For your information, the
Obama Administration will be discussing at 3 pm, proposals focused on middle
class families including the following proposal:
Helping Middle Class Families Care for Aging Relatives. An estimated 38 million Americans provide unpaid care to an
aging relative, including approximately 23 million caregivers with jobs and 12
million who are also caring for their own children. The $102.5 million
Caregiver Initiative will ease the burden on families with elder care
responsibilities and allow seniors to live in the community for as long as
possible. The Initiative adds $52.5 million in funding to Department of Health
and Human Services caregiver support programs that provide temporary respite
care, counseling, training, and referrals to critical services. The extra
funding will allow nearly 200,000 additional caregivers to be served and 3
million more hours of respite care to be provided. It also adds $50 million to
programs that provide transportation help, adult day care, and in-home
services, such as aides to help seniors bathe and cook, help which eases the
burden for family members and helps seniors stay in their homes.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please join senior Obama Administration officials, TODAY at 3:00PM EST, to discuss the plan to lay out key investments for middle class families (more information about this below). There will be time for questions and answers at the end of this call. We encourage you to dial in a few minutes early to ensure participation in the entire call. This call is for back ground information only and not intended for press purposes.
WHO: Senior Obama Administration Officials
WHAT: White House Briefing Call
WHEN: TODAY, Monday, January 25, 2010
3:00PM EST
HOW: (800) 230-1074 (no code required - please tell the operator you’re joining the “White House Briefing Call”)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press
Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January
25, 2010
President Obama and
Vice President Biden Preview Initiatives for Middle Class Families
Discussion Previews
a Key Theme for State of the Union Address
Washington,
DC
– Today,
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will hold a meeting of the
Middle Class Task Force, where they will lay out key investments for middle
class families. Today’s discussion will preview
one of the key themes of the President’s State of the Union address,
which include creating good jobs, addressing the deficit, changing Washington,
and fighting for middle class families.
President
Obama
said, “We are fighting every single day to put Americans back to work, create
good jobs, and strengthen our economy for the long-term. The additional steps
laid out today focus on easing the burdens on middle class families who are
struggling in this economy, and providing the help they need to get ahead.”
“Every
day, middle class families go to work and help make this country great.
For a year, our Task Force has been hearing that they are struggling with
soaring costs and squeezed family budgets. These common sense initiatives
will help these families cope with these challenges,” said Vice President
Biden.
After
traveling across the country the past year talking with families, caregivers,
educators, students, seniors, as well as policy makers and experts, Chair of
the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families Vice President Joe Biden will join President Obama to announce several
recommendations of the Task Force. These initiatives, borne out of
the meetings, travel and work of the Task Force, are aimed at helping middle
class families afford soaring child care costs; care for their aging relatives;
cope with the challenge of saving for retirement; and pay for their children’s
college tuition.
Since
its creation one year ago this week, the Middle Class Task Force has held 11
meetings around the country and at the White House. At these meetings,
Vice President Biden heard from parents who were grappling with the costs of
child care; students coming out of college drowning in debt; children of
elderly relatives struggling to care for them; and workers who were barely able
to pay their mortgage, much less save for retirement.
As
a result of these meetings, conversations and
feedback from around the country, the Vice President and the Task Force will
propose several policy initiatives to help middle class families:
1.
Nearly
Doubling the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle
class families making under $85,000 a year. This is accomplished by
increasing their tax credit rate from 20% to 35% of qualifying
expenses. The value of the tax credit nearly doubles for all families
making under $85,000 a year, and every family that makes under $115,000 will
see their tax credit increase.
Additionally, for families
struggling to join the middle class, the administration will provide a $1.6
billion increase in child care funding, the largest one-year increase in 20
years, to help an additional 235,000 children.
2.
Limiting
a student’s federal loan payments to 10 percent of his or her income above a basic
living allowance. This will lower payments for hundreds of thousands of
students, who are struggling to make ends meet coming out of college.
3.
Creating
a system of automatic workplace IRAs, requiring all employers to give the option
for employees to enroll in a direct-deposit IRA.
4. Expanding tax credits to match retirement savings and enacting new safeguards to protect retirement savings, making it easier for families to plan for retirement.
5. 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.The
Task Force’s final report, and full recommendations, will be released in
February.
Additional information about these Middle Class Task
Force initiatives is included in the fact sheet
below.
About
the Middle Class Task Force: The Task Force, Chaired by
Vice President Joe Biden, is a group of top-level administration policy makers,
charged with the mission of focusing on developing policies aimed at raising
the living standards of middle-class, working families in America.
Since
its creation on January 30, 2009, the Middle Class Task Force has held 11
meetings around the country and at the White House:
·
February
27, 2009: Green Jobs (Philadelphia, PA)
·
March
17, 2009: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Middle Class Families (St.
Cloud, MN)
·
April
17, 2009: College Affordability (St. Louis, MO)
·
May
26, 2009: Green Jobs (Denver, CO)
·
June
23, 2009: Manufacturing in the 21st Century (Perrysburg, OH)
·
July
10, 2009: Health Reform Roundtable (The White House)
·
July
16, 2009: AARP/Health Care Reform Discussion (Arlington, Virginia)
·
September
9, 2009: Access to College (Syracuse, NY)
·
October
19, 2009: Middle Class Recovery Through Retrofit (The White House)
·
November
5, 2009: Roundtable with Policy Experts (Washington, DC)
·
December
16, 2009: Roundtable with Leaders in Manufacturing Sector (The White
House)
Members
of the Task Force include: Vice President
Biden, Chair; the Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education,
Energy, Treasury, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and
Agriculture; the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; as well
as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and
Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Chair of the Council of Economic
Advisors.
To
read reports released by the Middle Class Task Force, please visit: www.WhiteHouse.Gov/AStrongMiddleClass.
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