As he campaigns for reelection, President Joe Biden is hoping to put more focus on programs that help pay for both child care and elder care.
Addressing the steep costs of caring for the young and old are a renewed focus of his administration and his campaign, according to administration officials who characterize them as "unfinished business."
"Families need to scrounge around for child care, and they make those hard decisions about whether they can really have everyone working in the family or not," President Biden's domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden told The Associated Press.
The administration is pitching federal funding as a much-needed boost for the "caregiving economy," proposing hundreds of billions of dollars for paid family leave, subsidized child care, preschooling for every child and home care for the elderly.
But the price tag, which President Biden has proposed meeting with increased wealth taxes, faces stiff headwinds on Capitol Hill. Republicans don't support additional taxes, and Democratic unity has been hard to build around the idea.
President Biden's latest budget request includes almost $15 billion for the programs, but is unlikely to be considered.
Still, the Biden campaign says it will put the spotlight back on these proposals as the 2024 presidential race heats up.
"President Biden sees the world from kitchen tables in Scranton, and will finish the job to give families more breathing room at the end of the month, including by tackling the high costs of child and elder care," said campaign spokesman James Singer.
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