Republicans Promise Tax Revamp Will Help Middle Class. They Find It Harder to Say Who Fits That Bill

WASHINGTON — Dallas financial adviser Tom Murphy has developed a hard-and-fast rule for how your average taxpayer defines wealth after years of helping folks across all different income levels get their budgets in order.“Rich people make twice as much as you make,” he said, explaining how most people make the calculation in relation to their own standing.Those kind of perceptions — Who is rich? Who is middle class? Who is poor? — may rival any single statistic as GOP leaders prepare to unveil on Wednesday their much-anticipated legislation to overhaul the nation’s tax code for the first time in three decades.The proposal will be full of rates, brackets and other essential metrics. It will also be wrapped in powerful rhetoric that can be vague to the point of meaningless.  Continue reading...