A Taxing Question: Who's in the Middle Class?

Every time I hear John McCain accuse Barack Obama of raising taxes on the middle class, my reaction is “Huh?”

But today it hit me. In August McCain famously told Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Southern California that you aren’t rich until you make $5 million a year.

Could me mean that making less than $5 million a year are “middle class”?

If so, Obama, who has said he would raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year, would indeed be raising taxes on the middle class, at least as McCain defines it.

Somebody needs to nail McCain on his definition of “middle class.” A simple show of hands would do the job. Obama might ask all those who make more than $250,000 a year, to raise their hands.

Right.

In front of certain country club Republican audiences (in Arizona?), the response might be different. McCain, like fellow multi-millionaire George W. Bush, lives in a bubble.

(Another question: If you did raise your hand, would it really be unfair for you to pay more in taxes?)

It probably doesn’t matter with only six days left in the campaign and Obama firmly ahead, but a working definition of middle class would straighten out the back and forth about taxes. It would explain which class would and wouldn't won’t be taxed under Obama’s plan.

The clarification would also put the lie to John McCain.