USA #1, right? If we’re going to tell everyone how great we are as a country, we should expect more from the system and provide better opportunity for everyone. Nobody is asking for a free ride, but we need to get back to the goal of providing opportunity for everyone and not just the 1%. Why is this traditional American idea so disregarded by the political class?

“This is a wake-up call for Congress, for our state policy-makers, really for all of us,” said Donna Addkison, President and CEO of WOW.

“Nearly half of our nation’s families cannot cover the costs of basic expenses even when they do have a job. Under these conditions, cuts to unemployment insurance … and other programs families are relying on right now would push them from crisis to catastrophe.”

The WOW survey compared 2009 pre-tax incomes to a budget of basic and essential monthly expenses for various families that it developed along with researchers at Washington University with funding from the Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.