Hillary Clinton dismissed Donald Trump’s recent pledge to promote economic policies that would benefit working families as “lip service” at a Thursday rally in Warren, Michigan.
Clinton, who has campaigned on a platform of bolstering federal support for new parents and female workers, said that Trump has only recently started paying attention to these issues.
“On Monday, Trump offered his first real ideas on this topic. Because previously, he had dismissed concerns about child care,” she said. “He said it was, quote, not an expensive thing because you just need some blocks and some swings. Now he says he wants to exclude child care payments from taxation.”
Trump made the swings comment at a November town hall, saying more companies should offer in-house child care to employees.
During a Monday speech in Detroit outlining his economic platform, Trump promised that his administration would allow families to “fully deduct” child-care expenses from their taxes. As many economists pointed out, this policy would actually end up benefitting wealthier Americans since many Americans already pay no federal income tax. University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers said that by using a tax deduction rather than a refundable credit, Trump’s plan “effectively excludes all poor families.”
Clinton said his policy was “transparently designed for rich people like him” and instead proposed expanding the child tax credit.
The Democratic nominee listed the proposals she has championed throughout the campaign, including paid family leave and a higher minimum wage, as more effective economic policies for helping working families.
“I don’t understand why Trump’s against that,” Clinton said of Trump’s opposition to guaranteeing equal pay for women.
Trump said last fall that women will earn the same salaries as men if they “do as good a job.” He has paid some female campaign staffers significantly less than their male counterparts, as the Boston Globe reported in June.
The Trump campaign’s newfound focus on family policies usually pushed by progressives kicked off at the Republican National Convention in July.
“He will fight for equal pay, equal work, and I will fight for this too, right alongside of him,” Ivanka Trump said when introducing her father to accept the Republican nomination. Trump did not highlight those issues during a year on the campaign trail.
