Free Republic

1. Vacations 2. New vehicles 3. To pay off debt 4. Emergency savings 5. Retirement savings 6. Medical care 7. Dental work

During debates and speeches, politicians often bring up the financial burden that’s placed on the middle class. We talk about the middle class as though they are this singular entity, who used to thrive until they underwent persecution by the evil 1%. But, realistically speaking, the middle class and the 99% are not really synonymous. So, who are the middle class? In its discussion of historical middle class societies, The Economist reports, “Their members are neither rich nor poor but somewhere in-between…’Middle-class’ describes an income category but also a set of attitudes…An essential characteristic is the possession of a reasonable...

resident Obama’s concern about “middle class economics” is justified. But as I pointed out in a previous post, his prescriptions would do almost nothing to solve the problems. According to a private sector estimate, the benefit for families in the middle from all of the Obama proposals would be a paltry $12 a year. According to the Treasury Department, the benefit would be closer to $150. Either way, it’s small potatoes. If you don’t understand the problem – or won’t acknowledge it even if you do understand it – you are unlikely to find a solution that works. Here is...

If the first decade and a half is any guide, the 21st century will not be known as the era of the middle class in the U.S. The middle class shrunk in all 50 states between 2000 and 2013, and median income, adjusted for inflation, was lower at the end of 2013 in the vast majority of states than it was in 2000, according to a new study by the Pew Charitable Trust’s Stateline. The analysis, conducted by Stateline’s Tim Henderson, defines “middle class” as individuals earning between 67 percent and 200 percent of the state’s median income. The study...

American households now have a total net worth of $83 trillion, but most families are still behind where they were in 2007. Americans’ total wealth has reached a record. According to a Federal Reserve report released Thursday, the net worth of U.S. households and nonprofit organizations rose to $82.9 trillion at the end of 2014. Much of that growth was driven by stocks, which grew in value by $742 billion during the final quarter of last year. The value of residential real estate also rose by $356 billion. However, these aggregate numbers from the Fed provide only a partial view...

The AFL-CIO’s bold announcement that it would withhold contributions to congressional Democrats in advance of votes on fast-track trade protection authority thrilled labor supporters and annoyed many Democrats. But it remains to be seen whether the move will impede the Obama administration’s trade agenda — or merely become the latest illustration of unions’ declining clout. The AFL-CIO has tried such moves in the past — including during the 1993 fight over the North American Free Trade Agreement — only to be defeated and then resume funding Democrats again. Now, with a wide margin of pro-trade Republicans in the House and...

In what could be a significant opening for the Republican Party, working-class Americans have largely abandoned President Obama and rejected his economic policies as they continue to suffer from the historically weak economic recovery, a new analysis of IBD/TIPP Poll data finds. By wide margins, this group is more likely than any other income class to say the country is headed in the wrong direction, the economy is getting worse, and they fear losing their jobs. Just 36% approve of the job that Obama is doing, compared with 43% overall, and vast majorities say his policies haven't helped the middle...

In what could be a significant opening for the Republican Party, working-class Americans have largely abandoned President Obama and rejected his economic policies as they continue to suffer from the historically weak economic recovery, a new analysis of IBD/TIPP Poll data finds.

Very few people in America are willing to identify as upper class, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.About 94% of people in that income bracket (over $100,000) identified as middle class, upper middle class, or lower middle class while only 6% called themselves upper class.Here are the results of the survey:Pew Research Center While a family of three with an income of up to $122,000 is still considered "middle income," the over-$100,000 range also includes families with much higher salaries than that.Pew Research Center And although only 6% of survey respondents identified as upper class, Pew's data shows...

ISIS militant ‘Jihadi John’ unmasked as middle-class Brit By Yaron Steinbuch February 26, 2015 | 7:16am The infamous masked ISIS madman seen in gruesome videos beheading Western hostages was identified by media outlets Thursday as Mohammed Emwazi — a middle-class Briton with a degree in computer programming. The BBC reported that the Kuwaiti-born Emwazi is in his mid-20s and from West London. British authorities chose not to identify him earlier for operational reasons. “I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John,” one of Emwazi’s close friends told the Washington Post. “He was like a brother to me. . . . I...

