But the president says he will not let health reform be paid for in his words -- "on the backs of middle-class families."

VOA: special.2009.07.25

"It is time to do what is right, not for the next election, but for the middle class."

VOA: standard.2010.07.19

"I think in Japan there was a collective identity as a society where everyone is middle class, everybody shares the same fate, there are not huge, wide disparities of income.

VOA: standard.2009.09.09