Since then JD VanceVance’s comments about the country being run by “childless aunts” have drawn backlash, with the vice presidential candidate and his allies trying to spin his complaint as about the barriers Democrats have erected to raising children in the United States. “What he’s really saying,” Vance’s wife insisted last month, “is that being a parent in this country can be really hard, and sometimes our policies are designed in ways that make it even harder.” Take the cost of child care, for example, which has skyrocketed in recent years. Critics have focused on Vance’s words, but he’s actually come up with a solution to the problem that’s truly jaw-dropping. In fact, you might want to brace yourself for his creativity. Ready? Okay. That is… having family members take care of your kids for free.
That’s right: Speaking at a conservative event on Wednesday, Vance was asked, “What can we do to reduce the cost of day care?” His verbatim response: “Such an important question, Charlie [Kirk]and I think one of the things we can do is make it easier for families to choose whatever model they want, right? So one of the ways you can take a little bit of the pressure off people who are paying so much for day care is… maybe grandparents [want] to help out a little bit more, or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle who wants to help out a little bit more. If that happens, you take some of the pressure off all the resources that we’re spending on child care.”
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Yes, Vance’s brilliant solution to skyrocketing child care costs is for parents to hire grandparents, aunts, and uncles—people who don’t have their own jobs or can somehow take time off—to care for their kids for free. This is something stressed-out parents have certainly never considered, and for the few who actually have this magical scenario, they certainly haven’t taken advantage of it. It’s so simple it’s hard to believe that Democrats hate kids as much as they do. Kamala Harris they themselves never thought of it.
But Vance, of course, is not. Therefore He was at a loss when he considered that most parents have a list of family members they can call on to care for their children for several hours each week. So he had another idea, too: “Now … let’s say you don’t have anyone who can provide that extra pair of hands,” he said. “What we have to do is really empower people to get the skills they need for the 21st century. We have a lot of people who love children, who want to care for children, but they can’t, either because they don’t have access to the education they need or, perhaps more importantly, because the state says you can’t care for children unless you have some ridiculous certification that … has nothing to do with child care. So empower people to get the skills they need. Don’t force every early child care professional to go to a six-year college where they have a lot of debt and Americans are much poorer because they have to pay a lot for day care. Empower working families, empower people who want to do these things for a living, and that’s what we have to do.”
So, to be clear, it’s not clear what “six-year college degree” the senator is talking about, which is supposedly required to work in a daycare. But it’s clear that his solution—if, again, you don’t have free child care—is for the government to eliminate the burdensome regulations that currently apply to ensuring that individuals who care for your children are qualified to do so. Of course, he doesn’t actually specify what “ridiculous certification” he would eliminate; perhaps he’s talking about CPR? He certainly could!
By the way, given the strong policy plans Vance has put forth, you might wonder what legislation he has sponsored during his time in the Senate to help parents. And the answer is: nothing that is recognizable to the naked eye. Despite calling for a $5,000 child tax credit in an interview with CBS News, he did not show up to vote last month on legislation that would—wait for it—expand the child tax credit.
