Axios House: Child care costs in spotlight as parties appeal to families

CHICAGO — The cost of child care is taking center stage in the election this year. Democrats made the case for expanding the child tax credit at an Axios House event on Monday for the Democratic National Convention.

Why it matters: Day care and preschool costs this year have risen more than 4% compared to last year, and reporting shows more parents don't have access to child care after pandemic-era federal funding ended last year.

• Axios House hosted multiple events over two days at the Democratic National Convention. This event focused on the cost of living crisis and was sponsored by Save the Children.

Catch up quick: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris released her economic agenda last week which included a $6,000 child tax credit for middle-class families the first year of a child's life and then $3,600 per year for every year after that.

• President Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance also said he wants to bring a $5,000 child tax credit per child and possibly expand the credit to have no income restrictions.

At the Axios House event, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro took a jab at Vance's voting history on child tax credits in the Senate.

• A proposal to expand the credit failed earlier this month. DeLauro highlighted the fact that Vance skipped the vote. "He didn't show up for a vote. So I don't know what he's talking about when he's talking about this $5,000. What does it mean? Who does it go to?"
• She also pointed out a current Senate bill sponsored by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and other Democratic lawmakers that would expand the child tax credit. "He's not on it."

Moms First CEO and founder Reshma Saujani said child care is a "critical economic issue."

• "[Moms are] literally being set up to fail and it's not a personal problem. It is an economic issue. You cannot work without affordable, available child care. And the reality is, is child care is neither affordable nor available," Saujani said.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper highlighted the $25,000 housing down payment support for first-time homebuyers in Harris' economic agenda.

• "When you talk with everyday people who are struggling to make it, who are trying to find affordable housing, they will tell you that's one of their biggest issues," Cooper said.

• "You can tell she's trying to help working families make it and [Donald Trump's] trying to rip working families off."

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In a View From the Top conversation, Save the Children Action Network founder and special advisor to the Save the Children president, Mark Shriver, discussed how political leaders need to focus more on rural America and the issues they face when it comes to childcare and other economic issues.

• "Rural America, frankly, has felt– and I think with some justification– overlooked by political leadership, especially in the Democratic Party. I don't think that's the way it should be or the way it could be. They respond to those issues of early childhood education, they're faced with childcare crisis and childcare deserts, food deserts as much as any other part of the country and in many cases worse."
• "We don't have the guts as a country to invest in a population that can't vote and that doesn't give money…You don't see poor kids voting in record numbers because they can't…We've just ignored that population. We've forgotten about them in cities and in the suburbs, and especially in rural America."