“The Trump administration plan, reported in Saturday’s New York Times, to redirect funds designated for our badly under-resourced child care system would undermine America’s moms.  All moms work, whether that work brings a paycheck or not, so driving a wedge between moms in order to try to score political points is irresponsible, reckless, and utterly fails to meet the needs of moms and families today. 

“To be clear, moms know the government should not be telling parents how to raise their kids, which are the most personal and fundamental decisions that a family makes together, by imposing its right-wing agenda on families, as this new Trump administration proposal would do. Plans like this would dismantle the choices families (and particularly moms) can make in family composition, who is helping to raise their children, how much control moms have over their economic future – and the administration is selling its scam as opportunity.

“America’s families are struggling to cope with the Trump affordability crisis. Moms in the labor force and stay-at-home moms will not be distracted by being pitted against one another, as this proposal does. Moms will not forget that the same basic pillars of living — housing, health care, food, transportation, child care, utilities — now consume so much of a household budget that a typical family needs to earn $145,000 a year to make ends meet. In this economic environment, three-quarters of moms are in the labor force, putting food on the table and a roof over their children’s heads.

“Despite the widespread affordability crisis affecting moms of all political parties, Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have not advanced adequate health care, paid family and medical leave, child care, or other care infrastructure programs that would alleviate that crisis, open doors to opportunity, and allow families, and our economy, to thrive. Yet instead of providing solutions, this plan would rob an underfunded child care system to push an extreme right-wing agenda that seeks to strip moms of choice and opportunity.

“Put plainly, this plan would make child care even more expensive and harder to find for families across the country, with disproportionate harm to single parents in the workforce; as it would also hurt stay-at-home moms by limiting their decisions related to family composition, caregivers, and economic opportunity. 

“If our nation has the money to spend $1 billion per day on the highly unpopular Iran war, then we can fund health care, paid family and medical leave, and child care, and restore the refundable Child Tax Credit and Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, which open doors so all moms, families, and our economy can thrive. 

“The Trump administration is out of touch and out of bounds. This social engineering policy is tone-deaf and would be destructive, discriminatory, and truly devastating. It creates new problems, not new solutions. Congress must find a way to step in, to prevent urgently needed child care funds from being misdirected and to champion real solutions for all moms, whether they are working full-time or are stay-at-home parents.”