The Obamanation

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

.... he will be in the same boat as most families tomorrow.

[Griff]

I specifically voted for a lot of stuff on that list.

[classicman]

Declaring America's middle class is "under assault," President Barack Obama unveiled plans Monday to help hurting families pay their bills, save for retirement and care for their kids and aging parents. His comments previewed Wednesday's State of the Union Address.

Obama's proposals won't create jobs, but he said they could "re-establish some of the security that's slipped away."


Among the president's economic ideas:

• Nearly doubling the tax credit that families making under $85,000 can receive for child care costs, with some help for families earning up to $115,000, too.

• Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers' discretionary income to make payments more affordable.

• Increasing by $1.6 billion the money pumped into a federal fund to help working parents pay for child care, covering an estimated 235,000 additional children.

• Requiring employers who don't offer 401(k) retirement plans to offer direct-deposit IRAs for their employees, with exemptions for the smallest firms.

• Spending more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents and get support for themselves as well.

The White House maintained that its imperative still is to create jobs. Unemployment remains in double digits, and the economy is the public's top concern. Yet Obama said that squeezed families need help in other ways, too: paying for child care, helping out aging parents, saving for retirement, paying off college debt.

Less clear was how much the programs would cost or where the money would come from.

Officials deferred comment until the release of the budget.

Obama, whose poll numbers are off, is trying to sharpen his economic message in a way that shows people he is on their side. White House officials say they know people have been turned off by the long, messy fight for health insurance reform. Plus, there's a perception that families have gotten far less help than big banks.

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I like the ideas, but it would be nice to know how we are gonna pay for stuff before we pend money we don't have. Doncha think?

[glatt]

"more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents"

Let's see... divide that by 300 million Americans, and it works out to 33 cents per person. Even though not every American will be caring for an elderly parent, I don't see this money going very far. What are they gonna do, print some informational pamphlets?

[Madman]

Originally Posted by glatt

"more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents"

Let's see... divide that by 300 million Americans, and it works out to 33 cents per person. Even though not every American will be caring for an elderly parent, I don't see this money going very far. What are they gonna do, print some informational pamphlets?

.33 cents each? That much? Hell, that should cover it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It goes further if you only give it to people that need it.

Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers' discretionary income to make payments more affordable.

Discretionary income, wtf?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Madman

.33 cents each? That much? Hell, that should cover it.

Way more than that. It will be 33 cents each, not a third of a cent each. :p

[jinx]

None of those things will help me.

Originally Posted by glatt

"more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents"

Let's see... divide that by 300 million Americans, and it works out to 33 cents per person. Even though not every American will be caring for an elderly parent, I don't see this money going very far. What are they gonna do, print some informational pamphlets?

W/O knowing the details, I would guess it is for matching grants for programs like Meals on Wheels, etc.

Or even better, programs to support congregate living for seniors. Think of having the Golden Girls live in your neighborhood, but they cant because of local housing/zoning codes. Time to start addressing those needs in anticipation of the soon to be senior baby boomers.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Redux

Or even better, programs to support congregate living for seniors.

OH hell, I couldn't resist.

[TheMercenary]

Ole Teddy is rolling in his fucking grave. Good on him. I wonder if he is dizzy yet?

[TheMercenary]

Ok. So the latest gimmick is for Obama to offer breaks on Capital Gains Taxes to small businesses. A capital gains tax is a tax charged on the profit made on the sale of a non-inventory asset that was purchased at a lower price. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals and property. How many Small businesses do you know of that have income from the sales of stocks, bonds, precious metals and properties. The majority of small businesses are S-corps, LLC's, PC's. Most of this income is taxed as personal income with some benefits from being incorporated. This is not going to do squat to help the majority of small businesses. Once again he is blowing smoke up our collective skirts in the guise of reconciliation.

In fact, the bigger pieces of the proposal are a $5,000 tax credit for each new hire along with reimbursement of Social Security payroll taxes for businesses that increase wages or hours for existing workers (both capped to ensure that funds go to small businesses) ...and using $30 billion from money repaid to the TARP fund to help community banks offer small-business loans through incentives to those banks to borrow money from the Treasury at a reduced dividend rate.

If you don't like these ideas, got a better one?

[TheMercenary]

Put the over spent money from TARP back into deficit reduction where it belongs and stop coming up with plans to tax income. It is a backhanded benefit. Small business will be hurt by any plans to raise taxes on personal income over $200k. A $5000 tax credit for one year will not offset the costs for insurance and payroll over the course of one year. But the point here Obama is trying to sell this Capital Gains reduction as some grand handout to small business and it is total bullshit.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Put the over spent money from TARP back into deficit reduction where it belongs and stop coming up with plans to tax income. It is a backhanded benefit. Small business will be hurt by any plans to raise taxes on personal income over $200k. A $5000 tax credit for one year will not offset the costs for insurance and payroll over the course of one year. But the point here Obama is trying to sell this Capital Gains reduction as some grand handout to small business and it is total bullshit.

So your only plan is to let the tax cuts to the top bracket extend beyond the original expiration date in the law (the end of 2010)...How did those 01 and 03 tax cuts (at a cost of over $1 trillion) help the economy?

And to put the TARP funds to deficit reduction rather than job creation....how does that create jobs?