Universal Child Care

The United States is one of the only developed countries in the world without Universal Child Care. This is utterly embarrassing and an absolute failure at the hands of our elected representatives who are in a position to enact such policies that would be an absolute home run of a policy for the American people.

We were close in 1971 : there was bipartisan support for The Comprehensive Child Act of 1971. This legislation would have established a universally-accessible, nationally-funded system of comprehensive child care centers that offered families high-quality education, nutrition, and medical services. And it passed both the House & Senate. But once it reached President Nixon’s desk, he vetoed it.

Unlike its developed counterparts, the United States provides shockingly little financial relief for families with young children. The meager 0.2% of GDP spent on childcare for children under two translates to a paltry $200 yearly tax credit, doing little to alleviate the substantial costs parents face.

If our government was to pass a Universal Child Care policy, it would cost around $70 billion per year according to Moody’s Analytics. To put into context of just how little that actually is, we could raise all the funding we need for that by placing a 25% wealth tax on JUST Elon Musk. The current Trump administration is proposing a $4.5 Trillion dollar tax cut. Universal child care would cost less than 0.5% of the tax cut they want to provide to millionaires & billionaires.

We NEED Universal Child Care in this country, and we need it more than billionaires and massive corporations need another tax break.