{"id":214413,"date":"2016-09-14T18:12:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T22:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/172.24.32.11\/daily\/2016\/09\/14\/we_can_debate_whether_trump_s_child_care_proposal_is_conservative_or_not_but_politically_it_s_a_home_run\/"},"modified":"2017-07-17T10:25:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T14:25:41","slug":"we_can_debate_whether_trump_s_child_care_proposal_is_conservative_or_not_but_politically_it_s_a_home_run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/09\/14\/we_can_debate_whether_trump_s_child_care_proposal_is_conservative_or_not_but_politically_it_s_a_home_run\/","title":{"rendered":"We Can Debate Whether Trump\u2019s Child Care Proposal Is Conservative or Not — But Politically It\u2019s a Home Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Richard in Lee\u2019s Summit, Missouri, outside Kansas City.\u00a0 Great to have you, sir.\u00a0 Glad you waited.\u00a0 Hi.CALLER:\u00a0 Hey, Rush, proud Navy dad dittos to you, sir.<\/p>\n

RUSH:\u00a0 Thank you very much.\u00a0 I appreciate that.\u00a0 Same to you.<\/p>\n

CALLER:\u00a0 Hey, a lot of purist conservatives have started to criticize Trump\u2019s proposed child care and paid leave for the parents.\u00a0 Before they get too all bothered about that, I want them to consider that Donald Trump\u2019s proposal for child care and maternity leave, that promotes and strengthening the family that we\u2019re always talking about being so important. By making it easier on the parents to have paid time off and child care costs and tax-free savings accounts they could roll over for college, all of that just builds the family.\u00a0 And it\u2019s something we need to consider if we\u2019re talking about the family being so important, we can invest in families that need help up to a certain extent where he\u2019s gonna put the cutoffs and everything. But I think that would just really go so far in helping rebuild our society\u2019s fabric.<\/p>\n

RUSH:\u00a0 So to summarize, I\u2019ll ask you a question.\u00a0 You are not at all concerned about the nature and the substance of Trump\u2019s entitlement, his new entitlement proposal to use government money to shore up the family?<\/p>\n

CALLER:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m a fiscal conservative, and I\u2019m voting for Trump and, you know, I think that we spend so much money on studies and research and grants and things like that, we can invest in the family, the fabric of society.<\/p>\n

RUSH:\u00a0 See, here\u2019s… Okay.\u00a0 Richard, I appreciate the call.\u00a0 Thank you very much.\u00a0 There\u2019s ideology and there\u2019s politics, and sometimes they intersect.\u00a0 Sometimes ideology and politics come together and it is a beautiful thing.\u00a0 Sometimes the ideology guides the politics.\u00a0 Other times the politics and the ideology may get close but they don\u2019t intersect.\u00a0 Which is what we have here.\u00a0 We have Trump via his daughter\u2019s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today advocating a new child care and family policy using the federal government, which is not conservative ideologically.<\/p>\n

But neither was George W. Bush\u2019s Medicare Part B, and a lot of conservatives got mad at that, too, at the same time.\u00a0 But this episode has given ammo to all the conservatives who have been opposed to Trump from the beginning. They\u2019ve been saying, “You guys, you\u2019re falling for it! This guy\u2019s not one of us. He\u2019s not a conservative. He\u2019s a Big Government guy, and you are gonna get fooled.” Now they\u2019re saying, “See?\u00a0 We told you,” with this proposal.\u00a0 But a lot of Trump supporters aren\u2019t going to care because the ideology and the politics, they don\u2019t meet up here; they don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Mr. Snerdley said to me the last caller was from a guy who had no problem with Trump\u2019s new so-called entitlement, his new child care, family entitlement, no problem with it whatsoever.\u00a0 The guy said, “Hey, look, if they\u2019re gonna be passing around federal money, we gotta come to grips with it, Rush. If they\u2019re gonna give out federal money, isn\u2019t it about time we got some,” meaning us, we conservatives.<\/p>\n

And Snerdley said, “I thought you would just jump on that guy and just destroy that guy.”\u00a0 Well, one thing, I didn\u2019t have time.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t even inclined to destroy the guy.\u00a0 I know exactly where he\u2019s coming from.\u00a0 I know who the Trump supporters are.\u00a0 I know how they think.\u00a0 And they\u2019re not thinking ideologically.\u00a0 We are so far beyond that on the Trump side of things, and I still don\u2019t know why that\u2019s so hard for people to understand.\u00a0 Maybe it is not hard to understand.\u00a0 Maybe they just don\u2019t accept it because the ideological route is what sustains them.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s — (interruption) no, we\u2019ll get to the Mehmet Oz, it is Dr. Oz stuff and Trump and CNN here in just a second.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s focus on this proposal that actually appears as an op-ed by Ivanka Trump in the Wall Street Journal today and just give you a little flavor for it.\u00a0 “The Trump Plan Will Help Working Mothers.”<\/a> That is the headline to Ivanka\u2019s piece in the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

