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So, is there a hard and fast number to define the middle class?United States government, you wanna help us out here? No? Not really?Well, at least there's an official poverty line. In 2007, it was an annual income under $20,650 for a family of four.As for middle class, well, the Congressional Research Service issued a report last year pegging middle class income as between $19,000 a year and $91,000 a year.But even the specialist in quantitative economics who put together that study said there is no consensus or official government definition.So we decided to ask around. First up; Brookings Institution...

Of the 300+ books on google books using the term, "middle class America", only one earliest is 1971, a few in 1980`s and 95% in 1990`s and 2000`s til now. I never heard the term "middle class Americans" in my youth, not even in college sociology classes in 1960`s. It appears to be a made-up-term borrowed from English social class structure as defined by Webster. These communist sociologists try to force an Englsh social model upon America which is impossible- to make a square peg fit a round hole in an fallacious attempt to define a fluid social dynamic of...

Since the "soak the rich" rhetoric has begun again, I though it was a good time to make sure that everyone knows exactly how adjusted gross income and federal individual income taxes are distributed among the various income brackets. I hope the moderators will indulge me and leave this in front-page news. I encourage everyone to bookmark this thread or the original source of data, so that you can refer to it when someone claims that the rich aren't paying their fair share. First, let's start with the source of the data: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09in03etr.xls That's an Excel workbook. If you don't...

At a Campaign rally in 2008, Obama said that health care should not purchased with a tax increase (October 4, 2008).

In spite of a conflicting narrative, Vice President Joe Biden identified himself with the middle class, while campaigning in Iowa this afternoon, insisting to the audience that Republicans don’t understand “us” in the middle class. Biden added that being middle class was more of a “way of life,” than an income level. “I love these other guys, they talk about us as a number, ‘Was it $49,270 or $52,719 dollars? What’s the definition of the middle class?’” Biden said. “The middle class, is a value set, the middle class is a way of life.”

Obama visits, calls election 'make or break' for middle classBy Jim Brunner and Dominic Gates Seattle Times staff reporters Originally published Friday, February 17, 2012 at 10:17 PM President Obama called the 2012 election a "make-or-break moment" for the middle class Friday during a campaign swing through the Seattle area, rallying supporters at two pricey Eastside fundraisers and touring Boeing's Everett plant to promote his plans to revive American manufacturing. Obama touched down at Paine Field in the morning and toured a United Airlines 787 at the end of the Dreamliner assembly line, pronouncing the dimmable windows in the plane...

Congress caused the mortgage crisis, not the banks. Permit denied for Occupy Madison due to public masturbation. Cops: School worker asked student to pose nude for picture.

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- President Obama discussed the Middle East and education policy in a pre-Rosh Hashanah call with rabbis. Close to 900 rabbis listened in on Obama's call Thursday afternoon, which was arranged by the Reform movement's Religious Action Center. Obama has made such calls since 2009, the first year of his presidency. He fielded two questions, one about what the changes of the Arab Spring mean for Israel, the other about funding for schools. Obama said the United States was committed to Israel. He noted close U.S.-Israel cooperation and his efforts to isolate Iran as long as it advances...

"Now the Republicans, you know when I, I talked about this earlier in the week. They said 'well, this is class warfare.' You know what? If asking a billionaire to pay their fair of taxes. To pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare, then you know what? I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm a warrior for the middle class. I'm happy to fight for the middle class," President Obama said at the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati, OH.

There is one aspect of the final debt deal from DC that took me by surprise. I was convinced the 2% reduction in payroll taxes would be extended through 2012. On July 12th I wrote about this and got it completely wrong. Not only did I think there would be a one year extension of the existing holiday; I forecast that the subsidy would actually be increased.

A quasi-scandal has broken out at Arkansas’ Russellville Middle School. The school’s yearbook featured a list of the “Top 5 Worst People of All Time.” Some of the world’s most horrific murderers and maniacs were included: Adolph Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Charles Manson… Few people would argue that these individuals don’t deserve a spot on that roster. Each went on murderous rampages and were, arguably, mentally-imbalanced. However, it‘s the list’s last two names that are causing a stir: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The former president and vice-president don’t seem to share many characteristics with the other men they...

