Obama Preparing Another Trojan Horse

Jake Tapper reports today that in his upcoming State of the Union address, His Transparency intends to focus on on four little words that send the hearts of hard-working Americans soaring:  “middle-class tax cuts”.

Tax cuts are good.  We like tax cuts.  But as with everything that is proposed by these progressive liberal Democrats, Obama is going to roll in another Trojan horse.  Here’s a catch.  First of all, these aren’t direct tax cuts but instead tax-paying Americans will continue to loan money to the federal government with every one of their paychecks and only get that money back at the end of the year.  Then there is the catch that comes in the form of more government intrusion – takeover, if you will – into the lives of those tax-paying Americans.  Here’s the list:

1.      Increasing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle class families making under $85,000 a year from 20% to 35% of qualifying expenses.  The administration says that almost all eligible families making under $115,000 a year would see a larger credit. Families could claim up to $3,000 in expenses for one child or $6,000 for two children, and the maximum credit for a family with two children making $80,000 a year would increase by $900 from $1,200 to $2,100.  The Obama administration will also provide a $1.6 billion increase in child care funding which it says will help an additional 235,000 children.

2.      Capping student federal loan payments to 10 percent of the student’s income above a basic living allowance. The monthly payment for a single borrower earning $30,000 who owes $20,000 in loans would be $115 a month – as opposed to $228 a month under the standard 10-year repayment plan.

3.      Requiring all employers to give workers an option of automatic workplace direct-deposit IRAs. Currently 78 million working Americans — roughly half the workforce — do not have employer-based retirement plans.  The contributions will be voluntary and matched by the Savers Tax Credit for eligible families. The smallest firms would be exempt.

4.      Expanding tax credits to match retirement savings by expanding and simplifying the Saver’s Credit to match 50 percent of the first $1,000 of contributions by families earning up to $65,000 and providing a partial credit to families earning up to $85,000.

5.      Expanding support for families balancing work with caring for elderly relatives with a $102.5 million Caregiver Initiative adding $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 administration says 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.

The first two aren’t so bad.  Sure, they’ll cut down the amount of federal revenue but as is always the case, more money in the hands of the people, not the federal government, improves the economy.

Number four bears scrutiny because this “extra funding” has to come from somewhere and, as usual, who’s going to pay for it isn’t being defined.

But it is number three that is especially troubling.  Not just because it is yet another example of the liberal progressive Democrats telling the American people that they are too stupid to make decisions for themselves, but it is part of a larger plan to have the taxpayer offset the goverment bailouts of Wall Street insurance companies by getting more money into the market if they can’t outright take the funds from 401k plans.

While we’re all for individuals saving for their own retirement instead of relying on Nanny Fed to take care of them in their old age, here’s the rub.  Even when an employer does not offer automatic-workplace direct-deposit for an IRA (a choice that costs them money, by the way, in terms of paying more for the administrative costs to run their business and therefore affects the costs of goods or services as well as salaries they provide), you, as an individual can get up off your butt and go to a bank to set up an IRA on your own and make tax-deductible contributions to it.  Today, you and your employer have personal choice – freedom – as to how you, and you alone, handle your financial affairs.

The objection, then, is to the government mandating behavior.  Legislating morality, if you will.  Taking away the individual’s freedom to choose.  Particularly when it is done with the intention of usurping the results.

So for the astute, it ain’t gonna be much to cheer about.