Fact Check 14: The price of child care increased almost twice as much under Biden-Harris as under Trump-Pence

This fact should be common knowledge, 17 days away from the election, but it isn't. Why?

Jon Sutz

Oct 19, 2024

Preface: See 2024 Fact Check: Introduction and link-list

Source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Day Care and Preschool In US City Average”

What this breaks down to is:

Under Trump-Pence: Child care costs rose 10.9%
Under Biden-Harris: Child care costs rose 19%

Analysis

Imagine waking up tomorrow, and after arriving at your place of employment at your usual time, ready to give a big client presentation, your supervisor is obviously upset, and asks why you are late. You look at your watch, and it shows you are 20 minutes early. Your supervisor, however, points to a wall clock, that shows it’s actually two hours later. Confused, you say that your watch is synchronized with your iPhone, which of course is displaying the correct time. Your supervisor replies that the wall clock is also linked to Apple, and is indeed correct — then complains about you showing up nearly two hours late, on such an important day.

What happened, and how can it be corrected?

You and your supervisor are living in two different worlds, that are defined by two different realities, and by two different means of determining reality.

This, sadly, is where the American people are, today, regarding the cost of child care — and whose policies, Trump’s, or Biden-Harris’s, influenced those costs, and in which direction.

While most Americans, and virtually all parents of young children, know that the costs of child care (and preschool) have risen dramatically in recent years, and may sense which party and which of its policies are the cause, Vice-President Harris insists her policies will lower not just child care costs, but all consumer prices.

What the American people are not told, however, or better, shown, is that it was primarily the policies of the Biden-Harris administration that caused child care prices to rise so much, so fast — almost twice as much as during President Trump’s term.

Nor are we shown this data in crystal-clear, at-a-glance terms, as in the infographic above.

But haven’t the Trump campaign and the GOP attempted to correct the record on child care price inflation?

The answer can be found on the official X and Facebook accounts of the Trump campaign and the GOP.

A cursory scan of Trump’s timeline shows two posts that attempt to address the price inflation issue — but see if you can find what’s missing in both:

What’s missing is two things:

Credible sources for either body of claims (check the threads)
Efficient pathways for supporters and skeptics alike to go check the data for themselves

On the GOP side, a casual perusal of its timeline showed a few posts addressing increased consumer prices, but (a) nothing regarding child care — and (b) no pathways for supporters and skeptics to check the factual allegations for themselves.

Imagine, however, if both sides produced infographics as simple as this, with the source (and link) provided to show the basis upon which the claim is made:

It’s not rocket science. It is the basic, rock-bottom that I think in 2024, we Americans should expect from those who are effectively applying for a job, with “we the people” deciding who is hired, for the most consequential public service position in our nation.

The “news” media refuses to hold Harris to account for the direct role she played in supporting and implementing the policies that were most responsible for causing such dramatic increases in consumer prices

This point should be abundantly self-evident at this point.

But if it’s not, recall that both President Biden and Harris publicly declared that she is “the last voice in the room” regarding major White House policy decisions:

Biden defends Kamala Harris as the 'last voice in the room', Daily Mail Online, April 12, 2021. Excerpt:

President Joe Biden released a sudden tweet on Monday defending Kamala Harris amid mounting criticism over her failure to visit the border and after GOP Senator John Cornyn questioned who was in charge in the White House.
'When I served as Vice President, I asked to be the last person with the President before big decisions were made — and @VP is providing the same counsel to me,' Biden wrote. 'She’s the last voice in the room and never fails to speak the truth as we work to build our nation back better.'
He included a picture of the pair in discussion inside the Oval Office.

President Joe Biden tweeted Monday about his vice president, Kamala Harris, saying she 'never fails to speak the truth' and provides counsel to him. Biden's tweet came without explanation after Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas asked whether he was 'really in charge'

Have you ever seen her confronted by any non-Fox News news organization with a means of holding her to account for the consequences of the policies that she and Biden championed, and implemented, using knowledge tools as simple as this infographic? Neither have I. Neither has anyone in America.

The result: Americans have no common understanding of which economic policies lead to which result, for child care prices or anything else — or easy means to validate, or debunk, the media’s and candidates’ false statements regarding this issue

Returning now to our workplace scenario at the beginning of the Analysis section, this is effectively where America is right now:

One POTUS campaign shouts that its policies will lower child care costs, and blames the other for dramatic price increases
The other campaign insists that this is false — that it is actually the one that was better on child care costs
Neither campaign, however, provides the data in a user-friendly format, that can be easily verified by the average person
The “news” media acts as its only obligation is to try to referee between two rumor mills, effectively facilitating a shouting match as to which football team has the best quarterback

In the end, American voters are effectively left to choose between these two rumor mills, to be guided by their hunches, instead of evidence, and the means to confidently and easily share it with others.

And until completely new, better ways of informing the American people of the most basic facts regarding the most important issues facing us, we are going to continue on this path of rumor-driven propaganda campaigns.

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820

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