For years, and certainly throughout this campaign, the media contention has been that only the rich have done well since Bush was elected, and that his economic policies did nothing for lower and middle income wage earners.
Yet, a comparison of the 2008 and 2004 exit polls tells quite a different story about what voters made in those years.
In fact, the percentage of poor voters showed a huge decrease since 2004, while the percentage of folks making over $200,000 doubled.
Yes, doubled.
Here are the particulars:
- In 2004, 8 percent of the electorate earned $15k or less; that dropped to 6 percent in 2008, a 25 percent decline
- In 2004, 15 percent made between $15k-$30K; that dropped to 12 percent in 2008, a 20 percent decline
- In 2004, 23 percent made $30k or less; that dropped to 18 percent in 2008, a 22 percent decline
- In 2004, 11 percent made $100k-$150k; that rose to 14 percent in 2008, a 27 percent increase
- In 2004, 4 percent made $150k-$200k; that rose to 6 percent in 2008, a 50 percent increase
- In 2004, 3 percent made $200k or more; that rose to 6 percent in 2008, a 100 percent increase
- In 2004, 18 percent made $100k or more; that rose to 26 percent in 2008, a 44 percent increase.
Add it all up, and the electorate, when viewed strictly from an income perspective, did awfully well the past four years.
Think the election results might have been different this year if the electorate was aware of this data?