Throughout history, it has been the great American middle class that 's kept our ship of state sailing proud and true. But in these stormy financial times, the middle class is losing ground and the ship is beginning to founder

Gas prices keep moving up and up and up, and so do our credit card bills. As oil prices soar, the cost of just about everything we buy spirals upward.

Oil companies make record profits and shrug off criticism of their obscene gains. Entrepreneurs ingeniously manufacture biofuel, which helps send the price of corn and wheat through the roof. Why wheat? Because farmers are growing less wheat so they can plant more profitable corn.

We pay more for medicine in the United States than people in many foreign countries, but when anyone suggests importing lower-cost alternatives, the government says no.

Today, many Americans find themselves in the teeth of a mortgage crisis while financial giant Bear Stearns almost implodes. The American dollar, once the bedrock of international monetary systems, is now worth less than the Canadian dollar. The president and Congress pass federal income tax cuts, but the middle class receives smaller cuts than our rich neighbors. The government spends and spends on an unending war in Iraq while our bridges are falling down and schools are failing nationwide.

Illegal immigrants swarm the country to work in low-paying, sweat shop jobs, and the government can 't decide what to do so they build a giant fence along the border.

Legislators earmark federal dollars for pet projects and the federal deficit heads for the moon. A recent report claimed that the interest on the debt alone will cost each of us thousands of dollars.

They tell us Social Security will soon run out of money and Medicare is on life support, but we don 't hear one peep from John McCain, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Instead, the candidates talk about national health care. Wouldn 't it be better to deal with the programs nearing bankruptcy before starting up new ones?

State and local government just adds to middle-class woes. We watch legislators pass a state budget, months overdue, then watch them try to fix a giant shortfall. And when they 're not messing up the treasury, they argue over concealed carry and same sex marriage, two ideological issues that don 't amount to a hill of beans to most of us.

Both Democrats and Republicans seem more interested in party loyalty than finding solutions to the state and nation 's problems.

Today, we pay federal taxes, property taxes, state taxes and sales tax. We pay gas taxes, cigarette taxes and liquor taxes. In Monona, we 're paying for a new middle school that will annually increase our property tax hundreds of dollars for 20 years. It 's no wonder communities vote down school referendums. Families can barely afford gas, much less education.

I don 't know what the answer is, but something 's got to give. Middle class America can 't afford to keep footing the bill for all this. We 're getting chopped, spindled and mutilated by the private sector and by our government.

Prices are up and quality is down. It 's a raw deal all around. Jobs are disappearing and the middle class is losing ground. The U.S. dollar is sinking and the ship is beginning to list.

Larson lives in Monona.