Trump Unveils Child Care Reforms: ‘My Opponent Has No Child Care Plan’

Ivanka, Donald Getty
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Alex Swoyer
Washington, DC

Donald Trump unveiled his child care plan in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night alongside his daughter Ivanka, who helped conceptualize the policy proposal.

“This is a reform of critical value and long overdue,” Ivanka stated as she introduced her father. “My father understands the needs of a modern workforce.”

“Raising children full time is one of the hardest jobs anyone can do,” she added, noting that policies must honor this reality. “This is not a woman issue, it’s a family issue. It’s an American issue.”

When Trump took the stage, he had several Republican congresswomen join him. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was one of them and she applauded Trump’s plan to address child care for families across America. “Focusing on the issues that affect working women is something vitally important,” Blackburn declared.

Trump said his plan will bring relief to working and middle class families. He also took a jab at his rival Hillary Clinton.

“My opponent has no child care plan,” Trump said, saying Clinton is “all talk, no action.”

As of Tuesday evening, Clinton’s webpage listing her policy proposals does not include one for child care.

The Trump campaign detailed key proposals in his child care plan in a press release Tuesday evening, highlighting four specific proposals from the plan:

  1. The Trump plan will rewrite the tax code to allow working parents to deduct from their income taxes child care expenses for up to four children and elderly dependents.
  2. The Trump plan would create new Dependent Care Savings Accounts (DCSAs) so that families can set aside extra money to foster their children’s development and offset elder care for their parents or adult dependents. These new accounts are available to everyone, and allow both tax-deductible contributions and tax-free appreciation year-to-year-unlike current law Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), which are available only if it is offered by an employer and does not allow balances to accumulate.
  3. Mr. Trump’s plan will provide regulatory reform to promote new family-based and community-based solutions, and also add incentives for employers to provide child care at the workplace. The ability to set aside funds will be particularly helpful to women, low-income workers and minorities, who are statistically more likely to reduce time working outside the home in order to provide unpaid care.
  4. The Trump plan will guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave by amending the existing unemployment insurance (UI) that companies are required to carry. The benefit would apply only when employers don’t offer paid maternity leave, and would be paid for by offsetting reductions in the program so that taxes are not raised. This enhancement will triple the average paid leave received by new mothers.

Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins praised Trump’s plan, blaming President Obama and Clinton’s economic agenda for providing financial hardships for parents.

“Trump’s child care plan compliments the child tax credit that Family Research Council designed and helped enact in the 1990s, and increases the ability of moms and dads, whether they are working or at home parents, to deduct child care expenses from their taxes,” Perkins stated in a press release.

Perkins continued:

The Obama economy and the Clinton agenda have made it very difficult for parents, both for their finances and their ability to start and raise a family. Trump’s plan recognizes the importance of the family in society and the importance of children to future economic growth. His plan encourages family formation which will, over time, help boost the economy.

“The data makes clear that strong families are the true engine of the economy, and allowing parents to keep more of what they earn to provide for their children’s well-being makes both immediate and long-term sense,” Perkins concluded.

***UPDATE***

Hillary Clinton responded to Trump’s attack, pointing critics to her “Early Childhood Education” plan, which also includes steps to improve child care.

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