Mitt Romney for President -- Part Something plus One

That's pretty much the equation we had to work out, and in our case it made more sense for my wife to be predominantly a stay-at-home mom, with a part-time job here and there early on and, now, her own business that she runs out of the home. The day care just wasn't worth the marginally extra money she would've been bringing in working full-time.

 

Yeah. When you throw in all the costs of working and so on.

 

I am aware of the MN renter credit and take advantage of it (even though it was cut from 2011 to 2012).

I've only lived in Minnesota for 3 years but I'm truly amazed at how effective and progressive healthcare, taxing and government in general is over here. I think the rest of the country could really learn a lot by using Minnesota as a model. A relatively well balanced budget, low unemployment and world class healthcare.

The benefits of living in a liberal state that has just enough conservatives in place to keep things in check and curb cronyism.

 

Agreed.

Agreed.

At the start of freshman year, my son's college asked each incoming student to self-describe as to whether they were from an economically disadvantaged family, middle class, or wealthy. The median family income of the students is from $150,000 to $200,000; there are a whole lot at $400,000+. My son said that almost nobody said that their families were wealthy.

You'd better believe that those families are lining up for "middle class" tax benefits, and would be big reasons why if Mitt Romney were elected, he could never get rid of the home mortgage deduction.

 

S. Florida daycare is around $7000-8000 per kid per year in average. My friend in Virginia/DC area pays almost double that.

Still, I think that a lot of families miss out on these deductions, because they are overly complex for somebody with not a lot of afinity with the numbers. It is not like everyone has a team of accountants figuring out what is the best way to hide money from taxation.

 

In the universe where the dependent care is being cut, yeah, he'd have a legitimate gripe. But that isn't this universe.

 

The all important Sarah Palin endorsement.

It's so late in the game, it'll be a tough call for Palin fans who were planning to vote for Obama.

 

Lets not forget its people's own choice to have children and the expense that comes with having them. I'd like a BMW but since it doesn't come with a tax subsidy, I can't really afford it. Nor would I expect anyone to help pay for my expense of owning 2 cats.

There shouldn't be any tax credits for child-related expenses IMO. Not until humans become an endangered species at least.

 

Well, that's a cool story, bro, but neither the cats nor the BMW in your silly hypothetical will be paying for your Medicare and Social Security when you're an old man. I'm pretty sure if I take a sledgehammer to your car and destroy it, I won't get the death penalty. Etc.

 

Now I'm not certain why child tax credits came about in the first place, but I always assumed it was a means of helping to ensure that our nation's children were being properly cared for, by giving families with children a little kick-back to help out, particularly because the credit is phased out for those with higher incomes. For better or worse the government doesn't particularly care how well-fed your cats are.

 

This is the class distortion in the US today.

Republicans all think they're middle class and blame poor people. Democrats think they're all middle class and blame rich people.

While there are morsels of truth in both arguments, nobody in politics or the media has the balls to point the finger at the middle class for their share of the blame. Everyone coddles the middle class as innocent victims, while poor people on welfare are evil leeches.

While I am a class warrior against exploitative bankers and such, I think it's time these "middle class" people take responsibility of how they wasted their wealth under Bush on unreasonable mortgages, running up credit card debt and wasting all the free money they got from the Bush tax cuts on XBoxes and IPhones. The percentage of our economy that is saved money is depressingly low.

I survived the economic downturn because I had saved large amounts of money my whole life, and never payed one dime of interest rate to any bank. Instead of being rewarded, now I live in fear of inflation because "middle class" people were stupid enough to sign their lives away to banks and in the meantime voted for a president that slashed revenues and started 2 unfunded wars. Time for Americans to man up and take responsibility instead of bitching about a $2,500 FSA cap.

 

so I'm about to have a kid. I can setup an FSA to cover some of her daycare? Can someone explain? I feel quite unknowledgeable about this.

 

The challenge/risk is in leaving the workforce for at least several years (and that's if you only have one kid). The bottom line (literally) is that many households need two incomes to get by. Maybe they can plan for and absorb daycare costs for a number of years, but they can't risk just giving up a career track progression for one parent. Plus there are healthcare and retirement benefits to consider for the parents who stays home. Maybe the working parent's benefits affordably cover the sty-at-home parent's healthcare, though maybe not. But they sure as hell won't compensate for lost retirement savings.

 

What is your definition of middle class? Most definitions I've seen put it between the bottom quartile and top quartile of income, so between $23k and $75k, with quite a few putting the upper limit into the $100k range. Now, obvious people at the bottom of that measurement are going to have problems with a $15k a year daycare bill, but people at the top? Perhaps not so much.

Then there is your use of "worthwhile".. I'm probably not the best example since I'm not middle class by any definition, but for my friends that are solidly in that group? It didn't make sense for one of them to lose 5 years of work experience and they've made "sacrifices" for that..

 

Yeah, I should've gotten cheaper children. How stupid of me.

 

Mine's managed through my employer. Does yours manage healthcare and dependent care FSA's for its employees?

Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_spending_account

 

I'm not sure about that but there is a Child and Dependent Care Credit that covers a certain percentage of daycare costs, but you need to go through a licensed provider. Your state might offer something like that too for your state income tax, I know mine does.

 

If that's their reasoning, the country's priorities are a bit upsidedown. Education of young adults should be subsidized, not simply the act of producing a baby. IOW, encourage quality over quantity.

 

Okay, replace "BMW" with simply "personal vehicle".

 

Yes, by all means, let's encourage parents to be less productive in the workforce, allow their children to get sick and/or leave their children in untrained hands.

 

Animal cruelty for sure, the government picking winners and losers.

I think is time we give cats the right to vote, they deserve it more than the geys (can geys vote?)

 

Sheesh ... seems to me we'd be better off if people just stopped having so many children.

I'm tired of subsidizing snotty pukey children, many of whom don't even speak basic English for the first couple of years of their lives and they can't even take responsibility for when and where they poop.

I'll take high speed trains and higher sea walls/levees over seeing more toddlers when I go to my local Olive Garden.

 

It is, actually, aside from the obvious federal grants and low-interest loans there are deductions/credits for full-time students, or at least there were through my student stints that ended about 10 years ago.

And personally I'm with you, I think we should encourage people to reproduce less, but I think there are wiser ways of going about that than taking away child credits.

 

A man after my own heart. You probably haven't caught my periodic attacks on the middle class. Well, no need to repeat my screed, you have it down.

Worth noting that the middle class is THAT close to voting for a President who has promised them the candy of tax cuts, paid for by other people, and oh the deficit solved too. Without the middle class needing to give up a thing.

 

Who's saying the child shouldn't be eligible for health care? Employers usually subsidize that big-time anyway unless you have a rubbish job. At which point, yes, the gov't should step in to ensure every living person is covered. Not to mention make it law for employers to provide 20 days minimum vacation time per year and maternity leave that puts USA more in-line with the civilized world, rather than that of Liberia.