63% of Americans say their family’s income is falling behind the cost of living. The affordability crisis is especially dire when it comes to the cost of childcare.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) considers childcare affordable at 7% of household income, but the national average expenditure is now a whopping 24%. A median income Black family with two young children spends 56% of their total income on childcare.
In 28 states, childcare costs more than college tuition, and in all 50 states two kids in childcare costs more than housing. 71% of parents say the cost of childcare is an unmanageable financial burden.
To solve this urgent problem, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Care for Every Child plan will cap total childcare expenditures at 15% of family income above the poverty line. If your income is below the poverty line, child care is free. 100% subsidized.
Kennedy’s plan will provide universally affordable community-based childcare or identical payment to in-home caregivers for children aged three months to five years old. Only home-based childcare or single-location small business daycares will be eligible for payments, not institutional chain daycares that are so often owned by Wall Street hedge funds.
Families will have the option to take the same payment to compensate an at-home caregiver, whether a parent, family member, or babysitter. One monthly payment will be issued per child.
The total annual cost of the plan will be $175 billion, which is approximately what the U.S. has already spent on the war in Ukraine. This program will not be funded by any new government spending, but instead by redirecting excess military funding, which does little to grow GDP, increase tax revenue, boost employment, or improve the lives of American families.
Unlike military expenditures, the Care for Every Child plan will boost tax revenue by $21 billion, increase U.S. employer revenue by $23 billion, raise U.S. parents’ wages by $78 billion, create 423,000 new childcare jobs, and add $1 trillion to our GDP over 6 years when combined with paid family leave.
Because these many direct and indirect benefits are spread across all Congressional Districts, this program allows legislators to redirect excess defense spending without penalizing their home districts or endangering their own re-election resources. In fact, universally affordable daycare has overwhelming support from voters on all sides of the aisle and creates more than 3x the number of jobs (and immeasurably more joy, purpose and prosperity) than defense spending. Achieving this bipartisan objective without increasing government spending will drive re-election victories for red and blue legislators across the country.
In this way, RFK Jr’s Care for Every Child program is a keystone example of how an Independent Kennedy Administration will work with Congress to redirect excessive and wasteful spending in service of economic growth and the true needs of the American people.
It’s important to note that the above discussion addresses only the direct economic benefits of universally available daycare. The indirect follow-on effects are even more beneficial to our country.
Inability to afford childcare is the number one reason that American women leave the workforce, cut their hours, refuse a promotion, or turn down a better job. Fathers, grandparents, and many other caregivers face these same difficult decisions between affording childcare and pursuing the dreams they have for themselves and their families.
Kennedy’s Care for Every Child doesn’t just benefit caregivers. Its greatest beneficiaries are the children themselves.
Longitudinal studies show that kids who have benefitted from early childhood education are more likely to be employed full time as adults, more likely to be in a happy long-term relationship, less likely to rely on public assistance, less likely to become parents under the age of 21, and less likely to ever be incarcerated. They also have lower systolic blood pressure well into adulthood, fewer adverse health events, and represent a lower overall cost to America’s health care, justice, and public assistance programs.
Kennedy’s Care for Every Child plan will grow our economy, reduce public expenditures, free every parent to pursue their dreams, and give every American child the lifetime academic, social, nutritional, and emotional benefits of quality childhood care. Without any new government spending, this signature Kennedy initiative will also alleviate one of the biggest sources of financial stress for American families today.