Hillary Proposes Tax Credit for Caregivers

The Wall Street Journal is a little acerbic about this:

"If you’re caring for an aging parent, deciding whether to invest in rural America or struggling to pay medical bills, Hillary Clinton has a tax credit for you."

"As the Democratic presidential front-runner rolls out her policy agenda, she has repeatedly turned to the tax code as one of her favorite policy tools. It offers a way to reward behavior she wants to see more of, punish actions that she sees as harmful, and directly aid families with particular challenges."

"Compared with outright spending programs, tax cuts can be simpler to administer, carefully targeted and politically easier to enact."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/clintons-proposed-tax-credits-expand-1448237128

Bernie is attacking her tax credits as 'Republican lite.' But the WSJ hit the key in the third paragraph. As long as you have the GOP House, good luck passing spending programs. So she has proposed a number of tax credits. 

"Democrats have long been drawn to tax credits, partly because it is politically easier to sell a tax cut than a spending program, though they have the same impact on the budget. “It’s a well-worn technique of trying to introduce new programs without hitting the actual spending side of the budget,” said Jared Bernstein, an expert on the budget at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. 

“Almost no spending is going to get through this sort of a Congress.”

More on her new caregiver credit:

"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."

"According to an aide, Clinton will call for the creation of a credit for up to $6,000 in expenses to offset the cost to taxpayers caring for elderly family members. Her proposal is modeled on a bill introduced earlier this year by Sen. Amy Klobuchar."

"Hillary Clinton knows that as baby boomers age, more and more families will need to provide care for or will need care from loved ones," reads a fact sheet on Clinton's plan shared by the aide.

"The credit is the newest addition to set of tax relief measures that Clinton has introduced as she seeks the Democratic nomination for president. As part of her plan to expand and build on the Affordable Care Act, Clinton has already proposed a $5,000 tax credit for families with excessive out of pocket costs for health care."

"Other candidates want to increase taxes for working people and the middle class as part of their health care plans," Clinton said Saturday at an outdoor gathering of local Democrats in North Charleston. "I don't want to see your taxes go up, I want to see your healthcare costs go down."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-proposing-tax-credit-for-caregivers/

Off topic, I see Jeffery Sachs is trolling Democrats again, going after Hillary on her ISIS speech. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/hilary-clinton-and-the-is_b_8627042.html

I notice that he never approves of anything any actual Democrat is doing though allegedly he's a liberal. 

This guy is very slippery and not at all what Kevin McCarthy calls 'trustable.' For years he's been attacking Obama from the right for not doing austerity and now he's attacking Obama and Hillary from the left for supposedly being too hawkish.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/krugman-budget-deficit-support-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2015-01

What both of these attacks do in effect is confuse Democrats and so buffer Republcians. 

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=29888