Hillary Clinton is trying to sell the idea that she’s running a substantive policy campaign, but her initial proposal for universal preschool released at a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Monday left out important details: How much the plan costs and how she intends to pay for it.
In the run-up to her Saturday announcement speech, the media promoted the idea that she intended to run a campaign that offered serious policy solutions. Politico even ran a story titled “Wonk Warrior,” in which Glenn Thrush wrote that, “she’s far more interested in the how than the why of the presidency, and views her greatest assets as a willingness to engage all participants in a debate and a workmanlike capacity to hammer out policy solutions.”
After her speech, many analysts remarked that she was unveiling a lot of substantive policy proposals in a State of the Union-like fashion. In the speech itself, Clinton vowed “In the coming weeks, I’ll propose specific policies.”
For her first effort, Clinton released a plan for universal preschool. A fact sheet released by her campaign explained that, “Her proposal would work to ensure that every four-year old in America has access to high-quality preschool in the next 10 years. It would do so by providing new federal funding for states that expand access to quality preschool for all four-year olds.”
In addition, Clinton “called for doubling our investment in Early Head Start and the Early Head Start-Child Care partnerships.”
There is a lot of background about the importance of early childhood education, but there is no reference to the cost or financing of the initiative.
The fact sheet did note that the plan for universal preschool “would build upon President Obama’s Preschool for All proposal.” Obama unveiled his preschool initiative as part of his 2013 State of the Union Address. At the time, the White House said it would cost $75 billion over a decade, to be paid for by raising tobacco taxes.
In 2012, Mitt Romney was criticized by the media — myself included — for being vague on details when it came to his tax and spending plans.
Granted, it’s early in the campaign, and Clinton still has plenty of time to flesh out more details on her policy proposals. But until she does, she shouldn’t be treated as if she’s being serious about policy. Merely talking about costly initiatives without explaining how she intends to pay for them isn’t any more serious than a Republican plan to slash tax rates and “simplify the tax code” that doesn’t explain which deductions and loopholes the proposal would involve getting rid of.
I reached out to the Clinton campaign before filing this post to see if they had a plan to pay for the proposal or a plan to release one. I have not heard back as of this writing, but will update if the campaign responds.
UPDATE: Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon emailed the following statement: “We’ll be laying out further specifics about Hillary Clinton’s childcare and early education agenda in the weeks ahead, including cost estimates. This campaign is committed to fiscal responsibility and as we explain how much items cost, we will also explain how we’ll pay for them.”
