Donald Trump’s latest policy proposals include allowing working parents to deduct child care expenses from their income taxes, creating dependent care savings accounts and ensuring six weeks of paid maternity leave.
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But Trump leads Clinton among married women and the Republican nominee also sought to appeal to stay-at-home parents, extending the child care tax deductions he outlined to families with one stay-at-home parent.
Discussing her father’s recently unveiled proposals on child care and maternity leave, Ivanka Trump called it a “very comprehensive” plan that’s “long overdue”.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival, issued her plan more than a year ago, and it guarantees up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for a newborn or a sick relative, financed by an increase in taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
“I think we took a giant leap forward with the plan and, you know, respectfully, Hillary Clinton has been around for decades and there’s no policy benefiting either mothers or fathers in terms of paid leave”, Ivanka Trump said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America”.
The signature element of the plan, six weeks of paid maternity leave for new mothers whose employers do not now provide coverage, would be financed by eliminating fraud in unemployment insurance.
According to the campaign, the maternity leave proposal would be funded by eliminating an estimated $3.3 billion in unemployment fraud, though experts have pegged the total cost of even a bare-bones maternity leave paid by the government to cost much more – about $9 billion annually, Politico reported.
The tax benefit would be available only to families earning less than $500,000 and individuals learning less than $250,000. These new accounts are available to everyone, and allow both tax-deductible contributions and tax-free appreciation year-to-year-unlike current law Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), which are available only if it is offered by an employer and does not allow balances to accumulate. Clinton’s senior policy advisor Maya Harris commented on Trump’s plan, stating,”We’re not living in a “Mad Men” era anymore, where only women are taking care of infants”.
Mrs. Clinton has advanced a proposal to limit child care costs to 10% of a family’s income, but has offered few details on how that would work.
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.
Re: “Donald Trump’s good ideas on child care”, September 14 letter to the editor.
Plus, Whiten added, the tax deduction would fail to help millions of low- to moderate-income families who don’t pay income taxes. And Trump has been trying to soften his image among college-educated women who have been reluctant to support a candidate who has made many derogatory remarks toward women.
Trump’s plan has four main proposals.
– When established for an elderly dependent, the dependent care funds can be used for adult day care, in-home or long-term care services.
As the Washington Post noted, “Considering that some people spend more on child care than rent, such a price shift would significantly ease the financial strain for families nationwide”. Those benefits would be offered on a sliding scale based on need.
Clinton’s paid leave plan relies on increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
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“He will focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all”, she said.
