The middle class has been a major issue, the condition of the middle class in this country. The people at the Pew Research Center that said the american middle class is losing ground. We want to get your thoughts this morning on what policy is needed to help the american middle class. Byare going to break this up income. Here is the headline to the poll. They didnt couple of months back. Its very relative to this campaign. People say the government doesnt do enough to help the middle class. There are mixed views on which class the democratic hearty favors. This is a chart. They asked 1500 people which social classes do the republicans and democrats favor. Said republicans favor the rich. When those same people were asked about democrats, 31 said they bring the poor. 32 say they favor the middle class and 26 say the rich. There are some overview points. There are now roughly as many adults in middle Income Housing as in lower or upper income households. This is a shift from four decades ago. Middle income americans were clearly in the majority. Has of the Household Income shifted. If in a shifted from middle income to upper since 1970. These are the basic facts. Ofs is all but of tape donald trump. We are being killed on trade. China is taking advantage of us. I have Great Respect for china. Their leaders are too smart for our leaders. Our leaders dont have a cool clue. The trade deficits are too much. No country can sustain that kind of trade deficit. It wont be that way for long. We have the greatest Business Leaders in the world. Were going to redo those trade deals. Its going to be a thing of beauty. Mexico is killing us on the border. They are destroying us in terms of economic development. Companies are moving it to mexico. Ford moved into mexico. Closing up shop in chicago and moving into mexico. We have to stop. We are going to create jobs like youve never seen. We are going to lower taxes. That people think is the best plan theyve seen. Were going to lower taxes for the middle class. The middle class has been forgotten. It was the predominant factor in the oneur country into we love so much and we are also proud of. We have forgotten the middle class. We will hear from Hillary Clinton and bernie sanders. Facebooka couple of postings. Joe says the first call this morning is from jimmy in ohio. Good morning. I thought i should stop myself. That donald trump is hilarious and i think he could turn us around. Hes not a politician. Something, they take it out of context. He didnt say foreign scant live here. Host be specific if you can. I will give you an example. My mother has worked all of her life. She cant get to her money because the government has her money. Host you are alluding to taxes . Is there a fair tax rate in your view . Caller there is for me. I dont have much. I am on disability. I am taken care of. Its people who work arent getting taken care of. There are three separate lines. We will them on the screen. Caller republicans ran in 2012 and 2014 on jobs. Theyve blocked every single jobs proposal the president put up. They voted over 50 times to stop obamacare instead of 50 times to past a jobs bill. Now youve got trump whos running on jobs. About people to remember her months ago in a rally, said we did not need to have wages increase. You are not going to get out of the middle class. Go in the lowto class if you cant pay your bills. Thank you cspan for giving me this opportunity. Host jonathan is in new york. Caller good morning. I would like to say i think we might be looking at the definition of middleclass incorrectly. I dont think its based on income level so much as the relationship between employers and employees. When karl marx was writing his work, thats how he defined it. To reason its important understand that relationship is the have opposite motivations. Somebody who receives a paycheck wants to keep wages high. Employer, theyn want to keep wages low because they make more for them and profit. Thats the real tension between middle class and working class. Host is there a specific policy thats in order . Create i would say if we a more fair tax distribution. If there were fewer tax breaks for corporate welfare. Exxon mobil doesnt really need all those tax breaks are in breaks. Ordinary working people really do. What is your situation . Youru care to share about Living Conditions . Caller i am blind. Eyesight. My only income comes from disability. Regard, i am doing a lot better. A couple of years ago i was paying 70 of my income in rent. I was living in an unsafe neighborhood. Recently, i managed to get into subsidized housing and i live in safe conditions. I understand how important the safety net programs are. The budget at hearings recently on cspan, they had a Budget Hearing that went for hours and hours. Democrats were trying to get funding for basic services and republicans kept finding excuses to say no. I really do think that one of more parties is clearly favorable to the working class. Host good luck to you. Jonathan mentioned the markup over that happened, six hours or so. You can watch it anytime you want on www. Cspan. Org. Bill writes in about our question. We have ebony on the line from North Carolina calling on the over 50,000 line. Intor i am looking specific policies, the flat tax rates. I think thats something to look into. Is highersalary cap than whats been calling and so far. I just take it something we should look into. If you are in the 250,000 tax bracket, the rate should not be anything close to what people are paying underneath. I think thats unfair. Donald trump talk about how he is creating jobs and thats great. Bringingtrying to push jobs and have the middle class needs to be helped. Im not seen that they have actual implementations that they would include. What is the actual plan . Makes me flustered to vote for them. Host we have 20 more of your phone calls coming in. The is a piece based on thresholds. Is 250,000 a year middleclass . Just to qualify as middle class has been up and down. It is about an economy in which the top 1 10 of 1 now own almost as