The Childcare Question Was Infuriatingly Ignored in the Debate — & Moms Deserve Better

Nearly half of the households in the U.S. have children. So you’d think that an issue severely impacting not only parents, but the entire economic structure of the country, would be at the top of any presidential candidate’s list of issues to address.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case during last night’s presidential debate. Per the New York Times, Donald Trump spent 18 minutes — nearly half of the 41 minutes that he spoke — attacking Joe Biden’s policies or character, while Biden spent almost 13 minutes of his 36 total doing the same thing. But notably absent, and apparently far less important to our political candidates? The critically-important issue of child care.

The candidates’ personal attacks on each other took 31 minutes total. That’s over half an hour they had available to discuss the child care crisis in America, which has risen to a fever pitch — but instead, they spent it in a worthless pissing contest over approval ratings and, infuriatingly, golf scores. Neither candidate can claim to care about our country or its future without adequately addressing the major issues it faces, and the fact that they spent more time discussing their respective golf handicaps than an issue impacting thousands of families in every single state speaks volumes.

When the child care crisis was brought up during the debate, the response was disheartening to say the least. Trump outright ignored the question, instead bizarrely choosing the moment to criticize Biden’s handling of immigration and the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. And while Biden did address it, he gave a quick and lukewarm answer that left much to be desired, basically outlining the same proposed child care plan that failed in Congress in both 2021 and 2022: “We should significantly increase the child care tax credit. We should significantly increase the availability of women and men or single parents to be able to go back to work, and we should encourage businesses to have child care,” he said.

Calling the state of American child care a crisis is not an overstatement. A recent study by Child Care Aware of America found that childcare for two kids is significantly more expensive than renting a place to live across the U.S. In fact, the cost is at least 25% higher than the average rent nationwide. And it’s even worse in eight states and Washington D.C., where childcare prices more than double the rent. Parents from nearly every walk of life are feeling the crunch, but among low-income families who pay for child care, its cost amounts to 35% of their total annual income, which is five times the rate considered affordable.

This cost isn’t just affecting families, though — not by a long shot. It has repercussions for the entire American economy. Forbes reports that since 2020, the annual economic impact of parents missing work has doubled to a staggering $122 billion. This burden falls especially hard on mothers, who can lose up to 10% of their lifetime earnings per child due to childcare-related unemployment.

But despite all this, it took a petition to even get the question in front of the candidates at last night’s presidential debate in the first place. National nonprofit organization Moms First delivered nearly 15,000 signatures to CNN ahead of the event, demanding that the issue of child care be included in the line of questioning. This morning, Founder and CEO of Moms First, Reshma Saujani, expressed her disappointment over the utter lack of discourse.

“When asked directly about their plans to lower child care costs, both candidates spent the majority of the time bickering and only President Biden briefly addressed the question — leaving millions of moms and families out to dry,” she said in a press release. “Moms First is disappointed that our presidential candidates failed to acknowledge the seriousness of our child care crisis and its impact on American mothers. As candidates vie for votes this election season, they should not underestimate the power of moms. We are a powerful constituency that cannot be ignored. And we deserve real, substantive solutions to this crisis.” 

America’s child care crisis isn’t a collection of separate problems; it’s a deeply rooted issue demanding a holistic approach. We need solutions that address multiple aspects, from increased government investment in childcare facilities to revamped workplace policies that cater to working parents. Only a coordinated effort can truly make a difference — and if we can’t count on our Presidential candidates to even pay attention to it during a discussion of our country’s most pressing topics, parents will continue to pay the (literal!) price.