Democratic Vice President Joe Biden wants American women to get back in the workforce to help boost the economy.
“If we just put all the women back to work, if they were able to afford childcare, we would increase the GDP in America by close to eight tenths of one percent,” he said. “That’s trillions of dollars over the next decade.”
Biden made his remarks during a campaign event for Hillary Clinton at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Tuesday. He pointed out that millions of American women were qualified and educated, but were not participating because of the high cost of child care.
“That’s why women aren’t in the workforce,” he argued.
He called for more federal spending on early child care, pointing out that Hillary Clinton wanted to cap it to only 10 percent of someone’s income. Biden also promoted Clinton’s plan to offer 12 weeks of paid leave for women on maternity leave.
He called for $660 billion in tax hikes on wealthy individuals to pay for all of the new spending so that more women could go back to work.
“I ask you, is it better to have adequate child care, putting millions of women back to work?” he asked. “You can pay for it all.”
Biden spoke at length about multiple massive federal government spending programs, including more infrastructure spending and a call for free four years of college education at a foreign university.
“I’m sorry to be so wonkish about this, but it matters,” he said.
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