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That's what a new report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee ventured to find out. The report shows a typical U.S. family will spend more than 15 percent of its total income on infant child care alone. In Alabama, the average family with an infant spends $5,644 a year for childcare. With a median income of $53,146, that means roughly 11 percent of the family's income goes towards childcare. The yearly cost drops slightly - to $4,877 - once a child reaches four-years-old.
Now, a group of congressional Democrats say they have a better solution for what ails the vast stretches of the country outside the cities and suburbs. Among other things, they oppose President Trump's plan to use public-private partnerships to carry out $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over a decade. "Wall Street investors and private equity firms are going to put money, time and resources where they can make a big profit," and that's not the countryside, Senator Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on Congress's Joint Economic Committee, wrote in remarks prepared for the release of a report called Understanding Economic Challenges in Rural America.
The typical American family spends 15 percent of its income on child care — and President Donald Trump will do little to change this “affordability crisis,” according to a new report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. “Unfortunately, too many families currently cannot afford high-quality child care, and the Trump administration’s policies will not help these families,” the authors write.
Yet the effects of high-quality, affordable child care are vastly beneficial, and a report released exclusively to Glamour on Thursday by the Democratic staff of the Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), titled "The State of Child Care in America," proves it. Aside from increasing both employment and education opportunities for mothers, access to top-caliber child care correlates with an increase in earnings for a woman throughout her career. This is particularly true for low-income mothers who stand to earn an additional $90,000 over the course of their careers if they have access to child care.
A report from the Democratic staff of the Congress Joint Economic Committee that was released solely to Glamour on Thursday, entitled "The State of Child Care in America," proves that much to be true. The report showed that, as mentioned, single working mothers spend upwards of 25 percent of their income on child care, with costs sometimes totaling 50 percent of a woman's entire paycheck. And while the White House likes to claim that Trump's tax plan will provide some much-needed relief for families, in the form of a child care tax credit, it simply isn't enough.
If you’ve long felt that you’re paying a lot for child care in Colorado, congrats! The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee has validated that feeling with a new report. Colorado is third among the top 10 states with the highest average annual costs of infant care at an average of $14,950, topped only by the District of Columbia at $22,658 and Massachusetts at $17,082.
But Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, said Friday’s figures “continue to indicate the success of a growing economy inherited by President Trump.” “Instead of building off of this growth handed to him by his predecessor, we have yet to see any clear plan on creating jobs and raising wages from the president or congressional Republicans," Heinrich said.
Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee — led by ranking member Sen. Martin Heinrich (N.M.) — will release two reports Thursday knocking Trump over his "broken promises" to rural communities and working-class families. The Democrats argue Trump has hurt families by undermining innovation, rolling back worker protections and making it harder to save for retirement. "By tilting the playing field further towards corporate interests, President Trump is stacking the deck against America's working families," says the report, a copy of which was obtained in advance by The Hill.