much as the bottom 90 . Economy where the 20 wealthiest people own more 150th than the bottom Million People. About an economy in which one family, the Walton Family this one walmart, family owns more wealth than the bottom 40 of the american people. What a rigged economy is about is the wealthiest family in this country paying their employees wages that are so low that many of those workers have to go on medicaid and food stamps. It is the middle class that pays more in taxes to pay for that medicaid and food stamps. Family, get walton off of welfare and pay your workers a living wage. Host we have more from facebook. We have a call from diane in arkansas. Caller i just woke up and i havent even had my coffee. This is so simple. The early 90s when they were going to pass nafta. We called in. Everybody was against it. Not one person called in who wanted it. We were right. Its ruined the country. We lost our jobs. Our kids havent been able to get a job like we used to when we were teenagers. Parents havent worked. The whole country has changed in the last 20 years. Host what happened in your view . Caller they took our jobs. Host just nafta . Is there more to it . Basically, we need our jobs back. We need good jobs. People who worked in factories dont want to be cdnas. Everybody cant work as a nurses aide or take calls on the telephone. People want to work. Its bad now. It will take time. We were the government was wrong. I was against trump. I vote some republican. It makes so much sense to get rid of this silliness thats going on in our campaigning. Trump is the only one talking sets. The government cannot do it. They have to get out of our way and let us work and bring our country back. I took a trip this last summer. I didnt realize. I live in the ozarks. How trashy oure country is anymore. The roads are horrible. Everybody was tattooed. It didnt look like our country to me. People have got to get back their work ethic. But jobs have not been there. Host it sounds like its time for you to get that coffee. Caller it sounds like ive already have it. Host thank you for calling this morning. She mentioned donald trump. The Washington Post had a piece about the rise of donald trump. The Pew Research Center provided some valuable insight. There is little doubt that what has happened to the middle class has created the climate. Were asking you this morning what you think the government should do. But policies are needed to help the american middle class . In california. R its very early there. Caller good morning. What i would like to say is as far as government policy goes, our government has not decided that the microcosm that is the economy has to be protected within the global market. You do not allow an influx of Illegal Immigrants into this country to depress the wages. Thats whats happening. The other thing you do not do is producerporations to products in other countries and then come back and try to sell it to us on the cheap and act like its cheaper now. I dont have a job. I dont care how cheap it is. If they want to make it in another country, sell it over there. Dont get back to me and im unemployed. These are the two major things the government needs to do. They need to protect our people. We need real education. Of just game playing educated enough kids to work in Corporate America and let the rest of them hang. Rail how would you define real education . What would need to change . Caller weve been gearing our youth to be corporate acceptable, to become part of the corporate machine. The reality is 55 of the American Economy is based on Small Business. We should be training our youth to go into trades or small selfemployed, there are always going to be people to employ. We should not try to employ them or train them just to be unemployable but to be employers. Educatione type of the masses need. Money, i havehas money. You dont have people on welfare when people are working. People cant make enough money nowadays for basic housing. Clean, sanitary Living Conditions. No jobs for the youth. All of the illegals are working in the fast food joints. Host we have people waiting on the line. Lets watch an ad. Its a Hillary Clinton ad from late last year. It takes 300 americans working for a year to make as much money as one top ceo. Its called the wage gap. Republicans will make it worse. They will let corporations write their own rules. Hillary clinton worked to close the wage gap. Do higher minimal wage and lower taxes for the middle class. She will get the job done for us. Move on to michigan. Thank you for calling. Caller hello. Believe a value added tax system would be a good start. I think there should be some trade sharing and cap the and copyright laws. I think that favors the corporations. You are calling on the line for under 24,000. Tell us more about yourself. Caller i am the son of an immigrant. He was on the board of directors at ford motor company. He went to the chrysler corporation. How are you faring on 24,000 in year . There has to be a minimal amount of living income. If you had a value added tax system with a minimum living wage, you could easily compensate a tax form. We are going on to jerry in illinois. Tell us about yourself. Caller i own my own business. Ive been very successful. I do earn enough money that i am out of the middle class. The thing that bothers me as much as anything when it comes the government is doing things and why its theyng the middle class is have a system of taxation which is horribly unfair. Pay farorations often more taxes than Small Business owners pay. I am talking about actual money. Taxral electric paid less than i paid personally. Taxed at a corporation rate. Factorse so many other that they throw in. Thats written for by the large corporations. Host on to twitter. Some major news was made it concerning the minimum wage. California is moving the minimum wage to 15 an hour. They have struck a deal to raise the statewide minimum wage to 10. 