Reagan Says Middle Class Smaller Due to Wealth, Not Poverty

COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Reagan crisscrossed Ohio today on behalf of George Bush, saying prosperity has caused the middle class to shrink and “America doesn’t want to go” where the Democrats want to take the nation.

Fifteen times in a 15-minute speech before a Republican rally at Ohio State University, Reagan used what he calls the “L word”--condemning both Michael S. Dukakis and Ohio Democratic Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum, who is seeking a third term in the Senate, as liberals.

“You may have heard the liberals talk about a smaller middle class, and it’s true,” the President said.

“The middle class is getting proportionately smaller. But not because a greater proportion of people are poor. That just isn’t so. No, because more people have moved up and become so well off that they’re no longer called middle class.”