The increasingly-disconnected-from-anything-remotely-resembling-reality Mitt Romney told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America today that he believes taxes should be lowered on middle income people. That is, "middle income" as defined by Mittens: those with annual incomes in the $200,000 to $250,000 range. One of his (probably very frustrated this week) handlers attempted to walk back that statement of utter disconnectedness by claiming Mitty was referring to total household income, not individual income.
Well, I've got some bad news for you, Mitty:
The whole screw-up is very nicely detailed in Laura Clawson's great diary, Mitt Romney: Reduce taxes on middle-income people. You know, the ones making $250,000, so I won't go into detail here. Instead, I'd just like you to ponder this latest disconnect between the real world and Mr. Mitt "Car Elevator, Corporations Are People, I Hang With Team Owners" Romney, and try to imagine living in a Romney-ian fantasy world in which the median household earns between $100 and $120 per hour. (In that world, my meager mid five-figure salary as a single father pretty much means I and my kids will be hanging out on skid row. Gee, as if I wasn't feeling bad enough already.)
I've uploaded a larger version of the graph here: http://img36.imageshack.us/...
Household income data: Current Population Survey (CPS) - 2011 Household Income
1:21 PM PT: A few have correctly pointed out that Romney's actual words were, "middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less". Aside from the very awkward phraseology, I don't believe the "and less" part clears Romney of accusations of disconnectedness. The point is, the Man Who Would Be President truly believes that the top end of middle class starts with those households with an income less than the highest 2.32% of all incomes. And that is, of course, all kinds of messed up...