As the Trump administration shrinks federal child care programs, Republicans are backing policies they hope will allow more parents to scale back at work.
A few months before he began his 2022 Senate campaign, JD Vance reached out to a conservative family policy group with an idea for an opinion essay. He wanted to write about why government-subsidized day care was bad — and why most young children do better when one parent stays home.
Mr. Vance’s article was published less than two weeks later in The Wall Street Journal, declaring, “Young children are clearly happier and healthier when they spend the day at home with a parent.”
As the Trump administration meets with advocates who want to reverse declining birthrates — a cause that Mr. Vance has embraced — proposals for more robust, federally funded child care have been noticeably absent from the discussions.
Instead, the White House has pursued reductions. The Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, eliminated many positions in offices that help fund day care for low-income families, including at Head Start — part of broader cost cutting efforts led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
But while critics say it is hypocritical for the government to cut child care support as it pushes for more babies, the conservative politicians and advocates leading the movement do not see a contradiction. They do not just want more children, but a stronger family unit. And stronger families are formed, they say, when a parent stays home.
White House aides have discussed a variety of ideas in recent weeks intended to allow, and in some cases encourage, parents to spend more time at home with their children, according to three people who have been part of the conversations. Ideas under discussion include giving more money to families for each child they have, eliminating federal tax credits for day care and opening up federal lands for the construction of affordable single-family homes. If families can spend less on housing, advocates reason, then more families will be able to survive on only one income.