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Democrats introduce bill to help federal workers cover childcare costs during shutdown
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Wtf? They are furloughed, they are home with their kids. Unless they are essential, then ok I can see it being good. But where is this support for childcare for the people that are essential and not federal workers? Why are the Dems attacking Mamdani when he said he wanted to provide childcare?
Many US child care facilities require contracts for 40 hours per week regardless if you send your kids every day. Even if the parents choose to keep their kids home, they're likely on the hook for payments.
That's how ours is... And I'm just a normal dude with a toddler.
We pay them if the rascal is there or not.
Makes sense. They are selling you the option to one of the available childcare slots, which is a fixed number. They can't sell more slots than they can accommodate, on the off chance every slot is used on a given day. To do so would drop the quality of care.
It's not like they are airlines and can just bump you to the next available.
Its not even about quality of care its state regulations. They can only accept so many kids and need to have so many staff per state regs.
If I pull my kid from daycare, they are just out of daycare. They would be school age by the time I got a new slot.
I think the state regulations exist to assure a minimum safe level quality of care, so we are saying the same thing.
I mean, if airlines can do it...
All the essential workers still work, without pay
I very much doubt you will find an example of Ilhan attacking Mamdani or childcare support. This is at least the second time she's tried to pass this bill, the first was during Trump's first term. A majority of federal workers are not furloughed during a shutdown, although it's hard to find numbers on how many of those are working with pay vs. without pay. I'm positive she also spoke out when Republicans and Manchin and Sinema killed the childcare tax credits from the build back better bill that reduced child poverty to record lows, she's pretty consistently one of the good ones.
It's also worth pointing out that this is as much a messaging tactic as a real bill. There ain't no way Republicans are passing this bill, but having this and other bills like it on the table makes them put up or shut up if they try to attack Democrats for holding government workers' livelihoods hostage over the shutdown. Having it focus on government workers increases the strength of that message, even if broader relief would still be necessary if this passes.
Introducing bills like this, and thus establishing a counter narrative of "this is what the Democrats want for the country, as opposed to what you are getting today from the Republicans", is miles better than the Schumer strategy to date of doing his level best to agree to all of the Republican demands in order to make living under the Trump presidency as unbearable as possible in the hopes that people will vote Democrat for change despite Schumer putting no daylight between Democratic and Republican positions.
It costs money to take care of children, in case you weren't aware.
I think it's that category of essential employees who are working without pay that this would be most intended for.
Because they’re better than the rabble. Obviously they should have free childcare, they deserve it. The rest of us should just shut up and continue to struggle. That is our lot.
Narratives like this support DOGE's actions. The GS-5 working for your local national park is not your enemy, it's the multi billionaires that used their influence to kill the child tax credit in 2022 to fund a tax cut for them in 2025 that are the problem here. Ilhan's bill focuses on government employees because it is a messaging bill in a government shutdown environment and because it keeps the bill simple, the government already has mechanisms for OMB to reimburse government employees for eligible expenses, so this is just directing that infrastructure to add a category to the list of eligible expenses as opposed to creating any new systems or changing the tax code. It's not even close to a final step, but it helps some workers, and that's better than the current trend of the government stepping on workers in favor of billionaires
I can cop that. My bad.
I still think it's too little, and it's cute that it's coming when it's pressing for them. Nevermind all the parents that struggle daily to make ends meet. It's always when it hurts people personally that they care to take action.
You know that "federal workers" doesn't just mean politicians right?
Bot or Russian/Israeli?
Yes to both, obviously. Check my post history for proof.
Edit: I’m sick of politicians that want special treatment while not pushing for it for the masses. We have politicians trying to spy on everyone, invading their privacy, while also leaving themselves exempt.
It’s ridiculous.