Hillary Clinton’s campaign ripped Donald Trump’s forthcoming maternity leave plan Tuesday, and called the GOP nominee’s proposals a heap of half-baked nonsense.
“After spending his entire career — and this entire campaign — demeaning women and dismissing the need to support working families, Donald Trump released a regressive and insufficient ‘maternity leave’ policy that is out-of-touch, half-baked and ignores the way Americans live and work today,” Clinton policy aide Maya Harris said in a statement.
“The lack of seriousness of this proposal is no surprise given his history of disrespecting women in the workplace and the fact there’s no evidence he ever provided paid family leave or childcare to his own employees,” the statement said.
Trump teased his maternity plan Tuesday morning. It includes, among other things, a plan to allow individuals earning less than $250,000 per year and claiming up to four children and elderly dependents to deduct childcare expenses from their income taxes, the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday.
The same would apply to couples earning $500,000 annually.
The plan, which the GOP nominee’s team promises would not cost taxpayers a thing, also proposes an annual childcare rebate for as much as $1,200 for low-income earners.
The Examiner reported:
The real estate mogul will also propose guaranteed paid maternity leave up to six weeks by revising the federal-state unemployment insurance program.
Trump will also call for the creation of new savings accounts for families to which parents could make tax-deductible contributions and apply the funds toward childcare, tuition and after-school enrichment programs. For lower-income families, he would have the government match the first $1,000 deposit into their Dependent Care Savings Account each year.
Clinton’s team is not at all impressed with the details of Trump’s maternity leave plan.
“Studies have shown that providing paid leave to new mothers, but not to new fathers, negatively affects women’s return to the workplace, can discourage employers from hiring or promoting female employees, and can increase the gender pay-gap,” Harris said in her statement.
“By only providing leave to new mothers, Trump’s plan also undercuts working dads, including gay couples and single-fathers,” she said.
The Democratic nominee’s own plan calls for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for new parents. Her plan also caps childcare costs at 10 percent of a family’s annual income.
