President Joe Biden visited a daycare center in Connecticut on Friday, promoting his multitrillion-dollar spending bills that would make the federal government subsidize child and elder care.
The president argued that his “Build Back Better” bill was focused on human infrastructure to get the economy running again.
“How can we compete in a world if millions of American parents, especially moms, can’t be part of the work force?” Biden asked. “Because they can’t afford the cost of child care or elder care?”
Biden said the cost of childcare in America made it difficult for both parents to work. He promised that no middle class family would spend more than seven percent of their income on child care, if his spending proposals were passed.
“That’s going to help parents get back into the workforce and make ends meet,” Biden said.
Biden warned that 12 years of public education was no longer enough for America’s children, lamenting that half of three- and four-year-olds in America were enrolled in early education.
“Does anybody think we’d think 12 years was enough in the second quarter of the 21st century?” he asked.
The president acknowledged his initial $3.5 trillion spending proposal on increasing entitlements and green energy programs was no longer going to make it through Congress.
“To be honest with you, we’re probably not going to get $3.5 trillion this year,” he said. “We’re going to get something less than that, but I’m going to negotiate, I’m going to get it done with the grace of God.”
The president met with some of the children at the facility, squatting down to speak to some of the children and give them hugs.
“When I talked to all your folks out on the playground, as I joked, everybody knows I like kids better than people,” Biden said afterward. “Fortunately they’re like me. Maybe that’s why I like them.”
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