50 an hour next year and then gradually up to 15 an hour. The governor came to that deal with lawmakers on saturday. We have john on the line from milwaukee. Welcome. Caller good morning. I am reading a book. Can we establish a caveat . Stealing is taking something from someone that you would not want taken from you. Host why do you bring that up . Caller would you roughly agree . Host its your chance to talk. Go ahead. Caller i believe that stealing is taking from someone else. I am reading the book called freeunch. How the wealthiest americans have enrich themselves at government expense and stick you with the bill. Its been out for a while. Book, theead the stealing is phenomenal. Stealing. When you look at the people that are stealing, they are all white. Somehowred to me that our white people, our european heritage people genetically are inclined to steal . Think of how they accomplished this country with taking land from native americans. Think of what they have taken from african americans. Are calling for those making under 24. Describe your situation if you can. Caller i will be 80 years old in may. I am retired. Im in pretty good shape. I still work area i cant name it, but i work for a company that is one of the thieves as far as im concerned. Of dollarsillions every year and cant retain people. I mentioned to my manager the this day, can you consider everybody iswhere a sharecropper while they are raking it in off the top . Is whitehe problem people are genetically inclined to steal. Theyif we understood why have to have so much money and they need more. Host thanks for calling. We are asking you about government policies. The you think any are needed . Fromdea sprang forth different headlines. The middlepolls say class is losing ground. They are no longer the majority and they are falling behind financially. The government is not doing enough to help the middle class. Republicans are seem to favor the rich over the middle class and poor. There are mixed reviews on which the Democratic Party favors. We have gloria on the line. Caller good morning. Because im not sure what tax policy should be put in place. I feel the middle class is so broad. 250,000 is considered the Upper Echelon of the middle class. 100,000, but over 50. I live comfortably. Government did do something wrong when they opened up nafta. When i called my local Companies Like comcast or any other large business, i reach an operator orated in india or mexico another foreign country. Those could be jobs that americans could have held a. Youth,as educating our the government is trying to do something and put something in place that makes college more affordable. Because there are no jobs for the qs as far as factories or those jobsservice, are hardly available. Given free education, whether its a Community College or a state run college, that is something that needs to be given back. Of thehave been left out table. I dont know what tax policy could be put in place. I feel like im not considered middleclass even though im not i dont feelss. Like im in that Upper Echelon. I dont want to buy a new car. I feel like i can afford another bill. I keep my car and try to keep it running. Its paid for. I am trying to my daughter through college now. She is going locally to a State College because i cant afford her to send her of state. I have medical bills that are affecting my credit. That never used to happen before. Medical agencies can affect your credit line. There are a lot of things affecting the middle class. Havent heard anything from donald trump thats productive. Hillary and bernie are both people i would consider to be the next president. Host the Easter Sunday bombing is making frontpage news. This is the wall street journal. This is in pakistan. It killed at least 65 people. You can see two women here morning at a hospital. Group claimednt responsibility. This is in pakistan. They were just celebrating the day. This was in a park. Pope francis on the washington times. This is at st. Peters square. He sent a message of hope. This is the washington times. The new york times, youve heard that the syrian army has captured at ancient city. This is palmyra. They did this yesterday. Army het assad and his took this from isis. Thats the front page of new york times. We will go back to taking more of your calls. This is joe from virginia. He is making between 24 and 50. Caller good morning. Peoplend of sad that have adopted that identity politics mentality. Thepeople who benefit are two divide us. I do understand why people dont see that. Anything else . Host thank you for weighing in. Ray is calling from tennessee. Caller i am 77 years old. I worked 28 years. Workingd out in 1960 for a union. The unions made the middle class in this country. I dont care what anybody else says. When Ronald Reagan became president and started destroying the unions, every president after him destroyed the unions. You will never bring the middle class back. I dont care how many jobs you bring back to unless they are unionized, the wages will day what the corporations want them to be. We have to make money to support the blacks. Thank you. Eric is calling from washington dc. Caller good morning. The was so funny heard white people have to make money to support the blacks. That is ridiculous. I dont understand people. We dont need you to support us. We just want to hand up. We dont need you. It kills me. Ive been working since i was 12 years old. It blows my mind. Im a construction worker. Do myg as i know how to trade, i do it. I agreed that the unions did make it so we can make a better living. I hear these people with these talking points and it blows my mind. I dont need that guy. Host you are here in washington. This is the town where so much policy gets made. Our policies needed to help the middle class . I think when you are a capitalist country, the government is run by money. The money makes the policies. People dont seem to understand that. I make a fair living. You should be graded on the best of your ability. Fast food, 10 an hour is fine. You should make a living doing it. You should be able to advance yourself. Host joe is in staten island. Are you there . Minimum wage jobs dont ha