President Barack Obama is floating a package of tax increases on the rich to pay for tax cuts for the middle class and poor.
The cuts are aimed squarely at families, with the bulk of the money going to triple the tax credit for child care, along with a much smaller tax credit — up to $500 — for married couples who both work.
Caregivers are overlooked.
That’s short-sighted and stupid.
I’m writing this on the fly after reading news about the tax proposal just now. But even using outdated numbers, consider that caregivers provided $450 billion in care to adult parents and loved ones in 2009, according to AARP.
That’s $450 billion — or close to it — that caregivers saved the government, and thus taxpayers.
And that was six years ago, when the wave of elderly was just beginning to surge. That government savings must have soared since.
I’m an Independent and my politics hover somewhere in the middle, but it seems clear to me that Right, Left and Center could all agree on this: Supporting caregivers is not only the morally right thing to do, but it makes fiscal sense.
We as caregivers are often invisible. We’re barely able to keep up with our daily chores, let alone take up a battle.
But this is a battle worth fighting for ourselves and millions of caregivers who will come after.
I’m no policy expert, but it seems there are many tax incentives that could help caregivers — like a respite care tax credit — not unlike child care credit — or money to fill the Social Security gap caused when caregivers leave the workforce.
We not only deserve these tax breaks, we have earned them by saving the government and our fellow taxpayers trillions of dollars.
mom and dad move in 