Who said: "I've always believed the decline of the middle class could be tied to the decline of unions. And when you have 7%, 8% of the work force in unions, when you have CEO pay going up to record heights, you're going to have a hollowing out of the middle class." Was it a. Elizabeth Warren; b. Robert Reich; or c. Ed Schultz? Correct answer: d. None of the above. It was Joe Scarborough on today's Morning Joe. Scarborough prefaced his lament over the decline of unions by saying "It's been well-documented on Twitter: I'm a right-wing Republican stooge."...

The law has been written by liberals for liberals, to benefit their Democrat voting constituents to the detriment of everyone else It is becoming increasingly difficult for Virginians to find doctors and secure appointments in a timely manner thanks to Obamacare. After a fierce battle, the bills meant to create state exchanges and to expand Medicaid have died in the House and in the Senate. However, Democrat Governor McAuliffe added Medicaid expansion to his budget amendment. The House removed that language from the budget. As millions of Americans, who previously had insurance and doctors they were satisfied with and wanted...

Just weeks after President Obama proclaimed that America had turned the corner and his "middle class economics" was working, the public is more pessimistic than they've been in months, and few think Obama's policies have significantly helped the middle class, the latest IBD/TIPP poll finds.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is to deliver what aides call an “optimistic, conservative vision for the future” in his first unpaid speech since declaring his interest in a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. […] Wednesday’s speech is the first in a series of stops his aides call his “Right to Rise” tour, borrowing from his economic mantra and the name of the political action committee he formed in December. Bush’s speech, aides said, is aimed at underscoring his desire to reinvigorate the middle class, which he argues has languished despite the ongoing economic recovery. Conservative economic policies,...

President Barack Obama calls his tax and spending plan ´middle-class economics,´ but most middle-income families would see little change in their tax bills. Obama is proposing a total of $1.5 trillion in new taxes over the next decade, mostly on corporations and high-income households. He would use much of that money--nearly $280 billion--to pay for targeted tax breaks for low- and middle-income families. Obama´s proposed tax cuts would benefit households with two wage earners, families with young children in child care and those with older children in college. One proposal would automatically enroll workers in individual retirement accounts, unless they

When Democrats talk about middle class Americans, they almost inevitably use them as a cudgel to attack the rich. On the other hand, bizarrely, Republicans seem to spend much more time defending the rich from attacks by the Left than talking about what they’re going to do to help the middle class. That’s unfortunate because middle class Americans are the backbone of the country; yet their interests always seem to take a backseat to those of the wealthy, the poor and the naked self-interest of BOTH political parties. There’s nothing wrong with giving the poor a hand-up or making sure...

It took far too long, but finally many state politicians are taking seriously Census Bureau reports that California is ground zero for American poverty. Once the high cost of living is factored in, the Golden State moves from the middle of the pack nationally to a clear number one, with nearly one-quarter of residents in a constant struggle to make ends meet. But with this harsh fact finally internalized, when will state leaders come to the parallel realization that having among the nation’s highest energy and real estate costs is also bad for the economy — and for job-seekers without...

.....it is clear that millions are struggling to hang on to accouterments that most experts consider essential to a middle-class life..... Lisa Land, 49, is one of those who have dropped through the hatch. She gets by on her father’s $1,300 monthly Social Security checks and by having her adult daughter pitch in for groceries. Her circumstances are a stark change from just a few years ago, when she considered herself firmly in the middle class. Despite a relatively modest salary, her pay and other resources went a long way in tiny Eden, N.C., where she worked for 13 years...

The middle class that President Obama identified in his State of the Union speech last week as the foundation of the American economy has been shrinking for almost half a century.In the late 1960s, more than half of the households in the United States were squarely in the middle, earning, in today’s dollars, $35,000 to $100,000 a year. Few people noticed or cared as the size of that group began to fall, because the shift was primarily caused by more Americans climbing the economic ladder into upper-income brackets.But since 2000, the middle-class share of households has continued to narrow, the...

During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening, Barack Obama is going to promise to make life better for middle class families. Of course he has also promised to do this during all of his other State of the Union addresses, but apparently he still believes that there are people out there that are buying what he is selling. Each January, he gets up there and tells us how the economy is “turning around” and to believe that much brighter days are right around the corner. And yet things just continue to get even worse for the middle...