Des Moines: Republican candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday rolled out his plans to make child care more affordable, guaranteeing new mothers six weeks of paid maternity leave, breaking with conservative orthodoxy and wading into topics more often discussed by Democrats.
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Companies interested in attracting a modern, highly trained and loyal workforce are offering a more full version of paid family leave as well: Deloitte made headlines this past week by announcing a new policy of 16 weeks of fully paid family leave for a broad range of life events affecting families.
He also proposed a new rebate for child care expenses for low-income parents, through the Earned-Income Tax Credit, which his campaign said could be worth almost $1,200 a year per family. It is a paid maternity leave program.
Donald Trump has credited Ivanka, the second of his three children with ex-wife Ivana, with pushing him to formulate a policy on the issue. Stay-at-home moms and dads would be permitted to apply for the tax deduction the same as working parents under Trump’s proposal. Like drug testing and other programs in place to make sure they’re not getting a free ride, the nation’s unemployed would be forced to jump through dozens more hoops just to get the pittance owed them by the federal government when they lose their jobs.
“Out of options, she made the tragic choice to leave her young children in a hot vehicle while she attempted to secure the job in order to better the life of her family”, she told the audience in the gymnasium of a community center.
“I look at it a little bit differently”, Kaine told The Washington Post in an interview.
The timing, location and subject matter are no coincidence.
The Trump campaign sees Pennsylvania as a key part of its effort to claimed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, though the state has not backed a GOP presidential candidate since 1988. So the janitor at the Trump Organization can just stay home whenever he or she wants and get paid for it, no questions asked? Its real impact will be felt by people who do not need it. Couples filing joint returns “earning more” than $500,000 will be excluded.
For those with no tax liability, the earned income tax credit would be expanded to give a rebate of up to $1,200.
As Simon Maloy, points out over at Salon: “T$3 he centerpiece of [Trump’s] plan is a provision letting parents deduct the costs of child care from their taxes”. Those savings accounts would be available to non-parents to care for their elderly parents as well, according to a background briefing by a campaign adviser. “To help lower-income parents, the government will match half of the first $1,000 deposited per year”.
Many working class families wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the tax deductions because their taxes are too low.
Almost every developed country also guarantees paid job leave to care for a sick child or other family member, unlike the United States.
Trump aides did not address how much the proposals would cost, but stressed that, when combined with other policies including Trump’s tax plan, it would be cost neutral. Those benefits would be offered on a sliding scale based on need.
To offset the cost, Clinton would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. On Good Morning America on Wednesday, Ivanka Trump defended her father’s plan, saying that Hillary Clinton hasn’t implemented a family leave plan despite holding office for the last “several decades”.
Trump also called for providing six weeks of paid maternity leave through the unemployment insurance system for women who do not receive it through their employers.
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“Angela Rachidi at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said both teams are putting out similar proposals”, Rachidi said, adding that, while some of the details may not work, Trump deserves credit. If you aren’t a real estate developer and reality TV star who claims to be worth billions of dollars, child care expenses can consume a disgusting part of your income.
