NEWSWATCH: Just who ARE the middle class?

The Associated Press’s Calvin Woodward exposes political dancing at its finest: every 2008 presidential candidate purports to help the middle class, but they each have radically different interpretations of exactly who that is.

Once each candidate’s tax plans and promises are examined, Woodward found that “middle class” definitions range from poverty level to those living the high life on $200,000 salaries.

The real middle class, of course, are conventionally defined as those households with income between 80-120% of the national median income - or, by today’s standards, $35,200-$52,800. Read the rest of this entry »