Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/with-economy-in-shambles-congress-turns-focus-to-middle-class Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript As the economy continues in a downward spiral, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are concentrating on serving the needs of the middle class. Kwame Holman speaks to legislators preparing to tackle the economic crisis. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. KWAME HOLMAN: When the new president takes the oath of office here next month, Democrats will control the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time in 14 years. Republicans will hold fewer House and Senate seats than at any time since the early 1990s.Legislators will be sworn in in the midst of a major recession, as Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, their retirement savings, and their health care coverage.In that sobering atmosphere, Democrats and Republicans alike are taking stock not only of themselves and their philosophies, but how they'll go about tackling those massive domestic issues.SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), Missouri: If we begin thinking that the country has chosen us because they really think we're so much better, we're going to be in for a rude awakening. I think they chose us because they really didn't like the other guys. KWAME HOLMAN: In 2006, Democrat Claire McCaskill became the first woman elected to the Senate from Missouri, a state that has a mix of urban centers and rural areas, and an electorate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans that reflects the country as a whole. SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL: You know, they really don't trust any of us. And that's why we have to be careful not to strut and not to take this as some kind of mandate. This is, in fact, a time that we've got to find the middle and be pragmatic. KWAME HOLMAN: McCaskill says her advice to Democrats is to follow policies that help the middle class. SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL: I haven't been here long enough to not see very clearly how screwed up this place is. And one of the challenges is that we have people who come here and work very hard to influence us on issues.There is no one here who's lobbying for that family who has a combined earned income of about $80,000 grand a year, and who has three children, and who is trying to figure out how to make it all come out even.So the challenge is, you know, kind of like shutting down the noise, listening and learning about all these different issues, but then, when we make the decisions, that we stay focused on those families, and making sure that we have a middle class that survives in this country.