The big difference in how Ivanka Trump and the Democrats are tackling child care
ANALYSIS | The cost of child care is sometimes higher than a mom or dad’s salary
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Danielle Paquette.
For families across the country, child care is now an expense that rivals rent or mortgage payments. The cost is sometimes higher than a mom or dad’s salary.
In Alabama, parents can expect to pay an average of $470 per month for infant care, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. The same arrangement costs $975 in New York, $743 in Indiana and $1,886 in Washington, D.C.
To alleviate the cost of child care, Democrats want to make it an entitlement, similar to social security or Medicare which, they hope, would make the service affordable for every struggling family.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration wants to address the issue of child care through the tax code.
The Democrats’ approach
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) unveiled an ambitious proposal last week for taxpayers to cover most of the day-care bill.
Under the Democrats’ plan, the federal government would subsidize state day-care programs for children up to 13 years old and wages for child-care workers, whose average earnings hover just above the national minimum wage.
- Low-income to middle-class parents, or those earning less than 150 percent of their state’s median income, would pay no more than 7 percent of their household’s annual earnings for “quality” child care.
- The plan would cost $60 billion over 10 years, Democrats estimate.
- Democrats haven’t said how the country would pay for it yet.
- Twenty-seven Democrats support the plan, including Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Ivanka Trump’s approach
Ivanka Trump, first daughter and adviser to the president, is pushing a proposal on Capitol Hill that addresses the child-care burden through the tax code.
- Trump wants to double the child-care tax credit to at least $2,000.
- The child tax credit took effect 20 years ago. It started at $500 before President George W. Bush increased it to $1,000, sociologist Joshua McCabe wrote last week in a history of the credit. President Barack Obama, he added, increased its value to low-income workers in 2009.
- American families claimed $55 billion in the child-care credits last year.
- The White House has not provided details on the proposed expansion, including how it would be funded.
- Trump has been working with the office of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and some Republicans have expressed support. But there’s no guarantee they will fight to put it in the tax bill they’re crafting.
What about child care workers?
Running a day care is expensive. Research has found that tighter regulations meant to protect children, which vary by state, drives down the number of centers that can afford to operate, especially in low-income areas.
California programs, for instance, must employ one adult for every three infants. Such rules might be optimal for babies, but economists say they keep wages low, since raising the cost of care doesn’t work — parents can’t afford to pay it.
A report last year from the University of California at Berkeley found that roughly half the workers who watch America’s children qualify for food stamps.
