Still Trying

Politico reports on the fact that activist groups are still coordinating to try to get the House to take up the president's immigration agenda.  The aim is to try for something prior to the Thanksgiving recess.

To that end, Pelosi met with Steve Case on Tuesday. On Thursday, she, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra of California and Reps. Zoe Lofgren of California , John Yarmuth of Kentucky and George Miller of California are slated to meet with Richard Trumka and Bill Samuel of the AFL-CIO, Mary-Kay Henry of the SEIU, Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, Frank Sharry of America’s Voice and Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change.
Pelosi and many of the same lawmakers are also slated to meet Thursday to discuss immigration reform with Facebook co-founder Zuckerberg, a Democratic aide confirmed. That will come one day after a similar meeting between Zuckerberg and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), according to a Schumer aide.
Outside supporters are also meeting with conservative power-brokers, who are key to whether immigration will make it onto the House agenda this year. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s staff met last week with its ad hoc coalitions group to discuss progress during the August recess.

The Gang of Eight (probably minus Sen. Marco Rubio, whose standing in presidential polls has taken a hit since he acted as the leading Republican spokesman for the Gang of Eight) is also meeting to try to push this issue.

For their part, opponents of the White House immigration plan say they'll be ready to battle it in the House.

Sinking Incomes

As Wonkblog notes, new Census data suggests that the median US household made as much in 1989 as it did in 2012 when adjusting for inflation.

In 1989, the median American household made $51,681 in current dollars (the 2012 number, again, was $51,017). That means that 24 years ago, a middle class American family was making more than the a middle class family was making one year ago.

Incomes did climb throughout the 1990s.  But the median income has not eclipsed its 2000 peak, and there's been a pretty persistent decline in median income since 2007---including during the purported "recovery."

Twelve Years Ago

Some thoughts I wrote on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 available here.