Hillary Clinton proposed a new policy plank Sunday: a $6,000 tax credit for caregivers.
Her campaign believes that “it is time to give these caregiving families a tax cut,” and is positioning the proposal as part of her broader outreach to the middle class. The tax credit would go to families providing or paying for the healthcare of their elderly relatives.
The plan would cost $10 billion over 10 years, paid for by revenue increases, exactly what revenue increases has not been specified.
Clinton is also looking to escalate Social Security benefits for those who temporarily exit the workforce in order to care for relatives.
Clinton’s proposals are a part of a larger gambit to cast herself as the true Democratic Party champion of the middle class. She has ratcheted up criticism of Bernie Sanders in recent weeks for his plans to raise some taxes on the middle class in order to finance his single-payer healthcare proposal, and increases in paid family leave.
Clinton has defined the middle class as any household making less than $250,000 a year , a ceiling that has been critiqued by some segments of the left for being too high.
