I think the task force should first set down a set of basic principles, on the order of "We the People, in order to form a more perfect Union . . . ."

My suggestions would be:

1. A person who works hard, honestly and smart at his or her full-time job should be able to support a family living a frugal lifestyle.

2. A family with two people working hard, honestly and smart at full-time jobs should be able to thrive and live comfortably.

3. A pension is a legal contract, taken as compensation in lieu of wages, and is therefor sacrosanct. A pension should always be paid in full.

4. As a matter of national security, the country cannot afford to provide higher education only to those who can afford it. We lose too many people who might make the next great breakthrough and we force American companies to import skilled workers -- workers who often take their skills back to their own countries to compete with those same American companies.

* * * *

Just some ideas off the top of my head. Once the task force has established how it will measure success for the middle class, they can begin to offer suggestions about how to reach those principles. Tax cuts that target the richest one percent should probably be off the table.

"the bottom 80 percent of Americans."
What a funny term, though, 'the bottom 80 percent'!
I mean, 80 percent is the vast majority, isn't it?

Universal health care would be nice, at least to cover preventative care and basics. For starters, though, it may be necessary to impose some triage and concentrate on things that are very treatable. This may leave people with chronic illness, such as myself, out of the loop, but so many people lack even the basics.

Take a hard look at what has been refereed to as the ownership society.

Any form of this debate will upset a lot of people, especially the long time politician, with foreign influence, the rich and the Banking System. For me, and perhaps a long list of other “electorates� and I use the term electorates with more of an impression of participation instead of just citizens on the side line, were as we the people that vote, would like to see some basic fundemental changes in the American banking system.

Specifically, eliminating the Federal Reserve Board in how it operates now which would bring the tax dollar responsibilities into the fold of the electorate, clearly with in a better defined creativity that enhances the values of the majority Middle Class in the Constitution as it should, but as of this moment clearly does not.

This is a hard one to change, the Federal Reserve; being embedded into the American way of doing business, born on Jekyll Island secretly by the rich for the rich and their prosperity has been an integral part as the central banking system working off the pool of tax dollars generated from the Middle Class for about a century. Couple that with the World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, were as we the people who vote see an extreme imbalance, clearly little to no return on Middle Class tax dollars. America we have what if looked at carefully is the best free world Ponzi scheme that is legal and benefits the few the rich and powerful.

America needs to look at all the funny money freebee’s our government has given away tallied with respect to its return on investment. This has been a Middle Class gift to the world for about a century by politicians that ignored the value in balance in the Constitution. Were as we the people need an annual century audit. It would be most interesting to see what Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. would come up with as that as part of the agenda to lead the effort with four members of the cabinet. Probably would be interesting to assign legions of economic experts from academia to put together slice of the pie that everyone has had so far. Certainly has not been the Middle Class.

And we the people who vote thought Hillary and Universal Health Care needs to be placed “up right� because it is on its head now, is also a huge trillion dollar play ground for profiteering. Were as we the people who vote take a hard look at Universal Health Care, the ownership society and the reform of the Central banking system would be a good start.

Wait till we get to the life insurance stuff they will have fits…

Oh, this is an easy one to answer:

1. A commission is always the inside-the-Beltway answer; Obama is showing he has "arrived."

2. It's a jobs program for neoliberal friends.

3. It's a political lab to test neolib ideas.

4. It's a way to work on new lines of "dialog" and "outreach."

5. It's the official Veep Project of this presidential administration.

There, that wasn't hard at all.

I was surprised to see Paul Krugman's blog from Dec.20 wherein he asserts it's not really necessary to have a thriving middle-class to have a sound economy.

I'm not sure what he was talking about.

Yglesias's point is well taken, that the administration for the last 8 years has kept the focus on trying to spin reality rather than actually trying to better things for working Americans.

But please tell me how "appointing a Task Force" featuring Joe Biden is anything *other* than simple inside-the-Beltway spin?

I'll believe that this Task Force can actually do something when I see tangible, measurable improvement in people's lives. Until then, I must proclaim: Wank. Wank wank. Willy wank woo.

This could be really useful if only to shift the focus away from the plight of billionaires to that of the middle class.