The president called for 12 weeks of paid family or medical leave, large investments in preschool for 4-year-olds and the extension of a child tax credit.
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Biden Promises to Make Caregiving More Affordable if Re-elected
The president pledged to make adjustments to child care and elderly care support as he laid out proposals for his budget during a speech to caregivers at Union Station in Washington.
My budget for next year makes key commitments to children, seniors and people with disabilities and to caregivers who look after their loved ones. We’re going to guarantee affordable, quality child care. [cheering] Most families, in our plan, most families will pay less than $10 a day per child, saving millions of folks as much as $7,000 a year. That’s a lot of breathing room for young families who need it badly. We’ll also restore the expanded child care tax credit for everyone caring for a loved one. My budget would finally, finally create a national paid family and medical leave program. [cheering] Up to 12 weeks to care for a newborn, a sick one — a sick loved one, or yourself without losing your income. Look, it’s past time America caught up with the rest of the world on paid leave. And folks, all of this helps families and it grows the economy. It grows the economy. And we can afford to do it. To put another way, we can’t afford not to do it. Look.
The president pledged to make adjustments to child care and elderly care support as he laid out proposals for his budget during a speech to caregivers at Union Station in Washington.Credit
President Biden promised on Tuesday to continue pushing to expand child care subsidies, early education and paid medical leave, agenda items left unfulfilled during his three and a half years in the White House.
The promises, made in a speech to a crowd of enthusiastic caregivers at Union Station in Washington, were meant to reassure Democratic voters that he would use a second term to fight against Republicans who blocked his ambitious measures.
He called for 12 weeks of paid family or medical leave, large investments in preschool for 4-year-olds, the extension of a child tax credit to help working families, and investments to give families access to high-quality child care for $10 per day.
“All this helps families and it grows the economy, grows the economy,” he told the crowd to applause. “And we can afford to do it. We can’t afford not to do it.”
Mr. Biden pursued many of his care economy proposals earlier in his presidency. His Build Back Better plan in 2021 originally included big investments in preschool and health care workers. But most of those proposals were dropped during heated negotiations with some conservative Democrats in the Senate.
Now, as the election battle with former President Donald J. Trump intensifies, Mr. Biden is hoping that supporters of those ideas will want him to have another four years to pass them into law.
The president included his new proposals in his budget for next year, an election year document that members of both parties acknowledge is dead on arrival on Capitol Hill. For Mr. Biden, it is an aspirational document meant to lay out his priorities if he were re-elected.
In the speech, Mr. Biden excoriated Republicans, who have opposed many of the proposals as too costly at a time when the nation has been struggling with mounting debt. He accused Republicans of proposing their own budget that “cuts caregiving programs by a third” and aims to “terminate the Affordable Care Act.”
Mr. Biden concluded his remarks on Tuesday with a message to the care workers in the audience: “As your president I’m here with a simple message. I give you my word: I have your back.”
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent for The New York Times, covering President Biden and his administration. He has reported on politics for more than 30 years. More about Michael D. Shear
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Source: nytimes.com
