It’s no surprise that Vice President Kamala Harris thinks the government should do more to help parents raise children. Like many Democrats, she has long supported three big policy goals: a larger child tax credit, paid family leave and reducing the cost of child care.
The surprise is that, according to a spokeswoman, former President Donald J. Trump does, too.
It’s campaign season, and both candidates make promises that they might not keep, and that Congress might not agree with. Mr. Trump’s commitment to these particular policies is less apparent than Ms. Harris’s. He has said very little publicly about them. His running mate, JD Vance, has said somewhat more, but it’s unclear whether Mr. Trump agrees with him.
Yet the fact that the Trump campaign is supporting these ideas at all is part of a shift over the last few years in the Republican Party, and potentially in the role of the government in American family life.
“One hundred percent it is the first time we’ve seen all four top ticket candidates be talking about paid leave, child care and the child tax credit,” said Adrienne Schweer, a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Ms. Harris promoted the child tax credit, paid leave and affordable child care as part of the Biden administration’s large social spending bill. As a senator, she co-sponsored family policy bills. These policies are a regular part of her stump speech. As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, her running mate, signed into law all three.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said Mr. Trump also supports the three major family policies. He plans, she said, to expand “the child tax credit, lower child care costs that have increased by 32 percent since Kamala Harris took office, and continue to support expansions for family leave.”
Still, not everyone is convinced these are priorities for him. “Paint me skeptical,” Christine Matthews, a pollster, said of Mr. Trump’s support of family policies. “He is simply not campaigning on this.”
A shift on the right
Republicans have traditionally opposed family policies that require additional government spending or new programs. They blocked the Biden administration’s plans for them, and in August voted against separate legislation that would have increased the child tax credit. If Republicans control Congress, it will probably be hard for either candidate to pass family policies.
But in recent years, a contingent of the party has started to embrace these policies, which are common in other rich countries. These Republicans have been spurred by declining fertility rates and by the need to appeal to voters like low-wage workers, who are less likely to receive family benefits from their employers. Also, after many Republican-led states banned abortion, conservatives said they needed to do more to support families with young children (though these states generally have the least generous family policies).
Mr. Vance epitomized this shift at the vice-presidential debate, when he was asked about child care and gave a response that sounded very unlike traditional Republicans: “We’re going to have to spend more money.”
“If you put that up for a vote tomorrow, it’s not going to pass,” said Patrick T. Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a right-leaning policy group. “But if you compare where we were five, 10 years ago, the center of gravity is unquestionably shifting, with the focus on families and fertility post-Dobbs.”
A key difference on the child tax credit
Of the three major family policies, the Harris and Trump campaigns provided the most detail on their plans to grow the child tax credit.
There’s a major difference between the two: Ms. Harris supports including the poorest parents, including those with no incomes. Most Republicans, including Mr. Trump when he was in office, have said that only parents with a minimum amount of income should receive a credit, to promote paid work.
Currently, most families — but not the poorest — receive a $2,000 annual tax credit for each child under 17. Mr. Trump doubled it from $1,000 when he was president, and expanded it to higher-earning families; that expansion expires next year. As president, he says, he would make it permanent.
“I was the one that did the child tax credit, and I do support it, and I want to have it,” he told CBS in August.
In 2021, the Biden administration expanded the child tax credit even more, as part of one-year pandemic relief. Checks were sent monthly to parents’ bank accounts, and the credit was made “fully refundable,” meaning even parents with no or very low income received it. The result was a nearly 30 percent decrease in child poverty.
Ms. Harris has said she plans to restore that — and add a benefit for newborns. Under her plan, parents would receive $6,000 in a child’s first year of life; $3,600 a year for children between 1 and 6; and $3,000 a year for children between 7 and 17.
Of the major family policies, the child tax credit has the most bipartisan support, despite disagreement over how much and for whom. In recent years, as some Republicans have said the government needs to do more to help families, they have gravitated to direct payments because they give parents choice in how to spend the money.
Democrats’ plans for new government programs — for paid leave, child care and pre-K — failed during the Biden administration, with no Republican support. The simpler approach of sending families cash could be more politically palatable. Still, some on the left caution that the child tax credit is not enough on its own to support families.
Paid leave: Who pays?
The key difference between Democrats and Republicans on paid family leave is how it would be paid for. Democrats generally support a new tax to finance workers’ time off. Republicans have preferred tax breaks for businesses that voluntarily provide it, or ways for people to tap their Social Security or retirement savings early.
Neither campaign shared details on what kind of a plan it would support, but Ms. Harris’s record provides hints. She is a co-sponsor of the Family Act, the Democrats’ paid leave bill, which would provide 12 weeks of family and medical leave for workers to take time off for a baby or the health of family members or for their own health. It would be financed by a small payroll tax split between employers and workers. In the 2020 race, she called for six months of paid leave.
Speaking at the Pittsburgh Economic Club last month, she said her administration would “finally give all working people access to paid leave, which will help everyone caring for children, caring for aging parents, and that sandwich generation which is caring for both.”
Though Ms. Harris mentions paid leave regularly in her stump speech, Mr. Trump has rarely spoken about it during the race. Ms. Leavitt said he supports “family leave,” but did not clarify whether it would be paid.
During his presidency, he signed a bill giving federal workers 12 weeks of paid leave, which was a Democratic priority within a larger defense bill. His administration also started smaller programs, like a tax credit for businesses providing paid leave to low-income workers, and an option for new parents to withdraw from their retirement accounts.
Few details on lowering child care costs
Both candidates have said child care needs to be more affordable. Of the three family policies, they have provided the least detail on how, though Ms. Harris has said much more on the issue in the past.
“The big difference is the Democrats are trying to subsidize and reduce the cost, and the Republicans are trying to encourage private business and families to provide it,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus on Children, a policy group. “But the ‘how’ is really a problem for both parties.”
Ms. Harris has said a focus would be lowering the cost of high-quality child care and preschool while increasing wages for child care workers. Since wages couldn’t increase without tuition increasing, doing both would be possible only with a new source of funding.
During the pandemic, the Biden administration provided that — it gave child care providers $24 billion, and much of the money went to wages. Those subsidies ended last fall.
Ms. Harris has floated other ideas. As senator, she introduced a bill to keep schools open until 6 p.m., to provide care for the full workday. Last month, she said, “My plan is that no family, no working family should pay more than 7 percent of their income in child care.” (That sounded like the universal assistance in the Democrats’ social spending bill. However, a spokesman later clarified that she was referring to a Biden administration rule that capped child care payments only for the lowest earners.)
As for the Trump campaign, it has not offered concrete ideas. Mr. Trump said on Fox last month: “Child care is a No. 1 priority, and I have no choice because I have a daughter named Ivanka.” She worked on family policies during the first Trump administration, but has said she would not serve in another one.
Mr. Vance has suggested that relatives help care for children. When Mr. Trump was asked last month about his plans for child care, he provided no details beyond suggesting that new tariffs would help pay for it: “As much as child care is talked about being expensive, it’s relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in.”
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