Elizabeth blogged last night on the Debt Matters conference here at my summer employers at the Center for American Progress. In the days before the conference, another potential 2008 candidate established the debt-induced anxiety of the middle class as a major plank of a future presidential campaign. In a pair of speeches at the National Press Club and in Iowa, Senator Evan Bayh spoke of the need for a set of new policies designed to address these debt fears and ensure a strong and growing middle class.

Senator Bayh laid out a set of policy proposals designed to encourage savings, make college more affordable, and expand health care coverage. While he criticized Senator John Edwards for his focus on poverty, a focus that I have praised in the past, in the end both candidates are advocating reforms that will address the increased risks faced by middle class families as the price of opportunity rises.

The price of opportunity has boomed as the state has withdrawn itself from key sectors of the economy. Deregulation of the credit industry, inaction on health care, and a federal aversion to funding education in any serious way have resulted in higher fixed costs for working families struggling to keep pace with the global economy. The Boston Review hosted a symposium with articles on risk and the middl-class with worthwhile articles here, here, and here.

Sen. Bayh is now the second prospective '08 candidate to take on middle class issues as a major plank of a future campaign platform. What started with John Edwards in 2004 appears to be spreading. Here's hoping that this narrative of a middle-class on the brink becomes central to the the campaign platforms of both parties by the fall of 2008.