A nanny visa will lower childcare
costs, increase access, and increase competition
The Republicans have a women
problem. There I said it. President Obama won the women by 55% in 2012 by 54%
in 2008. Senator Kerry 51%. Vice President Gore 54%. President Clinton 45% to
President Bush’s 37% and 54% for his reelection. No Republican has won a
majority women vote since President Bush sr. beat Governor Dukakis. What I
present will not be a panacea to the problem but will be a step in the right
direction.
Working Mothers’ participation in
the workforce is very sensitive to childcare costs particularly single mothers.
For them, it could mean the difference between employment or the drudgery and
dependency of welfare. Social Conservatives (of which I am one) may lecture all
they like about how two parent households occupy a higher rung on the
socioeconomic ladder than their single parent counterparts, but once the tooth
paste is out of the tube, it’s out. Marriage isn’t always an immediate option
for all single mothers. We must accept women have become a fixture of the work
place and single parenthood probably isn’t going down anytime soon.
Since childcare costs are so pivotal
to women with children, the best solution is a supply side one. Many Liberal Democrats
offer to increase subsidies and taxes to pay for childcare, but fiscally
conservative women are hesitant to fetter their children down with any more
debt than this out-of-control federal government already has. And they don’t
want to pay any more taxes that would reduce employment and diminish economic dynamism.
The solution is to increase the supply of childcare workers through a nanny
visa program. It would allow childcare businesses to bring in more needed help,
working women to bring in the nannies they need to watch over their children
while they earn a living, foreign childcare business owner to set up shop while
instantly create needed jobs on American soil, and those who want to bring in
their relatives to be nannies. More women who would normally be on unemployment
could return to the workforce because if their take home wages after childcare
costs only breaks even or leaves is in the red then there is little incentive to
return. It will lead to greater access and competition while lowering childcare
costs.
Even if this proposal didn’t
increase Republicans’ share of women’s vote, it still good economics and with
women’s work force participation rate being abysmally low and unemployment
stubbornly, good economic policy would be a breath of fresh air for America’s exhausted
labor market.
