WASHINGTON - Promising repeatedly to “keep fighting’’ for average Americans, President Obama rolled out proposals yesterday to help struggling middle-class families care for their children, save for retirement, and pay off college debts.
“Unfortunately, the middle class has been under assault for a long time,’’ Obama told a gathering of his Task Force on Middle Class Families. “Too many Americans have known their own painful recessions long before any economist declared that there was a recession.’’
The proposals are part of broader themes that the White House said Obama would tie together in his State of the Union speech tomorrow night, including the importance of job creation, the need to reduce the deficit and, as ever, the urgency of changing the way Washington works.
Obama’s focus on the middle class, however, will be critical as he tries to regain momentum after a series of political setbacks, particuarly the election of Republican Scott Brown as US senator in Massachusetts. His new proposals include nearly doubling the child and dependent-care tax credit for families making under $85,000 a year, and limiting a student’s federal loan payments to 10 percent of income above basic living allowance.
They would also require many employers to provide the option of direct-deposit access to a worker’s individual retirement account and would expand tax credits for retirement savings.
Also yesterday, the Associated Press reported that the president plans to call for a freeze on some domestic spending in his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Details of which programs would be covered under the freeze were not released. The president plans to submit his budget Feb. 1.
In his remarks to the task force, which is chaired by Vice President Joe Biden, Obama touted successes so far in creating jobs but made it clear that the efforts have fallen far short of what is needed.
“These steps have saved or created about 2 million jobs so far,’’ he said, “but more than 7 million have been lost as a consequence of this recession.’’
Obama praised the work of the task force, and he promised (four times in less than five minutes) to “fight for the middle class.’’
“So we’re going to keep fighting to rebuild our economy so that hard work is once again rewarded, wages and incomes are once again rising, and the middle class is once again growing,’’ Obama said. “And above all, we’re going to keep fighting to renew the American Dream and keep it alive - not just in our time, but for all time.’’
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