Donald Trump introduced a plan for providing child care to all Americans, vowing Tuesday "it's time to end the rule of special interest and to begin the rule of the American people."
"While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hard-working American patriots who love your country, love your family and want a better future for all Americans," the Republican nominee told a rally at the Aston Community Center in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.
"I'm asking the nation to lift our sights and to imagine what we can accomplish if we work together, trust each other, and put the needs of our citizens first for a change.
"We must break our ties with the failed and bitter politics of the past and pursue a future where every American is honored," Trump said.
Trump was introduced by his oldest daughter, Ivanka, who told the crowd "this is not a woman's issue. It's a family issue. It's an American issue.
"It's an issue that's often been discussed but is yet to be solved," she said.
Donald Trump credited his daughter, a married mother of three small children, for helping to craft his plan.
He also acknowledged several Republican women serving in Congress for their input, including Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers of Washington state, the No. 4 GOP leader in the House, and Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn.
"We have to reject the arrogance of Washington, D.C., that looks down on everyday hard-working people," Trump told the crowd.
"Too often those that have power have disdain for the views, beliefs, and attitudes of those who don't have any political power; those in leadership must put themselves in the shoes of the laid-off factory worker, the family worried about security, or the mom struggling to afford child care."
Among other things, Trump's child care plan would:
- Guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave by amending the existing unemployment insurance that companies are required to carry. The benefit would apply only when employers do not offer paid maternity leave.
- Rewrite the tax code to allow working parents to deduct child care expenses from their income for up to four children and elderly dependents. The deduction would be capped at the average cost of care per state of residence.
- Create new Dependent Care Savings Accounts for families to set aside money for their children's development or elder care expenses.
- Reform laws to add incentives for employers to provide on-site child care for their employees.
Trump said his proposals would receive bipartisan support from Congress and would be paid for via tax credits, reforms to the nation's tax and regulatory codes, the unemployment insurance fund — and by "re-capturing fraud and improper payments in the insurance program.
"They will be completely self-financed," Trump said.
"It's time to free ourselves from the baskets that politicians try to put us into, and always have put us into — and, instead, to work together.
"That includes Democrats, Republicans and all Americans."
Earlier Tuesday, Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign slammed Trump's agenda as a "regressive and insufficient 'maternity leave' policy that is it out-of-touch, half-baked and ignores the way Americans live and work today."
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