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Warren plan eyes $10 per day for child care as Massachusetts lawmakers make run at affordable plan

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Michael P. Norton

BOSTON – As state lawmakers mull another run at ambitious plans to make child care affordable, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday rolled out a plan to do the same nationwide.

Under a federal proposal that is backed by Gov. Maura Healey, a family in Massachusetts with an infant and a two-year-old making $130,125 per year would pay no more than $10 per day, or $200 per month, down from the current average cost of $3,128 per month, according to Warren’s office. The bill would also ensure that higher-income families pay no more than 7 percent of their income on child care, and lower-income families making less than 75 percent of their state’s median income would be fully subsidized. Half of families nationwide would pay no more than $10 a day for child care, according to Warren’s office, which did not include in its press release announcement an overall cost of her plan, or ways to pay for it other than a “mandatory federal investment.” A communications aide did not respond to a request for information about the proposal’s estimated cost.

“A lack of child care is holding back our economy and keeping parents out of the workforce – it’s giving lie to the notion that there’s equal opportunity in our country,” said Warren, who brought Eugénie Ouedraogo, a child care worker based in Taunton, as her guest to President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. “We can’t build a future by shortchanging our babies and families. The more we invest in child care, the better for our families, our small businesses and our entire economy.”

Warren’s office released statements of support for her proposal from a string of elected officials, including Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Senate President Karen Spilka and Sen. Jason Lewis, and Reps. Adrian Madaro, Ken Gordon and Alice Peisch. The bill’s cosponsors are Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bernie Sanders, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, and Sens. Edward Markey, Cory Booker, Alex Padilla, Sheldon Whitehouse, Tina Smith, and Richard Blumenthal.

A group of Democrats led by U.S. Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Sara Jacobs are rolling the same bill out in the House, where supporters from Massachusetts include Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Stephen Lynch and Jake Auchincloss. Healey and Democratic legislative leaders have signaled an interest in mounting a serious attempt to broaden access to affordable child care and early education, but have yet to outline or advance specific proposals five weeks into the new session.

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10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. HuntersCrackPipe

    February 8, 2023 at 7:38 pm

    Pie in the sky!

  2. Fed Up

    February 8, 2023 at 8:26 pm

    $30 Trillion debt another brilliant idea from another brain dead politician. Anyone making $130K can easily afford day care.

  3. Hunter had access to classified documents

    February 8, 2023 at 10:20 pm

    Democrats do not understand economics.

    • Common Sense requires actual intelligence

      February 9, 2023 at 11:57 pm

      Funny most other countries including Canada, England, Germany, and Holland either offer highly subsidized our free child care. It’s something that needs to be done so more woman can work.. Right now child care is virtually unaffordable to the point woman can’t work because it isn’t worth it. But yet we have a huge worker shortage. We could always give more green cards! Yeah I bet you love those foreigners coming here to work!

  4. Taxachusetts Raised, Texas Refined

    February 9, 2023 at 12:33 am

    Pipe dreams or should I say diaper-dreams. While it would be great to only pay $200 a month for child care, one must have common sense to realize where the funding will come from. Every end has a sacrifice…please enlighten me how this will bolster the economy? Even if folks get the child care and return to work, printing money at will just keeps pushing the snowball downhill.

  5. Paul gauvin

    February 9, 2023 at 5:36 am

    Up go your taxes, again

    • Common Sense takes intelligence

      February 9, 2023 at 11:51 pm

      Really when was the last time your taxes went up? Guess what, they didn’t!

      Oh that’s right Trump’s Trumpublican tax cuts only sunset for the working class and not for the rich.

      • HuntersCrackPipe

        February 10, 2023 at 10:44 am

        Coming from a Red Diaper Doper Baby!

    • Common Sense requires actual intelligence

      February 9, 2023 at 11:53 pm

      Really when was the last time your taxes went up? Guess what, they didn’t!

      Oh that’s right Trump’s Trumpublican tax cuts only sunset for the working class and not for the rich.

  6. J.cardoza

    February 9, 2023 at 4:53 pm

    Pocahontas found another money tree

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