State and county governments have always been playgrounds for innovation. Senator-elect Dean Murray appears eager to join the fray in Albany and bring his family-focused agenda, too.
Murray joins the ranks of an increasingly more family-oriented and working family-oriented GOP. This welcomed shift in tone and policy might ruffle the feathers of some laissez-faire members of Murray’s party, but it shouldn’t. The GOP is not eschewing its skepticism of the state— far from it. The GOP is reacting to the concerns of the citizenry and acting in kind.
Refusing to engage in a policy area that is quite frankly underdeveloped cedes the conversation to the other side of the aisle. Refusing to engage licenses the validity of big-government policies of the political left. Furthermore, refusing to engage refutes the notion that the GOP is the party of working families and parents. Shockingly enough, the path to electoral success is buoyed by results, not rhetoric.
The market is one of the most furious forces ever unleashed by man. And while it has created unparalleled innovation, it can be corrosive to value systems that place emphasis on parenthood. Listening to those that work in childcare and parents, the expenses have gotten to the point where they are prohibitive to parents rejoining the workforce.
Now, what this means for a society that needs two working parents is neither here nor there; this is just the reality.
Addressing the reality of the situation is then what Murray is endeavoring to do. Murray does this using commonsense strategies that focus on supply-side reforms to direct subsidies toward creating more childcare careers, addressing the present shortages. His plans would encourage employers to provide childcare, keeping it within the parents’ reach. And, for the programs the state offers, the plan would level the income disparities between the regions, thus aiding our Long Island region.
It is materially and electorally imperative that more Republicans show interest in this policy area, as many already have if they want to retain the mantle of the party of parents.
Other Republicans have put forward plans favorable to working parents on the federal level and state levels across the country. Not long ago, Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) put forward a childcare tax credit that some said had more utility than the one the Biden Administration adopted. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and several other Republican Senators have also shown interest and put forward similar proposals.
There are still conversations to be had for parents that opt to stay home with their children and what support they should receive. However, aside from these other discussions, what Murray has put in place is a starting point. It is one that many parents will view with a sigh of relief, and his colleagues are wise to embrace it.
Hopefully, Hochul and legislative leaders do not thwart these initiatives simply because they are presented by a member of the opposition party as they often do. Depoliticizing this issue is one way to bridge the partisan divide devouring our discourse, seeing issues as problems to be tackled, not battlegrounds to be won.
