Trump's Child Care Plan Hurts His Own Supporters

Child care benefits are absolutely vital to parents all across the nation. For as much money as parents spend on child care, a tax break at the end of the year is necessary. The new tax reform under the Trump administration is one that President Donald Trump promises will be the "largest overhaul" in history. But this massive reform might not work out to the benefit of some supporters. According to ThinkProgress, under Trump's new tax plan, many Trump supporters will only receive $5.55 in child care benefits — with certain lower income areas being hit the hardest.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin said on Wednesday, according to NPR, that Trump's tax plan is "going to be the biggest tax cut and the largest tax reform in the history of our country." While the plan will include a moderate tax cut for the middle class, it will also include child care benefits — sort of. While Trump's promises of child care sound good on paper, in reality, Trump's child care plan could hurt the people who need it the most: A study conducted by the Center for American Progress found that Trump's proposed child care plan won't provide assistance to the communities that swung the vote in his favor — in places like the Midwest, northern Plains, and Appalachia — giving them, on average, just $5.55 to cover the cost of child care.

The White House did not immediately respond to Romper's request for comment.

As previously stated, the Midwest, the northern Plains, and Appalachia are areas of the United States that were a part of critical swing counties — ones that won Trump the election and cost Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton the win. But the study has found that those areas will be hit the hardest.

According to the Center for American Progress, a typical family of two married adults with two children in one of the aforementioned regions would only receive $5 and some change under Trump's plan, even after spending a reported $6,037 a year on child care. It is important to note that these families are making a reported median family income of $68,502. Five dollars and some change just won't help or make much of a difference or help at all at the end of the year when tax breaks come along. And what are the areas that will benefit from Trump's child care plan? According to ThinkProgress, it will be those who live in "cities and coastal areas" — as in, people who spend more money on child care because they can afford to do so.

It's been reported that Trump's child care plan could cost $500 billion over 10 years, according to Elle. "If we're going to spend that much money on child care — and I would argue that we really need to, it's really reached crisis proportions for a lot of families — it has to go to the families that need it the most," Katie Hamm, the Center for American Progress' Vice President of Early Child Care Policy, said in an interview. Hamm added:

We need a plan that will focus on [the families] that, without help, wouldn't necessarily be able to access child care, would be piecing it together, would be missing work, would maybe be fired from their jobs if they can't find child care.

Trump's proposed child care plan will only hurt those middle class supporters that helped swing the vote in his direction. Giving so little back, compared to how much they spend, feels a bit cheap, to say the least.