Pete Buttigieg and Donald Trump Photo: Sarah Lapidus and Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via IMAGN
Out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is blasting former President Donald Trump’s policies and his mental fitness after Trump’s recent “incoherent rant” about lowering childcare costs.
“When Donald Trump was asked about child care the other day, it wasn’t clear whether he even understood the question,” Buttigieg told anchorperson Dana Bash on the Sunday installment of CNN’s State of The Union.
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In Trump’s incoherent two-minute response delivered at the Economic Club of New York last Thursday, he said he would raise tariffs on international goods entering the United States. He didn’t say how the revenue from the tariffs would help lower childcare costs. Numerous economic experts have since noted that tariffs usually raise the cost of everyday items, essentially forcing U.S. citizens to pay for them.
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Even the female club board member who asked Trump the question, Reshma Saujani, said his response showed that he’s “not fit to be president.”
On CNN, Buttigieg said that the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, “has a plan for expanding the Child Tax Credit, making sure that we have paid family leave in this country, two things we would have right now if Republicans weren’t blocking them.”
“[Harris] has laid out an agenda: things like making sure our tax code is fair, and protecting a woman’s right to choose,” he added. “That is, of course, the opposite of Donald Trump’s agenda, which has been around tax cuts for the wealthy and his record of destroying the right to choose.”
Harris has proposed giving a $6,000 tax credit to parents of newborns. The proposal could aid middle-class families and help end childhood poverty for millions of kids, but it’s unclear how Harris would pass such legislation seeing as congressional Republicans have opposed such expansions, denying it their necessary votes. The current child tax credit gives parents $2,000 per eligible child.
Saujani, the club board member who asked Trump the question, recently told CNN, “He did answer the question and what he told us was that childcare expenses are no big deal. The fact that you’re drowning in debt because of them: Sorry, but not sorry. And he also told us that, ‘No, I don’t have any ideas or proposals or legislation’ … and it’s insulting to parents who are constantly having to choose between funding their day care and feeding their kids. And the thing is, if you don’t have a plan to fix childcare, you are not fit to be president.”
A CNN anchorperson also asked Saujani about Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s recent response to a similar question. Vance said that American families struggling with childcare costs should simply ask grandparents, aunts, and uncles to help raise their kids. He also said childcare centers can lower costs by reducing the number of safety, educational and special needs certifications each state requires from childcare professionals.
Saujani called Vance’s answer a fantasy and said the issue isn’t regulation, it’s the fact that workers don’t want to go into the childcare field because of its low wages. She also noted that 50% of Americans live in “childcare deserts” where local daycare options aren’t available.
