Bush, Kerry tussle over the elusive middle class

[AmyStrange]

Bush, Kerry tussle over the elusive middle class
Sun Jun 13, 9:40 AM ET
Chicago Tribune
By Jill Zuckman Washington Bureau

FROM: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20040613/ts_chicagotrib/bushkerrytussleovertheelusivemiddleclass&cid=2027&ncid=1926
In a presidential election year, everybody loves the middle class.

That's because nearly 9 in 10 Americans consider themselves part of that vast segment of society that strives for wages to enable them to send their children to college, care for their parents in old age and retire comfortably after years in the workforce.

They are a part of the ritual appeal by Republicans and Democrats in each presidential election. But both parties have long spoken to this group in distinctly different ways, with varying prescriptions for help.

Being considered middle class has been an elemental American aspiration for decades in the sense of having strived, arrived and achieved.

Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) of Massachusetts, the presumptive Democratic nominee, launches a broad appeal to middle-class voters this week as he campaigns in key Midwestern states, decrying the financial squeeze they face in the form of rising health-care, gasoline and college tuition costs. To no one's surprise, he blames the troubles on President Bush (news - web sites)'s economic policies.

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My take: we should figure out a way to make college affordable to everyone without government subsidies. Online degrees that are regulated and only cost 10$ a credit.

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[Lefty Pragmatist]

1. As a true middle class member

(homeowner, $120k gross income for a 2-income household, overall family of three), I maintain that the way to reach my peers is to compile statistics on the real cost of Bush's policies to us. Add up all the net gains on one side of the ledger (the tax return, the effect of the stimulus on real wages and earnings power) and add up the negatives on the other side (cost of the debt, curtailment of state/local services, increase of state/local taxes, loss of quality of life reflected in GOP's redirection of national priorities to benefit only the wealthy).

People monitor their financial situation, investments, and assets constantly. They aren't stupid. They simply need to be presented with the facts of the utter ripoff against the middle class that resulted (intentionally) from Bush tax policy. They will go to Kerry in droves if JFK simply stands up there and says, "screw it, I'll just return you to where you were under Clinton."

[Beetwasher]

2. The Middle Classes Best Interest Lay W/ Kerry

Time and again Repubs have gotten them to vote against their own self interest through emotionally manipulative PR tactics...