Real hope for working people

This is an economic package real working people will appreciate.

"Obama said his credit card bill of rights would ban unilateral changes to a credit card agreement, prohibit changes in interest rates in debt already incurred and ban interest on late fees.

In his speech, Obama said much of the effort toward ending income inequity is tied to expanding access to higher education.

``That's the best investment we can make in our future,'' said Obama. ``I'll create a new and fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year, which will cover two-thirds of the cost of the tuition at the average public college or university.'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7058617,00.html

But as we move closer and closer to a major recession, it may be a moot point.

If things collapse, as they well may do, a huge amount of people will not be able to pay for their dept.

If the common man follows the lead of large corporations, they'll preserve any cash they have and "write off" all that dept.

I think this is one of those "about damn time" policies. It's about time this wasbrought into the national conversation. The banks have been raking in coin that is based solely on taking advantage of credit users. Couple bucks here, couple bucks there, pretty soon it adds up to a large amount of hard money being taken out of the middle class pockets.

fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year.

Refundable tax credits = cash in your pocket! :thumbsup:

but when Hillary proposes tax credits for something, it's evil

When Obama does it, it's good

minimum tax bracket.

Sorry, but I don't get to pay taxes. Given the choice, I'd rather be in your shoes

BTW, can you afford Obama's tax credits?

Seriously, a lot of two income families were nailed by the alternative minimum tax aimed at millionaires who used tax laws to avoid paying any taxes. It shouldn't have been a problem, but inflation slid a lot of middle class families into this bracket and it was allowed to happen because it eased deficits. I'm in a very odd situation, tax wise. I have six kids (yes, I know, I'm destroying the earth.) The exemptions they gave me put me into the alternative minimum tax bracket. When two of them reached adulthood, I lost those exemptions and my taxes actually went down.

When those kids were pre-schoolers, Bill Clinton campaigned on a promise to make it possible for them to earn their way through college. Now that I'm in hock for 5 college tuitions to date, I'm very aware that Bill never delivered.

BTW - I know we're a lot better off than most people, but we're hardly rich. My husband earns every penny he brings home, and normally puts in at least 50 hours a week.Our house cost under $65,000 and we drive used cars that my husband keeps running with a lot of effort. My kitchen needed re-done when we bought this place 20 years ago. Maybe I'll get it re-done someday after I pay off all the college loans. Since I was laid off 5 years ago, I spent a year working a temp job that had me working 50-60 hours a week on a night shift. I lost that entire year. I also worked in a plating shop and packing onions side by side with undocumented workers. I have a decent job now, but I'll have to hustle quite a while to put us on a sound footing after being out of work on and off the last 5 years. I'm all for class warfare, but we should be aiming it at the top 5%, top 1%, top 0.5% instead of sniping at other working folk.

I apologize, but it's one of my hot button issues.

BTW, Clinton has a plan to revise the AMT. And you may want to talk to a tax expert. I'm not sure, but if a deduction puts you into the AMT, you may not have to declare the deduction.

And you're not destroying the earth; You're creating solutions

favor ZPG or NPG.

FWIW - Others in my family chose to have no children, so I figure that helps even things out a bit. Those college tuitions I mentioned? Two kids are out working as engineers in jobs aimed at helping the environment and energy crisis. Two more are headed that way, the fifth is taking a degree in urban planning. Her goal is to eliminate the need for the auto. # 6 is still in high school but is headed to a career in environmental engineering. Believe me, these are some of the kids who will end up bailing us all out of this mess.

I can't understand how that could happen because exemptions should make your income go down and that isn't the AMT problem.

I think our mortgage interest plus my husband's overtime may have helped put us there!

Glad to see it.

and I miss it still

He could put his support behind S.1395, sponsored by Carl Levin, now sitting in the Committee for Banking and Housing. With his support and a bigger Democratic majority in Congress, maybe we could actually get the bill passed.