Hirono: People Don’t Care about Gas Prices If They Can’t Afford Child Care So They Can Go to Work

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Velshi,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said she agrees with the notion that people don’t care about gas prices if they can’t afford child care so they can work.

Guest host Maria Teresa Kumar said, “One of the things that we saw was a historic infrastructure bill that passed that’s going to alleviate, not just our roads and clean water, but has implications for a brighter future when it comes to climate energy and so on and so forth. However, now, the second part of this plan, the human infrastructure, the one that will build back the population we need to actually drive on those roads and take advantage of those electric vehicles is up for discussion. Sen. Manchin right now seems again to say that he may not vote for this bill because of inflation and, senator, one of the things I often have conversations with is that people could care less about the price at the pump if they can’t pay for child care and get back to work. Can you speak to this?”

Hirono responded, “I agree with you. 4 million women left the workforce during the pandemic because they have to take care of their children and their families. And so, a huge part of Build Back Better is to lower costs such as childcare costs, to provide pre-K, which is really important for young families. And so, I disagree with Joe that Build Back Better is going to add to inflation. In fact, economists rarely agree about anything, but twelve Nobel Prize economists say that Build Back Better is actually going to not add to the inflation and will be anti-inflationary over the long term. So, we need to get on and pass the Build Back Better to lower costs for families and to address climate change and all of the other parts of the bill that will actually strengthen our families and our economy.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett