Congress is turning its back on hard-hit workers

Insightful commentary from Jack Healy, president and CEO of United Way of Greater New Haven:

"The news is not good for Connecticut’s working class, at least where Washington is concerned. There is little that this Congress can be expected to deliver for the 40 percent of the Greater New Haven population who work hard, yet don’t quite make enough money to pay their bills...

...Last September, Connecticut United Ways released a comprehensive study of this population, which we call ALICE — a United Way acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE represents people for whom the American Dream is broken. They work in jobs that support our day-to-day lives: they are child-care workers, office managers, health care providers. Their wages have been stagnant since the Great Recession. And, especially considering this region’s high cost of living, many of them are living on the edge of a financial cliff: one major car repair, health care crisis, or layoff removed from being unable to pay their rent or mortgage."

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