Clinton proposes tax break for caregivers

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will on Sunday propose a $6,000 tax credit for costs associated with caring for elderly and disabled family members, and allowing caregivers to accrue Social Security retirement benefits for such work. With the liberal wing of the Democratic party ascendant, Clinton’s relationship with banks and financial services firms has become a major vulnerability for the former secretary of State.

At the time, her spokeswoman Lisa Caputo told the NY Times, “Mrs. Clinton was Hillary Rodham Clinton all through the campaign and the transition”. She says she would “break up the big banks” if necessary and hold financial executives accountable.

The issue of Clinton’s long-running ties to Wall Street is getting a fresh look after last weekend’s Democratic presidential debate.

Bernie Sanders has gained ten points on Hillary Clinton in the past month and has seen his own support grow by thirteen points in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

But Clinton is making it harder for progressives to support her. With a history of hawkish foreign policy and Wall Street backing, she truly is the lesser to two evils.

Both of her primary rivals – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley – support reinstating the Glass-Steagall law, which once separated commercial and investment banks.

Her campaign’s organizational strength showed at Saturday’s event, with numerous attendees passing through the magnetometers to claim the first seats sporting royal blue t-shirts emblazoned with her logo on the front. She has accused Sanders of promoting programs that she says would raise taxes on middle-class families, including his plan for a single-payer health system based on Medicare. Bill Clinton’s score was also much higher than that of his successor.

“We can manage to do that while preserving the accomplishment of the Affordable Care Act”, she said.

Meanwhile, 46 percent of Clintons supporters say they cant be persuaded by another candidate, compared with 36 percent of Sanderss backers.

“My parents had a saying in Spanish – “Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres” – which means, ‘Tell me who you’re hanging with and I’ll tell you who you are, ‘” said Alma Gonzalez, an uncommitted superdelegate from Florida.

It was Hillary Rodham Clinton who ran for the Senate from NY in 2000.

Dropping it, of course, might give her more appeal to centrist voters in the general election. Gonzalez, the Florida superdelegate, and a few other undecided Democrats said they viewed Sanders as too hostile to banks and corporations and too divisive in his remarks about American wealth.

And in a hopeful moment, O’Malley added, “I intend to win this nomination”. Sanders has been criticizing “the corrupt economy symbolized by Wall Street greed” for decades, she said.