Care Can’t Wait Action: Harris Centers Care Economy in Expansive Economic Vision

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 25, 2024
CONTACT: Christina Coleman, [email protected]

Care Can’t Wait Action: Harris Centers Care Economy in Expansive Economic Vision

Today, in a major speech in Pittsburgh, PA, Vice President Kamala Harris laid out her vision for an ‘opportunity economy’ built around supporting the middle class. Harris’s economic plan rightly identifies the care crisis as a major economic barrier for working families and would make aging and disability care more affordable, lower child care costs, ensure paid family and medical leave for all workers, and lift families out of poverty by expanding the child tax credit, all while ensuring workers in the care sector get the fair pay they need and deserve.

Care Can’t Wait Action coalition leaders issued the following statement on the stark contrast between Vice President Harris’s plans to help families afford the care options that are right for them and Donald Trump’s Project 2025, which calls for tax breaks for billionaires at the expense of workers and families.

“Anyone who has taken care of an aging relative, anyone who has had to take unpaid time off work when they or a loved one is injured or sick, anyone who has struggled to find or afford child care knows—as Vice President Harris so powerfully laid out today—just how essential care is to dignity and economic opportunity,” said Ai-jen Poo, founder and senior advisor to Care Can’t Wait Action. “Vice President Harris’s plan to help families find and afford the care options that are right for them will free up workers to start that new small business, put more of their hard-earned dollars toward a down payment on a home, and breathe a little easier. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are peddling Project 2025, which would hand more tax breaks over to billionaires who don’t need them. Workers and families will vote this fall for the leader who understands the economy only works when it works for working people. That leader is Vice President Harris.”

“The Vice President told a powerful story about the essential role of caregiving in the lives of families, including her own, and made a compelling case for care investments,” said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families Action Fund.  “Paid leave, care for aging relatives, and child care are not optional policies, they are vital to the economic stability and health and well-being of families.”

“This was one of the most powerful, resonant, and relatable visions for building the economy and the American dream we’ve ever heard from a Presidential candidate,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, head of Paid Leave PAC. “She speaks to the biggest sources of financial and emotional stress for American families — the need for paid leave and affordable care for the ones we love. We know that passing these policies will yield millions of jobs and billions in wages and economic activity — that they will help small businesses compete and working families thrive. What a powerful legacy to build for this country.”

“By including an expanded Child Tax Credit, child care and elder care, and paid leave in the first pillar of her economic agenda, Vice President Harris is reaffirming that family policy is economic policy,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. “Again and again, Kamala Harris is showing women and families that she will fight for their priorities, while Donald Trump’s economic policy is more tax giveaways to himself and his billionaire backers.”

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