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Obama urges help for middle-class families

President will announce initiatives in Wednesday’s State of the Union speech.

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Associated Press Updated 3:19 PM Tuesday, January 26, 2010

WASHINGTON — Declaring America’s middle class is “under assault,” President Barack Obama unveiled plans Monday, Jan. 25, to help hurting families pay their bills, save for retirement and care for their kids and aging parents. His comments previewed Wednesday’s State of the Union Address.

The initiatives amount to a package of tax credits, spending expansions and new mandates on employers to encourage retirement savings by workers. Most of them will be included in Obama’s budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, and they will require approval from Congress. Obama will release that budget Feb. 1.

The president’s latest rollout of ideas served as a preview of his 9 p.m. State of the Union address. Among the president’s economic ideas:

• Nearly doubling the tax credit that families making under $85,000 can receive for child care costs, with some help for families earning up to $115,000, too.

• Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers’ discretionary income to make payments more affordable.

• Increasing by $1.6 billion the money pumped into a federal fund to help working parents pay for child care, covering an estimated 235,000 additional children.

• Spending more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents and get support for themselves as well.

The plan is designed to help people like Phyllis Morrow of Beavercreek, who cares for an elderly mother-in-law and a chronically ill twin sister, and provides a home for a 26-year-old daughter in college.

Staff writer Jim DeBrosse contributed to this report.

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