Here's a pretty interesting video. It's an MSNBC debate about corporate tax cuts vs. "middle class" tax cuts between Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA). When asked how to define "middle class," Schwartz says, "We are looking at a very broad group of Americans." So what's their income? $75,000? $250,000? "Even higher than that!" Schwartz claims. And then it's Cantor, the conservative, who chimes in with a reality check! "You're way into the top 1 percent there," he says.
It's good politics for Democrats to be extending some tax relief to the upper middle class and even the affluent. But let's not confuse our terms. The median household income in 2006 was $48,201. Families in the middle quintile of incomes earned between $22,000 and $57,657.
Hat tip: Anne Schroeder Mullins.
--Dana Goldstein
