[lbo-talk] "middle class economics" policy ideas in the SOTU

Robert Naiman naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
Wed Jan 21 04:56:31 PST 2015


Here is a summary of "middle class economics" policy ideas from the SOTU, culled from the New York Times article.

Stuff: - make community college free for most students ($60 billion) - paid leave for workers - enhance tax credits for education, child care, middle class retirement:

- new $500 credit for families with two working spouses

- subsidy of up to $2,500 annually to pay for college;

- tripling, up to $3,000, of an existing tax break to pay for college - major initiative to repair crumbling roads and bridges (to this, Pfeiffer added, “ports,” e.g. expand existing ports so they can handle the bigger ships that now pass through the Panama Canal) - new regulations on Internet providers (I gather this is referring to the Title II-FCC-net neutrality fight - RN) and for overriding state laws that limit competition for high-speed service

Payfors: - $320 billion in tax increases over the next decade on higher income earners as well as a fee on large financial institutions

- raise the top capital gains tax rate to 28 percent, from 23.8 percent

- remove tax break for wealthy people who can afford to hold on to their investments until death

- new fee on the largest financial institutions — those with assets of $50 billion or more — based on the amount of risk they took on

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Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1



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