Obama to Announce Middle-Class Relief Measures

by: RDemocrat

Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 11:40:52 AM EST

Obama is seeking to offer some attractive options to taxpayers, mindful of recent setbacks including the loss of a traditionally Democratic Senate seat in Massachusetts to Republican Scott Brown. Monday's rollout is designed to show sympathy with a frustrated public. "We are fighting every single day to put Americans back to work," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

The proposals are the result of the work of a middle class task force that Biden had headed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201...

The proposals were aimed at what the President calls a "sandwich generation":

The proposals to be unveiled by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House include a doubling of the child care tax credit for families earning under $85,000; a $1.6 billion increase in federal funding for child care programs and a program to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income above "a basic living allowance."

His initiatives also include expanding tax credits to match retirement savings and increasing aid for families taking care of elderly relatives. That program would also require all employers to provide the option of a workplace-based retirement savings plan.

The White House says the proposals are aimed at the "sandwich generation" - Americans struggling to care for both their children and their parents. The proposals fit into the economic message of his prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday, one that is likely to cover financial regulations, energy, education, immigration and a push to change the political tone in Washington.

While some of this sounds good, I feel these moves fall short on a couple of fronts. First, why when talking about tax cuts do politicians only talk about expanding tax credits for children?? Don't working class folks without children or with children that are grown deserve some sort of relief too?? New money for childcare programs and capping student loan payments do sound promising though. Once again too, it sounds as if Obama is way too soft on business in using some of their profits to benefit their employees. I honestly believe that to "change the tone" in Washington the President simply needs to fight like hell for the Progressive changes we need and stop coddling these folks.

And what of the things this legislation does not address?? What about the Lost Generation of young Americans who cannot even find a middle-class job and cannot afford to start a family to qualify for any increase in the child tax credit?? Should there not have been a tax credit for parents whose grown children live in their basement because they cannot find a good job??

Another huge problem is that these ideas do nothing to address the underlying problem of a shrinking middle-class. We have already seen how the policies of the last several decades have created a generation of young folks whose only guarantee is that they will be the first generation that does WORSE than their parents. Where is the relief for them??

Part of any middle-class relief should include the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to re-create a middle-class that will qualify for middle-class tax breaks. It should include requirements for business to pay higher wages and help their employees gain healthcare coverage and other benefits.

If these ideas are steps in the right direction, they are baby steps. What this country really needs is to fight for a real Progressive agenda that will not only help the middle-class but rebuild it. Our party is losing ground not because America does not like our ideas, but because we will not fight for them. Look what not fighting for real healthcare has cost us. Now, we appear doomed to make the same mistake on middle-class relief.