Conservative opposition to social safety nets is nothing new. But, as daycare costs continue to soar and the US Surgeon General warns that parents are dangerously overwhelmed, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appear to agree that at least something needs to be done to help address the crisis.

Yet when faced with a simple question on the issue this week, Donald Trump and JD Vance stumbled profoundly, prompting many to wonder whether the Republican ticket had even bothered to think about child care affordability—again, one of the most acute problems facing the US economy—at all.

Just take a look. Here was Trump at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, rambling through an incomprehensible, half-baked theory that foreign tariffs will solve the problem, easy-peasy—all while dodging the question of specific pieces of legislation he’d push to help make child care more affordable. Meanwhile, economists widely agree that sweeping tariffs would severely hurt world trade.

  • circuitfarmer
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    163 months ago

    Their plan for any given crisis will be: “pay corporations more money”.

    These are business people pushing the same old trickle-down agenda. Why they continue to be able to convince so many poverty-stricken people to vote against their own best interests is beyond me, but there is no magic in the platform.

    Corporations > people, and if the people just gave them a little bit more, all the problems will go away. They promise.

    • RubberDuck
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      113 months ago

      No no… there is also de-regulate.

      Vance explicitly said it in his “let grandpa and grandma help out” speech.

      He suggested that “you should not need a 6 year degree to open a daycare”… Which you dont. He also referred to “resources wasted on childcare”.

      So his message to parents is “we will lower the quality” and thinks people in childcare “jobs” could serve the economy better if they do other things while the retired post menstrual women should watch the kids.

      He is… a ghoul.