Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
A Government That Chooses War Over Childcare - Ms.
One of my favorite Broadway show tunes features the lyric, “The opposite of war isn’t peace; it’s creation.” (Any other Rent-heads out there? Viva la vie bohème!) I’ve always envisioned that line to be as much a tribute to the transformative power of art, as a nod to the potential of future generations.
But President Donald Trump turned that juxtaposition on its head last week when he pitted childcare against his desire to fund the costly, unpopular and likely unconstitutional war in Iran.
During a private Easter luncheon at the White House, he went on a tirade about how the United States “can’t take care of daycare” because “we have to take care of one thing: military protection.” He pinned the responsibility solely on the states, sharing that he told Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, “Don’t send any money for daycare. …. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. You got to let a state take care of daycare. And they should pay for it, too.”
No doubt, the cost of childcare, which is rising quicker than the overall rate of inflation, is among the starkest of affordability issues affecting families in this country. In many states, the average cost of daycare runs upward of $1,000 a month per child. The U.S. government’s benchmark for what is “affordable”—when less than 7 percent of the household income, for a family with two children, goes toward childcare—amounts to parents having to earn around $400,000 annually to meet that standard.
While on the campaign trail in 2024, Trump responded to a straightforward question from Moms First CEO Reshma Saujani about his commitment to childcare reforms. His answer—a bombastic word salad, of course—went viral as he implied there would be some federal commitment.
Not that anyone believed it for a moment. The entire tradwife meets pronatalist agenda his administration is mired in revolves entirely around the notion that women should not or won’t want to work (even to vote, for that matter), making such policies all but irrelevant to them.
But President Donald Trump turned that juxtaposition on its head last week when he pitted childcare against his desire to fund the costly, unpopular and likely unconstitutional war in Iran.
During a private Easter luncheon at the White House, he went on a tirade about how the United States “can’t take care of daycare” because “we have to take care of one thing: military protection.” He pinned the responsibility solely on the states, sharing that he told Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, “Don’t send any money for daycare. …. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. You got to let a state take care of daycare. And they should pay for it, too.”
No doubt, the cost of childcare, which is rising quicker than the overall rate of inflation, is among the starkest of affordability issues affecting families in this country. In many states, the average cost of daycare runs upward of $1,000 a month per child. The U.S. government’s benchmark for what is “affordable”—when less than 7 percent of the household income, for a family with two children, goes toward childcare—amounts to parents having to earn around $400,000 annually to meet that standard.
While on the campaign trail in 2024, Trump responded to a straightforward question from Moms First CEO Reshma Saujani about his commitment to childcare reforms. His answer—a bombastic word salad, of course—went viral as he implied there would be some federal commitment.
Not that anyone believed it for a moment. The entire tradwife meets pronatalist agenda his administration is mired in revolves entirely around the notion that women should not or won’t want to work (even to vote, for that matter), making such policies all but irrelevant to them.
https://msmagazine.com/2026/04/10/iran-war-trump-childcare/]
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
