Anti-abortion senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is against child-care subsidies for working parents, arguing that it is the parents’ responsibility to take care of the child and not society’s because parents made the decision to have kids in the first place.
“People decide to have families and become parents. That’s something they need to consider when they make that choice,” Johnson told local Wisconsin TV station WKBT. “I’ve never really felt it was society’s responsibility to take care of other people’s children.”
Johnson told WKBT that he would support cutting unemployment benefits instead of helping families find affordable child care options to get more people back to work which would allow them to support their own families.Â
Johnson’s comments come as President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan is stalled in the Senate. The plan would provide funding for a child care tax credit of between $3,000 and $3,600 per child per year to eligible individuals making under $75,000 a year or couples making under $150,000.
Child care for infants and toddlers typically costs—on average, per child—anywhere from roughly $13,000 to $16,000 a year, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP).
