Biden breaks silence to talk ‘care economy’ as reelection announcement looms
Christian Datoc
President Joe Biden signed a slate of executive orders Tuesday aimed at making the cost of child and long-term care more affordable for families, an issue the progressive wing of his party has urged him to be more assertive about since entering office.
Biden just concluded a weeklong trip to Ireland and his family home in Wilmington, Delaware. He has not had any public appearances since returning to Washington, D.C., late Sunday night, and the new orders come as speculation is building about an imminent reelection campaign announcement.
BIDEN TO SIGN EXECUTIVE ORDERS EXPANDING CHILD AND LONG-TERM CARE ACCESS
“[The pandemic] made even clearer just how hard it is for millions of working middle-class families to provide care for their families. It’s not just how important the care economy is to the entire economy, but it’s when people have to leave the labor force or can’t enter in the first place because of caregiving responsibility, they can’t fully participate in the economy, that drags down the whole nation’s productivity growth,” the president said in remarks delivered Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden. “Care work is demanding, as many of you in the audience know. It requires skill, but some of these workers are among the lowest paid workers in the economy.”
“Care workers deserve to make a decent living, and that’s a fight I’m willing to have,” he declared.
Biden’s past efforts to expand the care economy have fallen far short of progressive demands. The president sought to include similar care expansions in the final leg of his ambitious Build Back Better spending package that failed to pass the divided Senate in 2021. Biden’s prospects of passing any progressive-leaning legislation seem bleak at best this year given the ongoing absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) due to health concerns and the rapidly approaching 2024 election cycle.
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White House officials say that the new directives themselves represent “the most comprehensive” action taken to improve the care economy in U.S. history.
“The child care and long-term care systems in this country just don’t work well. High-quality care is costly to deliver. It’s labor intensive. It requires skilled workers, yet care workers who are disproportionately women and women of color and immigrants are among the lowest paid in the country despite working in some of the most important and complex and demanding jobs,” Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice told reporters Monday ahead of the signing.
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Child and other long-term care makes up an outsize share of American family budgets and has spiked in recent years. White House officials say child care costs have risen 26% over the past decade, while long-term care has jumped roughly 40% over the same period.
You can watch his remarks in full below.
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