Defining middle class is not an exact science, however, most academics agree that the term refers to anyone earning between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. (Median household income in the U.S. hovers around $50,000.)
Every member of the President's task force makes well over $150,000, putting them in the top 5% of wage earners.
Vice President Joe Biden earns $227,000, Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer earns $172,000 and Energy Secretary Steven Chu earns $191,000.
While middle class Americans are invited to submit questions and ideas through the task force's website, AstrongMiddleClass.gov and tickets for the Philadelphia meeting were distributed to labor and environmental groups, the task force did not accept questions from the audience.
"If Biden and his team want to go into this [middle class issue]," said Daniel Morris, communications director of the Drum Major Institute, a think tank that analyzes middle class policy issues, "They're going to need to talk to real members of the middle class. There's no substitute for immediate intimate interaction."
Instead, the task force talked to Pennsylvania governor Edward Rendell ($175,000), Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter ($167,000) and United Steelworkers of America president Leo Gerard, (who reportedly earns over $170,000).
At that rate about all the task force will do is go from city to city and pat themselves on the back, learning nothing of the problems of the middle-class.
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