Executive Summary

Stimulating economic growth and creating high-paying jobs are key priorities for the Obama Administration. This paper provides data demonstrating that technological innovation is a key driver of a pro-growth, job-creating agenda. It further demonstrates that patent reform legislation, by accelerating the pace of growth and of job creation, will be a powerful and deficit-neutral mechanism for expanding America’s ability to innovate.

• Technological innovation is linked to three-quarters of the Nation’s post-WW II growth rate. Two innovation-linked factors – capital investment and increased efficiency – represent 2.5 percentage points of the 3.4% average annual growth rate achieved since the 1940’s.

Since the official U.S. poverty measure was first published in 1964, there has been continuing debate about alternative approaches to the measurement of poverty. Recognizing that alternative statistics can provide useful information, the Office of Management and Budget‟s Chief Statistician formed an Interagency Technical Working Group on Developing a Supplemental Poverty Measure including representatives from BLS, the Census Bureau, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services, and OMB. The Working Group was charged with developing a set of initial starting points to permit the U.S. Census Bureau, in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), to produce a Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM).

 Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Most Americans consider themselves middle class. This raises the question, what does it mean to be middle class? This report examines various definitions, discusses middle class values and aspirations, and presents hypothetical budgets showing how these aspirations might be achieved with different incomes. Finally, we consider whether or not it is harder to live a middle class lifestyle today than it was twenty years ago.