More Nonsense from the Media

In Politics Daily, Lynn Sweet writes about how Michelle Obama is going to promote breast feeding and the IRS is now giving tax breaks to mothers who breast feed. The first lady and promote whatever she wants, but the idea that there are "tax breaks" for breast feeding is utter nonsense. According to Sweet, "the Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday that the costs for 'breast pumps and supplies that assist lactation are medical care' are now, under the IRS code eligible for tax breaks." In other words, the cost for this equipment can now be considered a medical expense.

Only someone who does not understand the tax code could have written this. First of all, breast pumps and supplies are not very expensive. Let's assume that a family spends three hundred dollars in a year for these materials, a number which is much higher than the likely reality. Making this a medical deduction probably has no effect. Second, no one can deduct any medical costs unless those costs exceed 7.5% of the persons adjusted gross income. For a family with an income of $50,000, that means there are no medical deductions until the total of medical costs exceeds $3,750 for the year. Very few families actually satisfy the 7.5% floor and get to deduct medical expenses. Third, a family filing a return as married filing jointly gets a standard deduction of $11,000. This means that unless the total of all deductions exceed $11,000, the taxpayer will just use the larger standard deduction.

Translating this all into English, it means that the effect of a deduction for breast pumps will probably only matter to families that make enough to have sufficient deductions so that they exceed the standard deduction and who have major medical costs so that they also beat the 7.5% minimum for that deduction. That makes the target group families that probably earn over $100,000 or even more. Does anyone really think that a possible tax reduction of $60 or so in the cost of breast pumps will sway the decision made by these folks about breast feeding? Apparently, Lynn Sweet thinks so, if she actually thought about this at all.