Sorry I missed this one, Jody.

The Left does not like the real middle class. They have to pretend to, in the same way they have to pretend to be religious to win elections, but they don't.

Try and imagine a typical middle class American family. Where they hope to live, what kind of house they want, what they drive the family around in, where they take the kids to eat and play, where they go to church. What they believe. Take some time and paint a good picture, with details.

Leftists hold almost all of these things in deep contempt.

The "middle class" is a term they float out in mid-air, without specifics. Most of the time, they won't even touch how much income makes someone "middle class." In your link, they slide over the numbers and say this:

My boss, the Vice President, often describes the "middle class" as any family that can't afford to miss more than two or three paychecks without financial difficulty.

Their definition shows the goal. To them, the middle class should be another "victim" class to be exploited and transferred over to dependence on the government. Those middle-class families--or any others--that are self-sufficient and prosperous are the enemy.

A leftist organization developed a "Middle Class Security Index" that "proves" most middle class families are in trouble (i.e. can't get by without depending on the government). It seems to be based on this questionaire. Using their parameters, how rich does someone have to be to score as "financially secure?" For example, multiply your monthly mortgage payment by 60, and you get the after-tax income they think makes you "financially secure" in that category.