Donald Trump Rambles Incoherently When Asked About Reducing Child Care Costs | EUROtoday

Donald Trump on Thursday obtained a query about what he would do as president to make youngster care extra inexpensive and accessible.

The reply he gave may charitably be described as a rambling non sequitur, or much less charitably as coverage gibberish.

Either approach, Trump didn’t really provide a concrete proposal ― and even categorical a lot curiosity to find one.

The query got here throughout an look earlier than the Economic Club of New York. The former president, who’s now the Republican presidential nominee for 2024, was there primarily to advertise his macroeconomic agenda of tariffs, tax cuts and a rollback of federal rules.

But after the speech, Trump answered a handful of questions from panelists. The final got here from Reshma Saujani, CEO of Girls Who Code.

Saujani mentioned that prime youngster care prices had been creating hardships and holding again financial development, by making it tough for a lot of working dad and mom ― particularly working girls ― to remain within the workforce.

Then she requested Trump whether or not he’d commit to creating youngster care a precedence of his administration and, if that’s the case, what insurance policies he would pursue.

Trump began his reply by saying he “would do that,” then name-dropped his daughter Ivanka and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has talked about youngster care and launched laws he says would enhance entry.

“It’s a very important issue,” Trump mentioned. “But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that — because — child care is child care … It’s something, you have to have it in this country. You have to have it.”

Trump then began speaking in regards to the increased tariffs he supposed to impose on imported items.

“But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to, but they’ll get used to it very quickly, and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country,” he mentioned.

Eventually, Trump appeared to recommend that the tariffs would enhance financial development and authorities income sufficient to make youngster care extra inexpensive.

“Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care,” Trump continued. “We’re going to have — I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country.”

Exactly how all of this was supposed assist working dad and mom discover or pay for youngster care wasn’t clear, particularly given widespread predictions from economists that Trump’s tariffs would really result in increased deficits and a weaker financial system, in addition to increased prices to households who would pay extra for imported items.

And then there’s the query of how severely Trump and his political allies take the difficulty.

Aside from a handful of lawmakers like Rubio, Republicans generally have been reluctant to take up youngster care proposals or to place actual {dollars} behind them. Trump as president by no means made youngster care coverage a legislative precedence.

“As much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,” Trump mentioned on Thursday.

“We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people,” Trump added ― once more, with out specifying how this is able to change youngster care prices.

Democrats for his or her half have a well-chronicled historical past of engaged on the difficulty. In 2021 and 2022, President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress had hoped to incorporate what they referred to as a “universal child care” initiative as a part of an even bigger legislative package deal they had been calling “Build Back Better.”

The initiative’s purpose was to make use of a mixture of rules and new subsidies to cap youngster care prices at 7% of family earnings.

The proposal couldn’t get by way of Congress, partly as a result of its price ticket of a number of hundred billion {dollars} over 10 years was greater than Sen. Joe Manchin, then a Democrat, may abdomen. The proposal additionally attracted criticism, together with some from liberals, over its design.

As for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, she has a document of advocacy on youngster welfare and caregiving. Harris has mentioned in her marketing campaign speeches she intends to make youngster care coverage a precedence, and her advertisements make the identical promise, though she has not mentioned precisely what which means or what particular proposal she would endorse.