the workforce—lack employer-based retirement plans. Even when workers are given the option of joining employer-based plans, many do not take up the option because it requires considerable work to research plans and investment portfolios as well as enroll. Barack Obama wants to change that by automatically enrolling workers in a workplace pension plan. Under his proposal, employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan will be required to enroll their employees in a direct-deposit IRA account that is compatible to existing direct-deposit payroll systems, and any employee is allowed to opt out if they do not want to participate. Under the Obama plan, when employees change jobs, their savings will be automatically rolled over into the new employer’s system to ensure continued savings. Experts estimate that this program will more than quadruple the savings participation rate for low- and middle-income workers to as much as 80 percent. Over a lifetime, a typical worker using the Obama plan could add hundreds of thousands of dollars to his or her retirement savings.
Expand the Savers’ Tax Credit for Working Families.
As President, Barack Obama will help working families save for retirement by expanding the existing Savers’ Tax Credit to match 50 percent of the first $1,000 of savings for families that earn under $75,000, and he will make the tax credit refundable. The savings match will be automatically deposited into designated personal accounts by using the account information listed on IRS tax filings.
Preserve Social Security.
Barack Obama believes that Social Security is indispensable to workers and seniors, and he is committed to ensuring Social Security is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the future. Although the underlying Social Security system remains strong, the program faces a challenge driven by our changing demographics. Barack Obama believes that we owe it to working families and retirees to guarantee Social Security for generations to come without undermining what makes it the most important public program in the first place: a solid, guaranteed bedrock of retirement security for hardworking families. He does not believe we need to raise the retirement age; will oppose any attempt to privatize Social Security, which would reduce benefits and explode the national debt; and believes it is critical that middle-class families are protected from tax increases or benefit cuts. Instead, Barack Obama would work with members of both parties to ensure that people making over $250,000 would pay a little more to help strengthen this program.
Protect Workers’ Pensions.
Barack Obama believes we must ensure that private companies properly fund their pension plans so workers have the retirement security they earned and taxpayers do not end up footing the bill. Workers deserve to know where their money is going; this information also serves as a check on imprudent or fraudulent investments by fund managers. As President, Barack Obama will ensure that all employees who have company pensions receive annual disclosures about their pension fund’s investments, including full details about where their savings have been invested, the performance of those investments, and appropriate details about probable future investments strategies. He also will reform corporate bankruptcy laws so that workers’ retirements are one of the most important priorities for funding and workers aren’t left with a bunch of worthless IOU’s after years of service.
Secure Homeownership for American Families.
Owning one’s home is an integral part of the American Dream. Barack Obama was an early sponsor of the housing legislation recently signed into law that will help prevent hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures, provide critical support to communities that have been hard hit by the housing crisis, and create a badly needed affordable housing trust fund. But we need to do more, including taking long-term steps to prevent these problems from reoccurring. To this end, Barack Obama will:
Provide ten million middle-class homeowners 10 percent off their interest rate through a universal mortgage tax credit.
Close the mortgage company loophole that prevents families from renegotiating mortgages in bankruptcy court.
Crack down on unscrupulous mortgage-lending practices and help prevent future housing crises by passing the STOP FRAUD Act.
Create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score, which will provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages.
Make It Easier to Balance Work and Family.
Americans are finding it harder and harder to juggle the demands of work and of family. Not only are many parents struggling to find safe, enriching child care, but many are also now finding themselves caring for their aging and infirm parents. Meanwhile, too many of our workplaces are not set up to reflect the new realities of working parents with many familial demands. As a father of two young children and husband of a working woman, Barack Obama understands these demands deeply. As President, he will help families with their daily juggle to balance work and family. Specifically, an Obama Administration will:
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover more employees, to allow workers to take leave for elder care needs and for up to twenty-four hours each year to participate in their children’s academic activities, and to address domestic violence issues.
Provide funding to help all fifty states adopt paid family and medical leave.
Require employers to provide seven paid sick days per year.
“For decades we’ve had politicians in Washington who talk about family values, but we haven’t had policies that value families … that’s why Washington has to change.”
—BARACK OBAMA, June 23, 2008, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Increase high-quality after-school and summer learning opportunities to two million additional children.
Promote flexible work arrangements, such as telecommuting and nontraditional work schedules.
Improve the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses. This proposal will benefit an additional 7.5 million working women.
Protect against caregiver discrimination by enforcing the recently enacted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines on caregiver discrimination.
Fight for pay equity and close the gap between what women and men make for doing the same work.
Bring Opportunity to Areas of Concentrated Poverty.
Alleviating concentrated, intergenerational poverty is a difficult task, but there are comprehensive approaches that are successful in addressing the full range of obstacles that stand in the way of poor children. As President, Barack Obama will create twenty “Promise Neighborhoods” in cities that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement. The Promise Neighborhoods will follow the model of the highly successful Harlem Children’s Zone and seek to engage children and their parents into an achievement program based on tangible goals, including college for every participating student and strong physical and mental health outcomes for children, as well as retention of meaningful employment and parenting schools for parents.
