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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said today that he believes President Barack Obama will restore the American Dream for the middle class.

"He's going to surprise a lot of people with how strong he will be down the road, because I believe he will focus on the middle class like a laser," Schumer said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Schumer suggested there was a disconnect between the Democrats' accomplishments and how they are perceived.

"Congress the last two years [has] been historic," he told host Bob Schieffer. "We've passed major pieces of legislation, four pieces that will go down in history as one of the most significant Congresses we've had. But two of them, the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) - which was passed the previous Congress but it gets attributed to us - and the stimulus, prevented bad things from happening. There were about 10 million people probably who are working now who would not have been had we not passed those laws, but they don't know who they are.

"And then, two, health care and financial reform will benefit the middle class, but in the future. So the average middle class citizen with incomes declining, with unemployment high, said, 'Nothing is benefiting me now.'

"My advice is very simple. It would be the same to the President, to my colleagues in the Senate and House, to people of the other party: Focus on the middle class like a laser," Schumer said.

"Any leader, any party, that just says 'We're going to block everything' as middle class incomes are declining is going to lose in 2012."

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