In a region already marked by terror and uneasy alliances between tribal conflicts dating back thousands of years, PRESIDENT OBAMA backed a Palestinian demand to Israel: “GET OUT!” Trying to advance debate, Barack Obama endorsed a key Palestinian demand for the borders of its future state, prodding Israel to withdraw back to borders established in 1967. He also prodded Israel to accept the demand because it can never have a truly peaceful nation based on "permanent occupation." Obama urged that a permanent Palestinian state be based on 1967 borders – the ones that existed prior to the Six Day War...

In a private phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, almost two weeks after the unrest began, President Barack Obama finally called for Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to step down. While the President’s inertia may have been mitigated by the need to get Americans out of the country so Qadhafi could not take any hostages, the incident demonstrates again that the wave of revolution currently sweeping North Africa and the Middle East took the Obama Administration completely by surprise. And for good reason: President Obama’s “engagement” strategy toward the “Islamic world” is thoroughly outdated and irrelevant. The first wave of...

IBD Editorials Editorial: Our So-Called 'Centrist' President Posted 01/24/2011 06:59 PM ET Politics: Will the man who conned the public into believing he was a moderate, but who has governed as the most immoderate leftist in the country's history, now try to pull the same con so he can be elected again? How naive does he think we are? Well, pretty darn naive, given the polls that everyone is bending over backward to cite. They show President Obama's approval rating turning up in large part because he didn't let the Bush tax cuts expire, enlisted cronies to help him appear...

WASHINGTON (AP) - After meeting with President Barack Obama Thursday, Democratic leaders in Congress said they plan to hold a series of politically charged votes to extend middle-class tax cuts while letting tax cuts for the wealthy expire. Excerpted per FR posting rules.

The Mythical Middle: Why moderates are dangerous. What is a moderate? Who, exactly, lives in the middle of the political spectrum? More importantly, why does anyone care? In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who is not extreme, partisan or radical. Politicians are always seeking out the votes of the mythical moderates, independents and undecided. We hear how politicians move to the “middle” to garner votes or stem a tide of resentment towards their policies. We hear politicians admonished to tone down the rhetoric less they scare away moderate voters. President Clinton comes to mind, most recently, utilizing...

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, known for his smoothness and precision, seems to have erred egregiously twice in just weeks. First, he speculated on TV that Democrats might lose the House, an inexcusable blunder because it is his job to omit the truth — not lie, just omit the truth — when the truth hurts. Then, there he was in print this week, deriding “professional liberals” who label President Barack Obama too moderate, saying they need “to be drug tested.” Gibbs should have expected this would enrage liberals. Maybe that’s just what he planned. Facing reporters Wednesday, Gibbs neither...

As part of his public reconciliation with Israel, Obama for the first time in the almost 18 months since he became president just gave an interview to an Israeli TV station (this from the same American president who gave his first interview in office to Al-Arabiya — remember that ?). Speaking Wednesday to Israel’s Channel 2 News, Obama struck a friendly tone. And yet, as if he can’t quite help himself, out comes this astonishingly crude remark. As reported in the New York Times, he was asked about “the anxiety of many Israelis who feel that he does not have...

the Congressional Budget Office has released data estimating that by 2016, 3 million Americans earning less than $59,000 a year will face a penalty for not having health insurance. An additional 900,000 earning more than that will also pay the penalty. To be clear, these numbers underestimate the full cost of the mandate. To start with, the estimates don't include those Americans who will decide to purchase insurance in response to the mandate. If somebody otherwise wouldn't choose to purchase insurance but because of the mandate ends up paying thousands of dollars in of premiums, that represents a cost, too....

One more small detail they forgot to tell you about in the health care bill: Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — because of healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’ official scorekeeper for legislation. The new law raises $15.2 billion over 10 years by limiting the medical expense deduction, a provision widely used by taxpayers who either have a serious illness or are older.