President Obama and VP Joe Biden convened a meeting of the Middle Class Task Force today, January 25th to preview and set out a number of new initiatives aimed at helping middle class families get ahead in this tough economy.
In their remarks, Biden said that “the middle class is nowhere near as strong as it needs to be” while Obama asserted that “the middle class has been under assault for a long time.”
Biden said that while the Task Force is still to deliver its final report, the president would be incorporating some of the proposals in his upcoming State of the Union Address on Wednesday, January 27th.
Among the recommendation are caps on students loan repayments, tax credits for child care, and expanded tax credits for retirement savings.
The specific recommendations of the Middle Class Task Force aim to:
1. Reduce costs of child care by nearly doubling the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for families earning less than $85,000 per year and increasing child care funding by $1.6 billion, helping an additional 235,000 children.
2. Ease the burden of student loan payments by ensuring that no student pays more than 10 percent of his or her income above a basic living allowance on loan repayment.
3. Help workers save for retirement by requiring employers to provide an option for employees to enroll in a direct-deposit IRA.
4. Protect retirement by expanding tax credits to match retirement savings and enact new protections on those savings.
5. Support families caring for elderly relatives, help them to manage this responsibility and allow seniors to live in their communities for as long as possible.
