Publisher's Synopsis
A Roadmap for Growth, Opportunity, and Fiscal Responsibility: The President's Budget provides a roadmap for accelerating economic growth, expanding opportunity for all Americans, and ensuring fiscal responsibility. It invests in infrastructure, job training, preschool, and pro-work tax cuts, while reducing deficits through health, tax, and immigration reform.
WHAT THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET DELIVERS:
- Helping Middle Class Families Get Ahead is the main basis for this Fiscal year 2016 Budget Release by President Barack Obama.
- These proposals will help working families feel more secure with paychecks that go further, help American workers upgrade their skills so they can compete for higher-paying jobs, and help create the conditions for our businesses to keep generating good new jobs for our workers to fill, while also fulfilling our most basic responsibility to keep Americans safe. We will make these investments, and end the harmful spending cuts known as sequestration, by cutting inefficient spending and reforming our broken tax code to make sure everyone pays their fair share. We can do all this while also putting our Nation on a more sustainable fiscal path. The Budget achieves about $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction, primarily from reforms to health programs, our tax code, and immigration.
- Improving Access to High-Quality Child Care and Early Education - High-quality child care and early education for young children serves the important functions of supporting parents in the workforce and helping support healthy child development and school readiness. The Budget aims to ensure that children have access to high quality learning starting at birth, making several key investments:
Expands access to quality, affordable child care. The Budget proposes a historic investment in child care to ensure that quality, affordable care is available to all eligible low- and moderate-income working families with young children, as opposed to the small share of children who receive this help today. This proposal will expand access to high-quality care for more than 1.1 million additional children under age four by 2025 and help States build a supply of quality care that families can access.
Cuts taxes for families paying for child care with a credit of up to $3,000 per child. The Budget triples the maximum Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) for families with children under age five and makes the full CDCTC available to families with incomes of up to $120,000, benefiting families with young children, older children, and dependents who are elderly or have disabilities. The child care tax reforms would benefit 5.1 million families, helping them cover costs for 6.7 million children.
Increases the duration of Head Start programs and invests in high quality infant and toddler care. The Budget expands access to high-quality care for tens of thousands of additional infants and toddlers through Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, and provides over $1 billion in additional funding for Head Start to make sure children are served in full-day, full-year programs that research shows lead to better outcomes for children.Lays the groundwork for Preschool for All. The Budget provides $750 million for the Department of Education's Preschool Development Grants, a substantial increase of $500 million over the 2015 level. Preschool Development Grants are currently helping 18 States develop and expand high-quality preschool programs in targeted communities; the Budget will increase that number to over 40 States.
Provides broad support for educators at every phase of their careers. The Budget invests in developing strong teachers before they reach the classroom and supporting their growth and success throughout their careers.
Invests more than $3 billion on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. The Budget provides strong support for STEM education, including a new $125 million competitive program to promote the re-design of America's high schools by integrating deeper learning and student-centered instruction, with a particular focus on STEM-themed high schools that expand opportunities for girls and other groups underrepresented in STEM fields.Reforming the Tax Code to Reward and Support Work - When both spouses work, a family incurs additional costs in the form of commuting costs, professional expenses, child care, and, increasingly, elder care. To address these challenges, the Budget proposes a new $500 "second earner" tax credit, which will benefit 24 million dual-earner couples. It also proposes to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for workers without children and non-custodial parents, promoting employment while reducing poverty and hardship for 13.2 million low-income workers struggling to make ends meet.Ensuring Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care - The Budget supports the Affordable Care Act, which is already providing coverage for millions of Americans through the Health Insurance Marketplaces, the delivery of tax credits to make coverage affordable, and the expansion of Medicaid.Helping All Workers Save for Retirement - Millions of working Americans lack access to a retirement savings plan at work. Fewer than 10 percent of those without plans at work save in a retirement account on their own. In 2015, retirement security will be one of the key topics of the White House Conference on Aging. The Budget would make it easy and automatic for workers to save for retirement through their employer - giving 30 million more workers access to a workplace savings opportunity. The Budget also ensures that long-term part-time employees can participate in their employers' retirement plans and provides tax incentives to offset administrative expenses for small businesses that adopt retirement plans.Helping Americans Upgrade Their Skill-- Covers making a Hiqh Quality Education More Affordable Provides Tuition-Free Community College for Responsible StudentsEnsures that Pell Grants Keep Pace with Inflation. Pell Grants are central to our efforts to help low and moderate income students afford college. Simplifies and Expands Education Tax Benefits. Expanding Technical Training Programs for Middle Class Jobs by Expanding Apprenticeships and Employer-Validated Credentials - Helping Americans Launch and Sustain Their Own Businesses to stimulate the small business sector for growth and more.
- Improving Access to High-Quality Child Care and Early Education - High-quality child care and early education for young children serves the important functions of supporting parents in the workforce and helping support healthy child development and school readiness. The Budget aims to ensure that children have access to high quality learning starting at birth, making several key investments:
