WASHINGTON – An Oregon mother of two, describing her family's economic struggles as an example of how the American dream disappeared during the national recession, asked

and two of his colleagues Thursday if they know how to live on $15 an hour.

"I do," said Pamela Thatcher, who recalled for the senators some of the daily challenges she faced after her husband lost his job in 2011 and now earns half of what he did.

"How am I going to pay for a roll of toilet paper?"

Thatcher, from Tualatin, was one of three Oregonians Merkley, D-Ore., invited to his first hearing as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Economic Policy.

Testimony from Thatcher, Diedre Melson, John Cox and several expert witnesses focused on damage suffered by middle-class families during the recession as well as solutions to help them recover.

Despite the sometimes dramatic testimony about lost jobs, home foreclosures, decreases in wages, and the rising cost of college education, Merkley conceded that two Senate floor votes that interrupted the hearing did not bode well for those seeking help from Congress to recover what they lost during the recession.

Those votes failed to break a congressional impasse, making it more likely that higher interest rates will kick in on student loans next month.

After the hearing, Merkley blamed senators for not coming to terms with economic forces still hitting the middle class, adding that he used the hearing to spotlight the experiences of Oregon families.

Even during the hearing, key political differences surfaced, underscoring the difficulty of approving any meaningful legislation in the current Congress, with Democrats in power in the Senate and Republicans in the House.

Investor

of Seattle-based Second Avenue Partners urged senators to tax wealthy individuals to support programs for the middle class and hike the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

, the subcommittee's ranking member, made it clear that higher taxes are not part of his political philosophy.

Thatcher, Melson and Cox explained how middle class families that seemed to have secure financial futures just a few years ago unexpectedly found themselves falling down the economic ladder.

"It's heartbreaking," Thatcher said, telling the senators how her mom-survival mode kicked in as her family made the difficult decision to seek assistance.

"Until you are in it, you have no idea."

Before her husband lost his job, she said, her family lived a safe and secure middle-class existence that came from working hard.

Melson, of Portland, said she had worked since she was a teen. She described the fears her children now have over their own futures.

"We are the working poor," she said. "We are sinking."

Cox testified how he succeeded in his career as an accountant by working hard and following the rules.

"Take care of your job, and your job will take care of you," he said, repeating one of the lessons he had learned from his father.

Cox, who is from Newberg, said he was so confident of his own American dream that he was not initially concerned when he lost his job.

After 18 months of joblessness and burning through savings and retirement funds, he finally applied for unemployment.

"That wasn't me," Cox said.

Now, he said, his house, which he had hoped to keep as part of a safety net for his son with Down syndrome, is facing foreclosure.

Experiences of Thatcher, Melson and Cox were featured in

a recent HBO documentary on the recession and its impact on the middle class.

"These families, like all families, didn't expect to be asking for help to pay their utilities and mortgage payments, but the Great Recession and the shrinking of the middle class that has occurred over the last 30 years has taken a harsh toll on working families," Merkley said.

"We need to reorient our economic policies as a nation toward what would lift up folks like Ms. Melson, Mr. Cox, and Ms. Thatcher, and make the American dream real again."

-- Jim Myers