Our guest blogger is Amanda Logan, a Research Associate at the Center for American Progress.

Last month, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) economic adviser Phil Gramm accused America of being “nation of whiners.” But Americans aren’t whining, we’re hurting.

Inflation hit a 17-year high last month, and home foreclosure filings increased 55% in the past year. As my co-author Christian Weller and I determined in our recent report, not only are America’s middle-class families financially stressed today, they’ve been increasingly struggling since early 2001.

Battered by inflation: The price of seemingly everything is increasing, but wages aren’t keeping up. After inflation, weekly wages were 0.3% lower in June 2008 than they were in March 2001. But the price of food is up 25% over the same period, transportation by 36%, fuels and utilities by 53%, and college tuition—the key to the middle class—by 68%. As Harvard law professor and economic security expert Elizabeth Warren recently stated, “there have never been since the Depression so many families standing right on the edge.”

Squeezed by medical costs: In 2007, only 34% of families had enough money to cover the cost of a medical emergency, down from 43.7% in 2000. The share of private sector workers with employer-sponsored health insurance dropped from 64% in 2000 to 60% in 2006, while the costs associated with medical care increased 35% from March 2001 to July 2008.

Drowning in debt: Only 29% of families could withstand an unspecified emergency equal to three months of income, down from 39% in 2000. Household debt averaged 130% of disposable income in the first quarter of 2008, higher than any point prior to the first quarter of 2007. Additionally, the total value of all homes fell by 2.5%, or $417 billion, in the first quarter of 2007—the largest drop since the second quarter of 1974.

Threatened by unemployment: According to our estimates, only 44% of families had enough wealth to withstand a spell of unemployment, down from 51.0% in 2000. 2008 has already proven to be a difficult year for the labor market, with the economy losing a total of 463,000 jobs since the beginning of the year and the unemployment rate hitting 5.7% in July—the highest level since March 2004.

As Election Day approaches and Americans’ budgets continue to belly flop, we’re sure to hear non-stop economy talk. On Friday, I’ll add to the dialogue by joining Isaiah J. Poole, who contributes to the Campaign for America’s Future Blog for Our Future, for this week’s edition of Meet the Bloggers, Brave New Foundation’s live online video show. Following a live interview with Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), my fellow panelists and I will discuss the state of the economy and what it means for average Americans.

Our guest blogger is Christian E. Weller, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Social Security’s anniversary – August 14 – is the perfect time to consider policies that could raise retirement security for tens of millions of Americans, who have seen their wealth decimated by crashing financial and housing markets. Cutting Social Security benefits – Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) favorite approach – would exacerbate what is already a crisis by reducing the last sure thing in retirement safety. Maybe his answer to the retirement crisis is to do as he does: work until you’re well into your 70s. Working becomes the new retirement with Sen. McCain.

Policymakers need to protect Social Security benefits, especially for vulnerable groups and create more wealth, especially for low-income and moderate-income families.

How do the presumptive presidential candidates address these goals? Sen. McCain’s mantra is “cut, cut, cut.” He sees a world of higher retirement age, smaller cost-of-living adjustments, and fewer benefits for moderate-income and higher-income earners, among other possible, yet unspecified cuts. And, it is not clear that he has abandoned the costly and ineffective idea of privatization that he championed in 2000 and that President Bush unsuccessfully peddled in 2005.

This is no way to get started on addressing the retirement crisis. Household wealth dropped by a whopping $3.0 trillion from the middle of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, but who is counting? Apparently, a lot of people are. The Employee Benefits Research Institute reported in April 2008 that only 18 percent of workers were very confident that they will live comfortably in retirement – the primary reason for people to build wealth. This is the lowest level of retirement confidence since 1993.

Contrast this with Sen. Obama’s proposals. Sen. Obama has proposed to protect Social Security by opposing privatization and a higher retirement age, while also looking to increase revenues by expanding the cap, above which earnings are not subject to Social Security taxes, currently $102,000.

Moreover, Sen. Obama wants to make it easier for people to save. He would require that employers automatically enroll their employees in retirement savings plans and, if employers don’t offer such plans, they would have to offer employees an easy way to contribute to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) through payroll deduction. On top of this, he would vastly improve the current system of public matches for people’s contributions to their retirement savings accounts, at least for families making less than $75,000. Sen. McCain has no such proposals.

The candidates need to tell voters how they will address their concerns. It is clear that wanting to cut Social Security amid rapidly dwindling wealth doesn’t accomplish that.