Good morning! Former FTC chair Lina Khan issues warning if PE firms have free reign, Stella McCartney buys back minority stake from LVMH, and a new campaign asks Trump to act on child care costs.
- Call to action. Reshma Saujani has spent the past few years arguing that child care is a bipartisan issue. The founder of the organization Moms First campaigned for CNN moderators to ask about child care during the presidential debate between President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, and asked Trump about his plans to bring down child care costs herself at the Economic Club of New York in September.
Now that Trump is back in office, Moms First is relaunching that campaign. Yesterday, the organization put up billboards in six cities asking Trump to act on child care costs within his first 100 days in office. "President Trump, families need a tax cut for child care," one reads. Running in six cities with high child care costs, including New York, San Diego, and Chicago, the billboards compare the cost of child care (on average, $11,600 a year) to the cost of other essentials like rent, gas, and, in California, a burrito.
While this campaign initially intended to urge the Trump White House to increase child care tax cuts in the administration's first major tax policy bill, it's now running defense. House Republicans last week cut the existing child tax credit in their draft of the tax policy bill.
When asked about child care during the presidential campaign, Trump and Vance gave sometimes conflicting answers. At the Economic Club, Trump said his tariffs would lead to such prosperity that child care costs would become less burdensome. Vance said that families should seek assistance from grandparents and called for less regulation of child care providers. But he also proposed doubling the child tax credit.
"This campaign is, quite frankly, about holding them accountable to that commitment," Saujani says. Trump's new coalition also includes figures like Vance and Elon Musk who say they worry about a falling birth rate and have advocated for people to have more children. Affordability is a key factor Americans cite as a reason for not having children or more children.
The campaign asks supporters to sign a petition calling on Trump to save and expand the child tax credit. A December survey by Moms First found that 84% of voters think Congress should act to make child care more affordable, including 78% of Republicans and 91% of Democrats.
Currently the child and dependent care tax credit allows families to claim up to $3,000 per child, but most only receive about $600 based on income. The tax credit hasn't been updated since 2001. (And it's different from the child tax credit that was expanded during the pandemic.)
While many women's groups have in the past protested Trump, Saujani is now taking the tack of engaging with the administration. "We can't sit on the sidelines for the next four years," she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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