Vice President Joe Biden, who chairs the task force, intends to propose several policy initiatives to help middle class families in America, chief among them a near doubling of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle class families. This will be accomplished by increasing their tax credit rate from 20% to 35% of qualifying expenses.

According to the administration, while most of the benefit of the tax credit increase will be felt by families making less than USD85,000 a year, every family that makes under USDD115,000 will see their tax credit increase.

Created on January 30, 2009, the Middle Class Task Force is a group of top-level administration policy makers, charged with the mission of focusing on developing policies aimed at raising the living standards of middle class Americans.

Other initiatives to be announced by the task force include a system of automatic workplace Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), requiring all employers to give the option for employees to enroll in a direct-deposit IRA; and the expansion of tax credits to match retirement savings.

Responding to the proposed measures, Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, said that Congress "stands ready to work with President Obama and Vice President Biden to reduce [the middle class] tax burden."

"The cornerstone of the recommendations outlined today – expanding the child care tax credit and improving incentives to help workers save for retirement – demonstrate our underlying commitment to help middle class families rebuild the economic security they lost in the financial downturn," Rangel observed.