‘Maybe grandma and grandpa want to help out’: JD Vance has no idea how out-of-touch his childcare crisis ‘solution’ sounds, does he?
Republican Vice Presidential nominee J. D. Vance believes that America’s urgent childcare crisis can be solved by simply having grandparents babysit their grandchildren.
Republicans have been hard-pressed to offer a viable solution to the crisis. They are the party that opposes abortion and constantly insists they are “pro-family.” Vance has gone as far as to openly mock women who don’t have children, calling Kamala Harris and others “childless cat ladies.” Yet, despite their preoccupation with women having children, the party has failed to do anything to support the families having children. With the state of the economy, many families find it necessary for both parents to work. Meanwhile, childcare costs have skyrocketed, and the industry is experiencing a labor shortage, meaning countless families cannot find accessible, affordable, high-quality care for their children. The costs are leaving working parents exhausted and forced to be absent from work, as well as dissuading non-parents from having children.
There are possible solutions to the issue, such as expanding the child tax credit, making paid parental leave a right for U.S. workers, and creating grant programs to waive or cap the costs of child care for lower-income families. However, Vance has a different solution to the issue.
J. D. Vance thinks grandparents will solve the childcare crisis
While speaking with Turning USA’s Charlie Kirk, Vance revealed his plan to solve the childcare crisis, which involved grandma and grandpa stepping into the roles of childcare providers. He stated:
I think one of the things that we can do is make it easier for family models to choose, let the families choose whatever model they want, right? So, one of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is make it so that maybe, grandma and grandpa want to help out a little bit more. Or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more. If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we’re spending in daycare.
It’s interesting that Vance mentions grandparents providing child care without acknowledging that the country isn’t just facing a childcare crisis—it is also facing a retirement crisis. Today, more than half of Americans have no retirement savings. Many don’t have the means to put money towards retirement or work jobs that provide no retirement benefits. Meanwhile, social security benefits often aren’t enough to wholly support one’s pre-retirement lifestyle. As a result, more and more Americans are working into their 60s, 70s, and beyond.
On top of that, Vance’s party advocates for worsening the retirement crisis. They support slashing social security benefits and raising the retirement age. Some of them even support forcing Americans to work until they die. So, do conservatives want grandparents to work until age 80 or retire early enough to raise their grandchildren? They can’t do both.
The problem is that conservatives don’t just not have a solution to the childcare crisis, but they actively want to worsen the situation. Although Vance has claimed to support expanding the child tax credit, his party does not and recently struck down a bill that would’ve expanded it. Vance was noticeably absent from the vote.
The most ridiculous aspect of Vance’s argument is that it’s born purely out of his personal experiences with no acknowledgment that there are people less privileged than him. Vance explained that he and his wife were in need of child care, so his mother-in-law took a year-long sabbatical from work as a biology professor to help them with their child. Since the childcare issue was so easy for him to solve, he believes this is how it is for everyone. He has no consideration for families whose grandparents have already passed away or have health complications. He doesn’t understand that not every grandparent could afford a year-long leave of absence or even be granted one. He doesn’t acknowledge that there are people who have abusive parents or have gone no-contact with their families.
People who are privileged enough to have family members willing to help provide quality child care are likely already utilizing this resource. He’s only speaking to certain people in society while completely ignoring those whom the childcare crisis is actually affecting. Republicans like Vance don’t have any real solutions to the childcare crisis and have no qualms about making it worse because it’s not an issue that affects them directly. They can just offer the most laughable non-solutions because they don’t actually care or understand how people less privileged than them live.
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