We need more than a return to the status quo of a lost decade and a generation of diminished expectations, when flipping houses and shorting stocks took the place of innovation and effort, two-income couples maxed out their credit cards and took out second mortgages just so their families could tread water, and the nation piled enormous deficits on top of already monster debts with nothing to show for it.

We need to build a new economy where the possibility of upward mobility that is at the heart of the American experience is revitalized.  

That means honoring the basic values that have made America great.  Today, government rushes to help the irresponsible and does little for the responsible. Wall Street lobbyists govern while Main Street concerns are ignored.  We’re not investing enough in education and innovation, we’re rewarding recklessness and greed, and we’re letting irresponsibility in Washington subsidize irresponsibility on Wall Street.

Three out of five Americans are living pay check to pay check.  In recent years, average wages have gone down about 1 percent but prices for gas and groceries keep going higher and housing, health care, and college tuition have about doubled.

Our education system isn’t giving our people the tools to compete in a global economy.  For a while, people could paper over falling wages with credit cards and hope that rising home prices would give them the assets to send their kids to college and retire with dignity, but that house of cards came crashing down.  For today’s middle-class Americans, life is a game of “Chutes and Ladders” with more chutes than ladders.

To build and grow this new economy, Andrei will work to:

• End corporate welfare as we know it and reform our tax code to spur entrepreneurship and innovation
• Rebuild retirement wealth and help home values recover
• Create new middle-class jobs by investing in infrastructure including broadband, a smart grid, and a clean energy economy
• Return fiscal responsibility to Washington
• Make college affordable and our schools world class
• Help families balancing careers, kids, and care for aging parents