Donald Trump unveiled his child care plan in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night alongside his daughter Ivanka, who helped conceptualize the policy proposal.
Advertisement
Donald Trump’s new child care and maternity leave plan – long on promises but short on specifics – won’t help the mothers and fathers who need it most.
Ivanka Trump says that the United States needs “to create policies that champion all parents”.
Carmel Martin at the liberal Center for American Progress said the new savings accounts would create a potential tax shelter for wealthy people and that Trump’s proposals remain tilted to the rich because the low-income child-care rebates top out at $1,200.
Alan Cole, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said Trump’s provisions “should be a pretty substantial, generous benefit to families”.
In addition to the child care expense deduction, Trump would also guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed to the Guardian that Schneiderman “opened an inquiry on the Trump Foundation based on troubling transactions that have recently come to light”. The benefit itself would be proportional to income and would be capped at the average cost of child care at $12,000.
Trump would limit the child care tax deduction to individuals earning $250,000 or less, or $500,000 or less if filing jointly.
Combined with Donald’s child care reform, Ivanka believes her father’s plan is an especially big win for working women.
Now that both candidates have proposals, it’s worth comparing the two.
She wants to cap the cost of child care at 10 percent of a family’s income – a huge boost for lower income workers.
“So total out-of-pocket child-care costs amounted to about $142 billion, which a Trump administration would either have to make up with higher taxes or add to the budget deficit”. Those whose employers do not offer paid maternity leave will receive it through the unemployment insurance system – something that could have the perverse effect of making employers less likely to offer the paid leave in the first place.
Yet for Republicans, who have built their brand on a commitment to small government and a reduction of the national debt, Trump’s plan should be radioactive.
The House GOP tax plan doesn’t mention child care at all, instead consolidating the existing child tax credit and personal exemptions into a single tax break. Republicans have long resisted the idea of having the US emulate other countries’ paid-leave programs, warning about budgetary costs and government mandates.
I wouldn’t hold my breath that Clinton or Trump will be able to get this done. “Working parents can get an expanded EITC benefit that equals up to half of their total payroll tax – a major relief for low-income parents”.
Hillary Clinton’s plan offers 12 weeks of paid medical leave to both men and women, which her campaign says is important to eliminate a reason for employers to discriminate against women when hiring.
Mr. Trump also calls for a new savings account for families to save for caring for their children or their elderly parents. Trump is expected to elaborate on his tax plan in a speech this week.
Employees at Trump hotels in NY and Miami, as well as at the billionaire’s luxury Mar-a-Lago estate and club, also told the news site that they are not eligible for eight weeks of paid parental leave. If no parent is working, does this mean that the family would still be eligible to claim the deduction? The benefit would only be available to workers at businesses that do not offer paid maternity leave. An economic adviser to Trump estimated in August his updated plan would cost $3 trillion over a decade.
Advertisement
“His so-called child care plan could only be the brainchild of someone living in the penthouse of Trump Tower, leaving millions of middle class and working families with no support or pennies on the dollar while carving out a regressive tax break to pay for nannies and private schools”.
