Under President Obama ‘The Middle Class Is Hollowing Out’

Pew: ‘The Middle Class Lost Ground In Nearly Nine-In-Ten U.S. Metropolitan Areas’

PEW: ‘Middle Class Is Losing Ground … Across The Country’
WALL STREET JOURNAL: “No President has done worse by the middle class in modern times.” (Editorial, “Incomes And Poverty, 2014,” Wall Street Journal, 9/16/15)

• AP: “In cities across America, the middle class is hollowing out.” (“Middle Class In Major U.S. Cities Is Shrinking, Pew Study Says,” AP, 5/12/16)
• WASHINGTON POST’s Wonkblog: “The great shrinking of the middle class that has captured the attention of the nation is not only playing out in troubled regions like the Rust Belt, Appalachia and the Deep South, but in just about every metropolitan area in America…” (“The Middle Class Is Shrinking Just About Everywhere In America,” The Washington Post’s Wonkblog, 5/11/16)

PEW: “America’s Shrinking Middle Class… The middle class lost ground in nearly nine-in-ten U.S. metropolitan areas examined” (“America’s Shrinking Middle Class,” Pew Research Center, 5/11/16)

• “The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee. From 2000 to 2014 the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas examined in a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. The decrease in the middle-class share was often substantial, measuring 6 percentage points or more in 53 metropolitan areas…” (“America’s Shrinking Middle Class,” Pew Research Center, 5/11/16)
• “The changes at the metropolitan level… demonstrate that the national trend is the result of widespread declines in localities all around the country.” (“America’s Shrinking Middle Class,” Pew Research Center, 5/11/16)

PEW: “The decline in household incomes at the national level reflected nearly universal losses across U.S. metropolitan areas. Middle-income households lost ground financially in 222 of 229 metropolitan areas from 1999 to 2014.” (“America’s Shrinking Middle Class,” Pew Research Center, 5/11/16)

• “American households in all income tiers experienced a decline in their incomes from 1999 to 2014. Nationally, the median income of middle-income households decreased from $77,898 in 1999 to $72,919 in 2014, a loss of 6%.” (“America’s Shrinking Middle Class,” Pew Research Center, 5/11/16)

‘Middle Class Is No Longer The Majority In America’
“The middle class is no longer the majority in America.” (“America’s Middle Class Is No Longer the Majority,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/09/2015)

• “The nation's middle class, long a pillar of the U.S. economy and foundation of the American dream, has shrunk to the point where it no longer constitutes the majority of the adult population, according to a new major study.” (“Middle-Class Families, Pillar Of The American Dream, Are No Longer In The Majority, Study Finds,” Los Angeles Times, 12/09/2015)

PEW: “In early 2015, 120.8 million adults were in middle-income households, compared with 121.3 million in lower- and upper-income households combined, a demographic shift that could signal a tipping point…” (“The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground,” Pew Research Center, 12/9/15)

• “…middle-income Americans have fallen further behind financially in the new century. In 2014, the median income of these households was 4% less than in 2000. Moreover, because of the housing market crisis and the Great Recession of 2007-09, their median wealth (assets minus debts) fell by 28% from 2001 to 2013.” (“The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground,” Pew Research Center, 12/9/15)

RHETORIC: ‘President Obama Says He's All About The Middle Class’ “President Obama says he's all about the middle class. He's labeled his agenda, Middle Class Economics...” (“Who Actually Benefits From Obama’s ‘Middle Class Economics,’” CNN Money, 2/02/2015) PRESIDENT OBAMA: “[W]hat I believe is, is that America does best when the middle class does better.” (Pres. Obama, Remarks In Birmingham, AL, 3/26/2015)

• OBAMA: “We know from the facts that are there for all to see that America does better, our economy does better, everybody does better when the middle class does better...” (Pres. Obama, Remarks, Cleveland, OH, 3/18/2015)
• OBAMA: “We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.” (Pres. Obama, Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama, 1/21/2013)

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