Analysts predict that the growing concern of women, particularly those under the age of 50, over the crisis in the quality, affordability, and supply of early child-care in the U.S., will make the subject a serious campaign issue in the upcoming presidential election. According to the Washington Post 64% of mothers of preschoolers are employed and the Census Bureau ranks day care cost for young families as the biggest expense after housing and food. The U.S. has lagged behind most industrialized nations in investing in its early child care system, the issue often being held hostage to politics. President Nixon vetoed a bill in 1971 to assist working class families with child-care suggesting it would promote “communal approaches to child-rearing overthe family centered approach. President Clinton’s 1998 proposal to expand the child tax credit was blocked by Republicans, claiming that the move would discriminate against mothers who stay at home with their children.
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