UPDATE: Hillary continues to use the “trillion dollar tax cut” line.
UPDATE: Hillary continues to use the “trillion dollar tax cut” line.
This entry was posted on November 17, 2007 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Democrats, Election 2008, Families, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Seniors, Youtube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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November 17, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I don’t know what the 2007 numbers are, but in 2006, 17% of americans made over 100k. I don’t think it went down that much in 1 year. I think he needs to get his numbers correct too…
November 17, 2007 at 2:37 pm
She’s crazy. Obviously she has no idea what the middle class is. On the one hand I don’t blame her…there isn’t much of a middle class left to identify.
-Eric Palmieri
http://www.ericpalmieri.com
November 17, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Thanks for your comment, smrtas1. I think you’re mixing up personal income and household income.
Obama said “only 6% of Americans make more than $97,000 per year.” That statement requires looking at individual level incomes and 6% of Americans do make more than $97,000 per year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States#_note-US_Census_Bureau.2C_distribution_of_personal_income.2C_2006
If he had said “American families” or “American households” then you’d have a case.
November 18, 2007 at 10:33 am
I just assummed that since they were talking middle class, they were refering to households. Both statistics paint (or at least sound like) drastically different pictures depending upon the point you are tyring to make (which I guess is the point….).
November 18, 2007 at 10:51 am
Yeah, but Obama is right to reference individual income rather than household income. He’s talking about raising the social security tax, which is a tax on individuals, not on families, right? Because it comes right out of your paycheck. So, it wouldn’t matter if the family was making more than $97,000 a year, they would not be taxed any more. However, if an individual person was making more than $97,000, they would be taxed some more. I’m sorry, but if you have one person making $97K a year, I don’t consider that a “middle-class” income.
December 27, 2007 at 4:08 am
income taxes
income taxes
January 24, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I am beginning to think that $97K income a year is the new amount necessary to BE middle class…
February 7, 2008 at 3:58 pm
For starters, just for the record, I’m 100% an Obama supporter.
But a single person making 97k a year very well can be a member of the middle class. Keep in mind that cost of living varies drastically around the country. $97,000 in Washington, DC only goes as far as $62,511 does in rural Indiana. Now imagine a family of five, living in DC. One parent makes around 97,000 a year. The other parent is a disabled veteran who can only work a few hours a week. He receives very little compensation from the VA. One of their children has a medical condition that makes him ineligible for health insurance. The medication for this condition costs $90 a dose. The family also has to pay all of his other medical expenses, from a doctor’s visit for Strep on up to anything short of a ‘catastrophic injury,’ out of pocket. Another one of their children has severe learning disabilities that the public school system couldn’t handle. Two of their three kids are in college.
I’m not making any of those numbers up–I’ve just described an actual family, And when you do the math on their situation, suddenly it’s that two-car, one-child, $62,000 annual income family from Fort Wayne that looks a little posh.
March 2, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Shutup! $97K is NOT middleclass. End of story!
March 4, 2008 at 12:06 pm
OK, so, if I believe that a person making $97K/year is middle class - then what qualifies as “upper” class? If only the top 6% make over $97K, those people are upper class! It’s the DEFINITION of upper class!
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that there are different costs of living, depending upon where you live. But if you want a definition of middle class, one thing it is NOT is the top 6% - PERIOD.