When it comes to the gap between the rich and poor, we’ve all heard the numbers. The richest one percent of US households own 34.3% of the nation’s wealth. In 2006, according to Forbes, the top 20 private equity & hedge fund managers took in $657.5 million, 22,255 times the pay of the average US worker. CEOs earn roughly 364 times the average full and part-time worker. But who’s counting anyway?

On today’s panel we examine why wealth matters with Chuck Collins, Director of the Program on Inequality & the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, Dorian Warren a professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and Maureen Lane, Co-Director of the Welfare Rights Initiative and a fellow of the Drum Major Institute.

And an unexpected guest: Phil T. Rich, a member of Billionaires for Bush and the newly minted organization, Lobbyists for McCain. He tells us why trickledown economics works…as long as you’re patient and why tax cuts are the answer. A hostile takeover of GRITtv’s studio? Find out here.