Amidst the chaos of the pandemic, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden unveiled an extensive spending plan to address what he calls “a child care emergency.” With uncertainty about how to guard against infection and whether to even open up at all, caregiving facilities for both children and the elderly have certainly suffered as COVID rages on. Biden hopes to address this issue through a comprehensive but costly approach.
The Plan
As part of his broad economic recovery plan, Biden hopes to spend $775 billion in total to revitalize the caregiving economy over the course of ten years. In practice, the money would be used through state subsidies and tax credits for caregiving facilities. Although Biden’s plan certainly has relevance in bailing out a failing sector of the economy during the current COVID crisis, he hopes to aid the construction of new and upgraded facilities over the coming years.
Much of Biden’s plan is targeted at helping elderly and child care providers themselves. He hopes to enforce a higher federal minimum wage as well as higher state-level standards for those working at caregiving facilities. The plan mandates that caregivers and educators be provided up to 12 weeks of paid medical or family leave. Biden estimates the plan will create close to 3 million new education and caregiving jobs while simultaneously raising job standards.
A significant provision makes pre-kindergarten education and childcare universal for children ages 3 and 4. With a free child care option for very young children, families would foreseeably save thousands on child care and early education. Biden hopes to expand the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a fund designed to help low-income families provide their children with caregiving services. He would like to both lower the eligibility requirements for aid and expand its terms to provide for weekend, summer, and after-school services. In addition to universal access to pre-kindergarten care and education, Biden’s plan addresses logistical concerns about care facilities. In order to mitigate the possibility of commutes that are too long for parents, Biden has argued that the plan would involve a substantial increase in facility construction in many geographic areas. In some cases, the plan would support on-site caregiving facilities for working parents so children can be brought to work.
Furthermore, Biden’s plan allocates $450 billion to enhance the elderly caregiving. With about 800,000 senior citizens on the waitlist for care under Medicaid, funds would be dedicated to diminishing wait times. Biden has also been vocal in his desire to empower the elderly to make their own choices about caregiving. This means funding community service options that allow seniors to live at home independently. Biden has indicated that elderly caregiving services provided under his plan would include meals, rides to appointments, daycare programs, and making their house safer. All this is possible, he claims, simply by expanding upon an existing provision of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
What do the Republicans think?
His plan certainly sounds good: increasing access to care, reducing prices, maintaining quality, and providing parents’ as well as seniors’ with more choices. However, critics of the plan point out that these benefits come at a substantial cost. In response to Biden’s unveiling of his plan, the Trump campaign quickly retorted that the “unaffordable left-wing agenda gets more expensive by the day.” Biden is relying on raising the $775 billion necessary for his plan by increasing tax compliance among high earners as well as eliminating tax breaks for real estate investors who have incomes over $400,000.
For fiscal conservatives, the massive increase in spending and taxes is unacceptable. Biden’s spending plan for caregivers was unveiled shortly after his $2 trillion climate action proposal. Taken together, his ambitions reflect a desire to drastically reshape the economy through spending. Liberals advocate for this approach, citing the New Deal as evidence that spending can create jobs and effectively uplift the economy out of a recession. Conservatives are not so sure.
If Biden is to successfully fend off criticism from the Republicans, he must demonstrate that the value of his spending plan truly outweighs the cost. As the election approaches, the caregiving plan gives more insight into the plans and priorities of a potential Biden administration. Time will tell if the American people agree.
