The issue of childcare in the United States received around 22 seconds of airtime during Thursday’s presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
That fell well short of the 56 seconds spent on golf, which saw both candidates becoming more animated as they argued over who was the better player.
It’s a difference that highlights some of the clear trends to come out of this debate, including substantial lies from Trump and a poor performance from Biden raising even further concerns about his age, as well as the fact too little time and substance was given to some of the key issues affecting women in America, including childcare, abortion (which did at least get a few more minutes) and climate change.
Childcare is a significant issue in the United States, like Australia, impacting millions of parents. Families pay an average of US$12,000 per year for childcare.
To help get a question about childcare on the debate stage, CEO of Moms First Reshma Saujani, took a petition to CNN with 13,000 signatures urging them to ensure the candidates responded to the issue. “Moms, parents, caregivers: Don’t let anyone gaslight you into thinking your child care problems are yours and yours along to solve. This is a systemic issue that needs a systemic response.”
The question got up. But that was mostly the end of calling attention to the issue.
Asked what they would do to make childcare more affordable, Trump ignored the question, using the airtime to further talk about Biden being the “worst president” ever and telling viewers to “look it up” online regarding to find published lists declaring that to be true.
Biden fired back with something a little more substantive – first, by declaring Trump had achieved “virtually nothing on child care” before going on to outline the child care package he had unsuccessful tried to get through Congress, which included increasing the childcare tax credit and availability of women and men or single parents to go back to work. Generally, Trump has shared almost nothing on childcare despite it being a priority area of his daughter Ivanka Trump. Biden has been for more active on the issue during his term but has been able to get his proposed changes legislated, but during this debate he didn’t say what he would do next.
Reshma Saujani published an opinion piece just prior to the debate talking about the role of mothers in the upcoming election, warning of shrinking support for Bidgen from women and the fact parents are increasing citing inflation and personal finances as key factors in the upcoming election. The Federal Reserve’s annual survey of household decision-making revealed that since 2021, parents have reported a sizeable downturn in their financial wellbeing. Saujani says the cost of childcare is a significant contributor.
Childcare could have been a significant opportunity for Trump — but he chose to ignore it. Biden, meanwhile, could have discussed what he’ll do next rather, than bringing up legislation that already failed.
As for climate change – questions were asked and repeated regarding what Trump would do on the issue but he sidestepped it and refused to offer anything on the climate crisis. He went on to claim that during his four years he had “the best environmental numbers ever,” while not sharing what these numbers were based on. Biden said Trump didn’t do “a damn thing for the environment” and want ts to undo what he’s done.
On abortion
The abortion issue got more attention during the debate, especially given it’s a high-priority issue for Americans, with one in eight saying abortion is their most important issue, lowering to almost one in five women where states have implemented abortion bans.
Biden blamed Trump during the debate for the state abortion restrictions that have occurred since Roe v. Wade was overturned. “It’s been a terrible thing what you’ve done,” Biden said while pledging to restore the national law protecting abortion if given a second term. However, he did not detail how this would be achieved.
Trump said he supports abortion bans other than for certain exceptions. Which he detailed as being “for rape, incest and the lift of the mother.” He said that he had returned abortion rights to individual states thanks to his role in Supreme Court appointments which ultimately led to overturning Roe v Wade, suggesting now that “the people” are deciding abortion access.
“You can take the life of the baby in the ninth baby,” Trump incorrectly claimed as occurring in some democratic states. “He’s willing to rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby; no one wants that to happen!”
“That is simply not true,” Biden said.