to people. Chuck is right, david. What youre saying is right. They have to get health care right. Theyve got to work on it. But at the same time, the argument for doing something about the ec
Begins a fight with republicans over the economy, restoring jobless benefits, raising minimum wage. Thats what well be talking about. The future of obamacare is another issue, the impact of the law of the quality and costs of health care around the country and the social issues in everyday life. Where does marijuana use become legal . It is a growing Public Policy issue around the country and well get into that debate this morning. Joining me this morning on the roundtable, chief White House Correspondent chuck todd, the managing editor of the pbs news hour, judy woodruff, Steve Schmidt and economist Donna Edwards is here as well. Welcome to all of you. Happy new year to all. Happy thu yenew year. The year of action is what president obama said it would be, so how does he take the president sit back . It starts with making sure obamacare works. I asked someone what their january would look like, and they ticked off a whole bunch of issues. They sort of left out health care completely,
For addressing inequality is such a compelling argument. I think back to the piece in the New York Times this week. Steve rattner had this rescue piece about what to remember about 2014. It was the year in charts. Look what happened with wall street this year. Up 30 . What happened to average american wages this year . Up 1 . Productivity, way up over the last decade. But american wages barely up. This may be an issue that washington actually do something about it. On health care they seemed to have stepped back. They have to wait for the results. It will still be a fight but maybe the economy can be moved by that. Well be back with all of you. Well talk about that and some of the other big issues like the marijuana fight going on around the country. Ill be back with the roundtable a little bit later. But first i want to move to another economy, the debate with the direction of the economy. On friday the outgoing fed chairman ben bernanke talked about a stronger year for americas finan