Biden’s child care subsidies dictate how to raise children

The United States has more than 123 million families. And so it has thousands of different arrangements for working, living and taking care of children. The Biden administration, though, thinks there’s only one proper arrangement – that all parents work full-time jobs and pay for institutional daycare. Joe Biden is using big government to tell people how to raise their children. He pushes this agenda in his speeches, in his budget proposal, and even in his subsidies for the semiconductor industry. Biden’s 2023 budget proposal includes billions in daycare subsidies. His labor department is trying to force microchip makers to have on-site daycare. None of this is free. On-site daycare is a cost for employers. And so it comes at the expense of wages or other benefits. And billions of federal dollars spent on daycare subsidies could alternatively finance either tax credits, or simple cash aid to parents of young children. But instead of leaving options up to parents, Biden is trying to drive them into his preferred arrangement, which is two incomes, and paid daycare. This is the best arrangement for many families, but not for most. 

Half of American mothers said their preferred childcare arrangement is that both parents work flexible hours and share childcare, or one parent stays home part-time or full-time. And only 18% of parents in a 2021 poll said full time paid childcare was best for them. So why does Biden insist on this arrangement? Here’s his argument. 

He is correct in a very limited way. If what you care about is tenths of a percent of the gross domestic product, then the last thing you want is parents spending time with their children. GDP measures money changing hands. If I work part-time, and I’m home by 3pm to help my children with their homework, no money is changing hands after three. When my wife left her job in the telecom industry in order to care for our babies, she was shrinking the GDP both by not working and by not paying someone else to care for our babies. 

Again, millions of parents prefer to or have to work full-time for pay, and then shell out for childcare. That’s great. Removing clumsy regulations on childcare could help them. A bigger child tax credit could make it easier. And a middle-class tax cut could also help. But a tax credit or lower rates would leave parents with a choice. They could pay for childcare. Or they could work less and spend more time with kids or they could hire a babysitter or they could help build an addition for grandma to move into. Having those choices would be good for American families. But choices are not part of Joe Biden’s agenda for working families. The only thing he has in mind is more paid work. And more daycare.