New Help for Middle Class Families
Today, President Obama and Vice President Biden announced new recommendations from the administration’s Middle Class Task Force to help middle class families struggling in today’s tough economy. Coupled with the White House’s emphasis on job creation, these recommendations support long-term efforts to reverse the erosion in security for the middle class. The proposals will be included in the President’s proposed fiscal year 2011 budget, which will be unveiled next week.
The recommendations included:
• Nearly doubling the child and dependent care tax credit for middle class families making under $85,000 a year
• Easing the burden of student debt by limiting students’ federal loan payments to 10 percent of his or her income.
• Helping workers save for retirement by creating a system of automatic workplace IRAs, requiring all employers to give the option for employees to enroll in a direct-deposit IRA.
• Expanding tax credits to match retirement savings and enacting new safeguards to protect retirement savings, making it easier for families to plan for retirement.
• Expanding support for families balancing work with caring for elderly relatives, helping them manage their multiple responsibilities and allowing seniors to live in the community for as long as possible.
At a joint event with the President, Vice President Biden explained:
Today, living a quality middle class life starts, as it always has, with a good-paying job. And by job, we're not talking about merely a paycheck; it's more than a paycheck. And we're talking about dignity, we're talking about security. We're talking about knowing your pension is safe, your health insurance is reliable, your elderly parents and your children are going to be cared for, your neighborhood is safe, there's decent schools, and that your kids are going to be able to grow up and if they desire and you desire, be able to attend college. It's the old-fashioned notion of American Dream.
President Obama added:
Joe and I are going to keep on fighting for what matters to middle class families: An education that gives Cheap Cialis our kids a chance in life; new, clean energy economy that generates the good jobs of the future; meaningful financial reform that protect consumers; and health reform that prohibits the worst practices of the insurance industry and restores some stability and peace of mind for middle class families.
None of these steps alone will solve all the challenges facing the middle class. But hopefully some of these steps will reestablish some of the security that's slipped away in recent years. Because in the end, that's how Joe and I measure progress -- not by how the markets are doing, but by how the American people are doing. It's about whether they see some progress in their own lives.