Clinton proposes tax break for family caregivers

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is proposing a new tax credit for middle-class families providing care for aging parents or grandparents on Sunday at a town hall meeting in Clinton, Iowa.

“All the time that people take out of paid work to care for a family member can end up putting a big dent in their retirement benefits”, Clinton says.

The Clinton campaign says 40 million people in the United States provide care for adult family members, with the burden falling in most cases on spouses and adult daughters. “We need to recognize the value of the work that caregivers give to all of us, both those who are paid and the great number who are unpaid”.

“This summer Secretary Clinton met with SEIU home care providers, hearing firsthand the struggles they face to support their families while they provide life enhancing, compassionate care for others”. Bernard Sanders, for proposing policy that will lead to tax increases on the working class. Essentially, she intends to boost support for care workers and increase funding for a program that offers state-level grants to programs for caregivers, reported the Los Angeles Times.

The caregiver proposal is part of a series of tax proposals geared at the middle class that Clinton is rolling out.

Taxes are shaping up to be a differentiator between Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to run in the November 2016 election, and her challengers, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.

Clinton focused on on a number of topics and addressed problems that keep many Americans awake at night, like making it possible for families to provide care for loved ones. The credit would apply to 20 percent of those expenses for a maximum tax bill savings of $1,200.

Clinton also said that lost wages and work especially comes at a cost to women, who constitute the majority of paid and unpaid caregivers. One of the people who attended the town hall, Lavinia Engle, of Clinton, said she backed Clinton in 2008 and is doing so again this time because she has the most experience.

Given the disappearing middle class and massive income wealth inequality in America today, we clearly have to go a lot further than what Secretary Clinton proposes, Sanderss communications director, Michael Briggs, said in a statement issued Sunday night as Sanders campaigned here.

The proposal is the latest iteration of a long-time Clinton proposal. “I think we’re smart enough to figure that out”.