Help Is On The Way

President Obama is set to announce some middle-class help measures today, outlined by Joe Biden's task force.

"There are immediate steps we can take to reduce the strain on family budgets by helping middle class families manage their child and elder care responsibilities, save for retirement, and pay for college," the White House said in a statement.

The proposals would:

• Require companies that do not offer retirement plans to enroll their employees in direct-deposit retirement accounts unless the workers opt out.
• Increase the "Savers Credit," a tax credit for retirement savings, for families making up to $85,000.
• Change some of the rules for 401K employer-sponsored savings accounts to make them more transparent.
• Increase the child tax credit rate to 35 percent of qualifying expenses from the current 20 percent for families making under $85,000 a year. Families making up to $115,000 would be eligible for some increase in the tax credit.
• Increase child care funding by $1.6 billion in 2011 to serve an additional 235,000 children.
• Boost government spending by $102.5 million for programs aimed at helping families who provide home care for an aging relative.
• Ease the burden for student loans by limiting a borrower's payments to 10 percent of his or her income above a basic living allowance. 

Hey, all of that seems really nifty.  You know what else would help Americans right now who are struggling to pay their bills?  A NATIONAL HEALTH CARE PUBLIC OPTION.

Sheesh.  And what is he doing?  Tax credits.  Republican tax credits.  Which the Republicans will vote down saying "No."   I see what he's trying to do, a series of bipartisan measures that the Republicans will get behind.  The Republicans will simply move the goalposts again and all 41 in the Senate will say no.  Game over.

Obama will never, ever learn.  He will get blamed when this doesn't pass.  Republicans will either want this aid with onerous restrictions that will assure only a few people get it, then they will complain that Obama's government plan failed and had too many restrictions, and wouldn't a massive tax cut across the board be better?

Watch the Republican response to this carefully.  They'll never let Obama pass it.