Middle Class as Defined by Hillary and the Vote Getting Dems

Keenan posted earlier today about Hillary-isms.

So I thought it appropriate to describe what she and the rest of the Dems mean when they talk about not raising taxes on the middle class.

My guess is that their definition is vastly different than yours or mine, or that of anybody else, for that matter, who's interested in plainly and accurately communicating the meaning of the words chosen.

Politics sucks.

$250,000 a Year Is Not Middle Class has the story:

"HILLARY CLINTON has vowed not to raise taxes on the middle class.

It’s a pledge that has worked well for others on the campaign trail before her, a resonant assurance to voters who saw themselves as middle class or aspired to be. But it’s a bad promise.

Mrs. Clinton is using a definition of middle class that has long been popular among Democratic policy makers, from her husband to Barack Obama when he was a candidate: any household that makes $250,000 or less a year. Yet this definition is completely out of touch with reality....

The most recent Census Bureau data showed that median household income — what people in the exact middle of the American spectrum earn — is $53,657.

Those families who make $250,000 a year, on the other hand, belong to an elite group: Americans who earn enough to be in the highest 5 percent of the income distribution....

This doesn’t matter just because the math is so off. In an era of deepening income inequality, those people in the top 5 percent who are being classified as middle class are pulling further away from the rest of us. Americans at the bottom or in the middle have experienced five years of falling or stagnating income; those in the top 5 percent have generally seen their incomes increase. Between 1967 and 2014, median household income went up by $9,400 while those 5 percenters are now making $88,800 more, all adjusted for inflation. . . .

But under Mrs. Clinton’s pledge, some of the well off won’t be called on to help out, and are in fact lumped in for receiving a boost."

Summing Up 

Middle class is whatever the vote seeking politician says it is, I guess.

And Hillary is definitely a politician fighting for every vote she can get.

In her view, what difference does it make? Words mean whatever she says they mean.

That's my take.

Thanks. Bob.