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According to the People’s Policy Project, a liberal think tank, Democrats’ new child care entitlement plan in the $4 trillion “reconciliation” bill could raise child care costs by $13,000 a year for middle class families making $65,000 or more depending on the state.

Already struggling with the highest price increases in 40 years, working families can’t afford a new ‘Toddler Tax” that makes child care more expensive.

Here are the top five reasons to oppose Democrats’ toddler tax.

1. Democrats’ “Toddler Tax” will cost working families at least $13,000 more a year. Democrats will drive up the cost of child care by imposing federal mandates, new regulations and higher wages on child care providers – but with no cap on what they can charge.  According to a left-leaning analysis, this drives up the cost of unsubsidized child care for middle class families by $13,000.
2. Democrats’ one-size-fits all socialist solution puts Washington – not parents – in control. Working families who do not choose or are unable to find a Washington-directed subsidized child care provider will be left with few options under the Democrats’ plan. Families balancing work and family need flexibility and more options – including home-based care – not a one-size-fits all solution.
3. Working families will be left with one choice: a “Washington directed” provider. Since 2005, the number of home-based family child care providers has declined by half, due to burdensome state regulations. Democrats now want to impose higher wages & costly new rules. Democrats rejected an opportunity to work with Republicans in favor a new multi-billion dollar government intervention with no serious debate.
4. Deliberate attack on faith-based providers. Democrats continue their attach on affordable and convenient faith-based care by expressly prohibiting religious child care providers from receiving funds. They also  unanimously rejected an amendment by Republicans to allow all high-quality child-care providers to be eligible for funding. So a single mom with affordable church sponsored child care nearby will be forced to drive miles farther away from home or work each day to obtain government-subsidized care.
5. “Benefits” of government-run child care not as advertised. A landmark study from MIT found that after Quebec imposed new regulations on its child-care market, it led to “increases in early childhood anxiety and aggression.” Kids exposed to the program suffered “worse health, lower life satisfaction, and higher crime rates later in life.”  University of Chicago Professor James Heckman, long cited by Democrats as attesting to the lifelong benefits of high-quality child care, opposes their universal pre-K and child care plan:

“I have never supported universal pre-school. The benefits of public preschool programs are the greatest for the most disadvantaged children…The ‘intervention’ that a loving, resourceful family gives to its children has huge benefits that, unfortunately, have never been measured well. 

“Public preschool programs can potentially compensate for the home environments of disadvantaged children. No public preschool program can provide the environments and the parental love and care of a functioning family and the lifetime benefits that ensue.”

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