And she starts it this way:\u00a0 “For me, motherhood is a gift and a tremendous source of joy. Yet it\u2019s also the greatest predictor of wage inequality in our country. In 2014, single women without children earned 94 cents on a man\u2019s dollar. Married mothers made only 81 cents.”\u00a0 Now, right there I can hear the shouted objections.\u00a0 “Not true!\u00a0 Not true, whether you say 70 cents, 73 cents, it\u2019s been pretty much taken care of.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t this great disparity anymore.”\u00a0 I hear you.\u00a0 We\u2019ll deal with it in just a second.<\/p>\n

Then Ivanka writes, “We all agree that women should have equal pay for equal work, but that\u2019s not enough. The lack of quality, affordable child care is one of the biggest challenges facing American parents. The current federal policies created to benefit families were written more than 65 years ago when dual-income families were not the norm.”\u00a0 ‘Cause they weren\u2019t necessary.\u00a0 I added that, by the way.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t write they weren\u2019t necessary.\u00a0 I added that.\u00a0 And they used to not be.<\/p>\n

“Today, however, in about two-thirds of married couples, both spouses work. In addition, 70% of mothers with children under 18 work outside the home; so do 64% of moms with kids under age 6. The number of households led by single mothers has doubled in the past three decades, and the majority of these women work in low-paying jobs without flexibility or benefits. My father, in his campaign for president, has proposed a plan to bring federal policies in line with the needs of today\u2019s working parents.”<\/p>\n

And here we get to the policy proposal, the substance.\u00a0 “Part one is a rewrite of the tax code, allowing working parents to deduct from their income taxes child care expenses for up to four children, as well as for elderly dependents,” which is if Mamaw, Nanaw, and Paw Paw live with you.\u00a0 “This will be capped at the average cost of child care in each family\u2019s state, and the wealthiest individuals will not be eligible for the deduction.”\u00a0 She didn\u2019t say that, did she?\u00a0 I can hear the catcalls now.\u00a0 “The benefit is structured to ensure that working- and middle-class families see the largest reductions in their taxable incomes.”<\/p>\n

Snerdley, a quick question.\u00a0 How many people do you think know the difference in a tax deduction and a tax credit?\u00a0 Just a little pop quiz question.\u00a0 I would say not many.\u00a0 I\u2019d say not many.\u00a0 I\u2019ll explain the difference here in just a second.\u00a0 Let me keep on here with her piece, because she\u2019s proposing tax deductions.\u00a0 A tax deduction lowers your taxable income.\u00a0 A tax credit, it\u2019s like a credit anywhere else.\u00a0 Somebody gives you a gift card to the Apple store. Okay, you got a 50 dollar gift card, you\u2019ve got a 50 dollar credit with Apple. You go in there and buy 50 bucks of stuff, you give \u2019em the card and whoever bought the card is paying for it.\u00a0 Not you.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t reduce your taxable income.\u00a0 It\u2019s in this way the earned income tax credit — this is how people that don\u2019t pay taxes actually get a tax refund, because of the tax credit.\u00a0 But they\u2019re proposing tax deductions.<\/p>\n

She writes, “To bring meaningful assistance to lower-income Americans who don\u2019t pay income tax, the Trump plan will offer rebates on child-care spending through the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).”\u00a0 This is why I asked how many people know the difference.<\/p>\n

“In a nation where almost two-thirds of mothers with children under age six are employed, child care is an undisputed work-related expense. In business, other such expenditures are tax-deductible. This single reform under the Trump plan will effectively increase the take-home pay for tens of millions of American parents. And what if one parent staying home to raise the children is the best option for a family? This is the praiseworthy choice of many, yet there\u2019s zero value or recognition by our government for this hard and meaningful work. Under my father\u2019s proposal, stay-at-home parents will receive the same tax deduction as their working peers.”<\/p>\n

Okay, but why is this a government concern in the first place?\u00a0 Why is there zero value or recognition by our government for the hard work of raising kids?\u00a0 Why is that a government concern, period?\u00a0 What does it matter whether the government recognizes it or not and supports it one way or another via the tax code?\u00a0 I thought we were about getting government out of our lives.\u00a0 What is all of this, having government recognize the value of child rearing?\u00a0 I\u2019m just telling you I hear the objections.<\/p>\n

“The plan\u2019s second part is the establishment of Dependent Care Savings Accounts, created to aid families in setting aside extra money to foster their children\u2019s development and offset elder care for adult dependents. These accounts will operate like Health Savings Accounts, with tax-deductible contributions and tax-free appreciation year to year. When established for a minor, funds from a Dependent Care Savings Account can be applied to traditional child care, after-school enrichment programs and school tuition.<\/p>\n