At his daughter Ivanka’s urging, Donald Trump is planning to propose a series of changes to existing federal tax policies aimed at improving the affordability of child care and making it easier for American families to save for their children’s education.
Trump will outline his latest proposals during a speech Tuesday evening in Aston, Pa., a town just outside of Philadelphia where he has struggled, much like in other suburban areas, to appeal to unmarried women and swing state voters. Ivanka, who has been absent from the campaign trail since the Republican National Convention in July, is expected to introduce her father at the event.
“I’m very passionate about this,” she told reporters on a press call Tuesday morning, nearly two months after she spoke about wage equality and affordable child care during her primetime remarks at the GOP convention.
Trump’s plan, which Ivanka played an instrumental role in helping to develop, would allow individuals earning less than $250,000 a year and couples earning less than $500,000 to deduct child care expenses from their income taxes for up to four children and elderly dependents. The Republican presidential nominee is also proposing a child care rebate for low-income earners that could put as much $1,200 back in their pockets annually.
Trump campaign officials told the Washington Post ahead of his speech that the candidate’s proposals would not come at an additional cost to taxpayers, and would likely be embraced with bipartisan approval. Much of the costs would be covered by the money saved when Trump eliminates unemployment benefit insurance fraud, they explained.
The real estate mogul will also propose guaranteed paid maternity leave up to six weeks by revising the federal-state unemployment insurance program. The proposal mimics Trump’s own business practices, according to Ivanka, who’s told voters that when a female employee of her father’s “becomes a mother she is supported, not shut out.”
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.
Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, has proposed guaranteed 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for parents with new children and capping child care costs at 10 percent of a family’s annual income.
