Promises, Promises

Obama to Offer Aid for Families in State of the Union Address:

President Obama will propose in his State of the Union address a package of modest initiatives intended to help middle-class families, including tax credits for child care, caps on some student loan payments and a requirement that companies let workers save automatically for retirement, senior administration officials said Sunday.

...The proposals also include expanded tax credits for retirement savings and money for programs to help families care for elderly relatives.

Despite being part of a middle-class family, I have no children, have no student loans, am self-employed, have no retirement savings, and am not caring for elderly relatives, so I'm awesomely excited about this!

In all seriousness, I am all for programs that support childcare, eldercare, education, and savings, but I am absolutely fed up to the teeth with "tax credits." Americans (who can't afford personal tax attorneys) already fail to claim many of the tax credits they could, because the American tax code is ridiculously overcomplicated. And many of the Americans who would be most helped by various tax credits don't actually make enough money to qualify.

If our government (our Democratic fucking government) wants to do something meaningful, they need to create a program and spend some money and be willing to take some goddamned flak for having principles. Instead, they're hiding "change" in the tax code, which, apart from being cowardly, cedes ground to Republican strategies. Awesome.

The address is still being written, but one senior official, describing it on the condition of anonymity, said its main themes would include "creating good jobs, addressing the deficit, helping the middle class and changing Washington."

Oh for fuck's sake.