Issues involving the care of vulnerable people are some of the few issues that still resonate across the political spectrum. In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned to victory on universal child care, among other affordability concerns. On the campaign trail in 2024, President Donald Trump’s stump speech included a pitch for a caregiver tax credit. And in September, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill intended to update the main federal child care law.
Yet the narrow focus of these proposals, whatever their individual merits may be, exemplify a persistent mistake: policymakers still approach caregiving in disconnected silos, which is far from how families experience them. It’s time for a comprehensive rethink.