News release: “The Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration today issued a new report for Vice President Biden’s Middle Class Task Force: Middle Class in America. The report, which identifies what it means to be middle class in America today, uses a host of measures to show that it is more difficult today to both attain and maintain a middle-class lifestyle than it was two decades ago…The report argues that middle-class families are defined by their aspirations more than their incomes. Middle-class families and those who aspire to be middle class want economic stability, and that means the ability to own a home and a car for each adult, the ability to afford needed medical care, the ability to save for college for their children and for retirement, and the ability to take an occasional family vacation. Unfortunately, for many, these middle class goals remain out of reach. As the report documents, while family incomes rose during the 1990s, they were stagnant or falling in the 2000s. At the same time, the prices of some of the key elements of a middle-class lifestyle—housing, college education, and health care rose much faster than the overall rate of inflation. This means that it is harder to achieve a middle-class lifestyle in America today than in the past.”