We cannot stand by and watch the middle class continue to shrink as the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. This disturbing economic trend was highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article on Procter & Gamble’s changing strategy to target their products to low-income and high-income Americans, instead of middle class families as the company has done throughout its history.

The story of P&G’s new strategy was reported the same week that the Census Bureau published its new numbers on income and poverty in the United States. And the Bureau’s results were no less disturbing. The Census Bureau found that the poverty rate is at its highest point since 1993 and the number of people in poverty is the highest it’s been since 1959—the first year that the Census began keeping records on poverty. And most troubling, the Census reported that more than 1 in 5 children in America live in poverty.

Additionally, as more Americans have lost their jobs, the nation’s economic output has remained steady - individual productivity has increased and American companies are doing more with less, creating a structural unemployment problem that has left 14 million Americans without a job. We can no longer stick with the same 20th century policies for the 21st century economy. It’s time Washington puts an end to the political gamesmanship and come together to make the serious decisions needed to get our economy moving again.