Biden ignores the child care crisis while lobbying for Israel
Polygraph | Newsletter n°238 | 4 March 2024
Situation
The article I just wrote for The Intercept and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project compares the level of effort Joe Biden put toward advancing two funding proposals — the first for foreign aid, the second for domestic needs — both of which he introduced in late October.
He fought harder for the first than he has for any other proposal. He completely ignored the second. If there’s one case study to illustrate where Biden and the Democratic Party are at politically right now, this might be it.
^https://x.com/theintercept/status/1764432818736648651?s=20
Context
The single largest provision in Biden’s domestic plan would stabilize the US child care crisis.
In June, experts began warning of a “child care cliff” — that millions of families could lose access to child care due to a sudden halt in federal funding for providers. They were right: The expiration of the American Rescue Plan’s Child Care Stabilization grants on September 30 kickstarted a wave of closures, layoffs, pay cuts, and cost increases in preschools and daycares all across the country.
If you’re a parent with a child about the size of a fire hydrant, there’s a decent chance you now pay more for daycare or preschool, or work less to assume those duties yourself. Both options impart financial stress.
Providers don’t have it any better. Because preschools and daycares rely on fees — they’re not funded by broad-based taxes like public schools are — child care is expensive for parents and low-paying for workers. On average, tuition exceeds $10,000/year but child care workers get paid less than parking attendants.
Financial hardship is the angle I chose for the article, but there’s a lot more to the child care crisis than that. I recommend this op-ed by someone who runs a nonprofit preschool that specializes in serving children who are neurodivergent or experienced trauma. I interviewed her for the article. You can support Maria’s work/thank her for talking to me here: https://account.venmo.com/u/thesammycenter
The level of effort
Biden is aware of the child care crisis, knows it’s devastating for millions of people, but just can’t bring himself to take it seriously. The $16 billion in stabilization funds he included in his October 25 domestic proposal demonstrates his awareness. That he hasn’t mentioned his domestic plan once since then shows he doesn’t care.
He previewed what his level of effort would be (zero) in the proposal itself. The foreign aid plan (left) is what a proper funding request looks like — addressed to the House speaker, has suggested legislative text with accompanying justifications for each provision, etc. The domestic request (right) looks like shit. It’s a two-page summary table.
In addition to further enabling the violent fantasies of Israeli leadership, Biden’s foreign aid plan (now a bill called the National Security Act) also entails a massive privatization of public funds. Biden and the Democrats promised sweeping social programs; this is the kind of “domestic investments” we got instead.
^Alt text for screen readers: The U.S. arms industry expects a $64 billion windfall from the National Security Act. That’s four times what it would take to mitigate America’s child care crisis. Source: Stephen Semler’s analysis of the National Security Act (2024) and domestic spending request (2024. Infographic by The Intercept shows a silhouette of an assault rifle and a child, the former about four times larger than the latter.
-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org). Follow me on Bluesky.
Find this note useful? Please consider pledging support to this newsletter or becoming a supporter of SPRI on Patreon. Unlike establishment think tanks, we rely exclusively on small donations.