The Biden-Harris administration’s childcare proposals disregard what Americans actually want.
“One of the most urgent things that parents and families need is affordable childcare,” Vice President Kamala Harris declared earlier this year. If this sounds like Obamacare for childcare, you’re not far off. And much like with left-wing healthcare proposals, Harris made a crucial omission. Parents and families don’t just need lower childcare prices—they also need their caregiving choices to be respected. On that front, the Biden-Harris administration has plenty of room for improvement.
Just look at how they’ve framed the “caregiving crisis” since the outbreak of Covid-19. Their “Build Back Better” agenda promoted extraordinary subsidies for professional center-based childcare, while offering no support to parents who prefer other arrangements, such as stay-at-home parenting, care provided by a relative (e.g., a grandparent), or care shared among neighbors, church members, etc. They’ve also consistently sought to increase degree requirements, pay, and benefits at childcare centers to draw more workers into that industry. This simultaneously raises costs for families that use center-based care, while pushing a one-size-fits-all “solution” that ignores families’ actual preferences and needs.
As the economic policy think tank American Compass reports, most Americans don’t want to rely on childcare centers. They prefer stay-at-home parenting or relative caregiving by close to 10 percentage points. And low-income and working-class Americans—those most in need of the government’s help—are the least favorable to center-based care. Virtually everyone agrees that support for families should increase, but what Democrats miss is that families also have a palpable desire for flexible support.
Why won’t the left respond to this desire? The answer is a mixture of elite bias and bad economics. Of all Americans, only the upper class idealizes dual-income households and childcare centers—but it’s exactly that upper class which has captured the Democrat Party. Liberal policymakers are similarly influenced by their obsession with economic efficiency. When you measure everything by its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, it’s easy to judge caring for children at home as a step down from spending that time at work.
But conservatives are charting a better course. By increasing federal funding for childcare, we can show that we put families first. And by reforming that funding to give families more options, we can show working parents that their voices are heard. My Respect Parents’ Childcare Choices Act is a comprehensive bill designed to accomplish both these goals.
On the one hand, my bill would increase annual authorized funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant by $5.25 billion, allowing more families to receive vital assistance. On the other hand, it would ensure that funding is allocated in the form of childcare vouchers, which allow parents to pay relative caregivers just the same as they pay childcare centers. Married parents could also use these vouchers to support at-home parental care, as long as they work a combined total of 40 hours per week. In addition, my bill would protect faith-based childcare providers from unfair discrimination and prevent newly married couples from losing childcare benefits.
This is the kind of policy proposal America requires—one that is sensitive to families’ realities, and one that will not cost taxpayers a penny. My Respect Parents’ Child Care Choices Act would pay for itself by eliminating the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, a program that costs $5.3 billion per year, but ignores single-earner families and primarily benefits the upper class.
I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to turn this bill into law. I call on Harris and the rest of the Biden administration, too. If they really believe childcare is “one of the most urgent things that parents and families need,” they should be open to increasing childcare funding in a manner consistent with Americans’ wants and needs. The only alternatives are blatant paternalism and hypocrisy.
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