Trump claims boosting tariffs will pay for child care but doesn’t explain how

By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — Asked at an economic forum Thursday how he would make child care more affordable, former President Donald Trump responded that his plan to hike tariffs would raise enough revenue, without explaining how that would help families.

“We are going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it is relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,” he said in remarks at the Economic Club of New York. “We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people.”

Trump dodged answering the question posed by Reshma Saujani, founder of Moms First and Girls Who Code, who asked what specific legislation he would back to make child care more affordable. She prefaced her question by noting that Trump had spoken about the price increases for food, gas and rent, but said, “The real cost that’s breaking families backs and preventing women from participating in the workforce is child care.”

The former president acknowledged that child care is “a very important issue” and that “in this country, you have to have it.”

Throughout his speech, Trump touted that his economic platform – especially tariffs – would promote explosive growth and solve the nation’s financial woes. He has proposed slapping a 60% tariff on imports from China and a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports from other countries, which he has said he might hike to 20% on most imports.

However, some economists fear higher tariffs could raise prices, hurt the economy and set off an international trade war.

Trump’s Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris has sought to tackle the cost of child rearing. In August, she released a proposal to restore the American Rescue Plan’s popular expansion of the child tax credit to as much as $3,600, up from $2,000, and is calling for it to be made permanent.  The enhancement was only in effect in 2021. Harris would also add a new child tax credit of up to $6,000 for middle-class and lower-income families with children in their first year of life.

Expensive care

Child care is a major financial burden for many families in the US. Parents with two kids in a child care center paid on average at least twice as much for that care as they did for the typical rent in 11 states and the District of Columbia in 2023, according to a Child Care Aware of America report released in May.

Placing two kids at a child care center cost at least 25% more than the typical rent, on average, in every state in the US.

And the tab exceeded annual typical mortgage payments in 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, according to the Child Care Aware report, which looked at care for an infant and 4-year-old.

Nationwide, the average annual cost of care rose to $11,582 per child last year, up 3.7% from the prior year. It was the smallest annual increase since the pandemic began and trailed inflation.

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