McCain’s Warped Definition of The Middle Class

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Last updated on August 11th, 2014 at 12:03 am

The Obama campaign has seized on an answer that John McCain gave at the Saddleback Forum on Saturday defining the line between middle class and rich as income over $5 million a year.

Here is the exchange between McCain and Warren from Ben Smith’s Blog:

WARREN: Everybody talks about, you know, taxing the rich, but not the poor, the middle class. At what point, give me a number, give me a specific number. Where do you move from middle class to rich? […]

MCCAIN: How about $5 million? No, but seriously, I don’t think you can, I don’t think seriously that the point is I’m trying to make, seriously, and I’m sure that comment will be distorted but the point is…that we want to keep people’s taxes low, and increase revenues. … So, it doesn’t matter really what my definition of rich is because I don’t want to raise anybody’s taxes. I really don’t.

McCain was joking, but he did dodge the question completely. That was a through non-answer. Barack Obama said today in New Mexico that he thought maybe McCain was joking, but by McCain’s definition a person making $3 million is middle class. Obama said that McCain’s skewed idea of wealth is reflected in his policies. Why is McCain afraid to define his idea of middle class? Is it because he has chosen, much like President Bush has, to ignore the working people of this country.

John McCain has been living the rich life for so long that he doesn’t know, or even worse, doesn’t care about the middle class. It is the spending of the middle and lower classes that keeps this economy going. We have had eight years of trickledown economics under George W. Bush, with the same results we experienced under Reagan. The rich got richer, and the poor and middle class got squeezed. This is what John McCain is offering America more of.

I am not in favor of overtaxing, but it is time for those who make the most to pay their fair share. They have been getting richer off the backs of the rest of us for eight years, and now it is time to return the favor. How can anyone trust a candidate who is afraid to speak directly to those who are hurting most in this economy? John McCain only sees the world of wealth that he lives in. The rest of us don’t exist, and I, for one, am tired of being invisible.

Author
Recent Posts

Follow Me

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

Follow Me