Donald Trump calls himself the “president of fertilization” and says that he wants the Americans to have more children. He pleaded for expanding access to IVF and even proposed to pay $ 5,000 per mothers per newborn. But with his recent announcement of world prices – and a virtual embargo on Chinese imports – he not only launched a trade war, but a full assault on new and expected parents.
Let us call this what it is: a baby tax. And it happens just in time for Mother’s Day.
From car seats and cradles to strollers, cups and baby clothes, Trump prices are hiking prices on almost all the items that families need to bring a baby to the home of the hospital and take care of them during their first years. With around 90% of sustainable products for babies and children imported from abroad, the impact of these policies was immediate and severe.
As a mother of a young child, I always remember very stressful to choose a car seat when I was pregnant. I wanted the safest model I could find, with the best crash test notes, and ideally something that did not require a doctorate to install. And I remember how dear they were! The best models could easily cost you $ 500 and even the budgetary models were almost $ 200.
While I took advantage of a quick resale market in my neighborhood (and some generous friends) with regard to items like clothing, bottles and even my son’s first cradle, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends buying used car seats for security reasons. The last thing that parents’ expectations needs is a 40% increase in the price of car seats, but that’s exactly what’s going on. Popular companies like Nuna and Evenflo have already announced price increases.
It’s not just car seats. The prices of other large tickets, such as strollers, soar. The most popular stroller model of the Uppababy brand is now $ 1,200, and even so-called budgetary options tend to reach aggressively. Munchkin, a familiar name in cups in vest, announced that it would increase prices on 90% of its products, most of at least 20%. Carter’s, an essential brand for the Grenouillères, has also increased prices. With each turn, parents pay more – sometimes hundreds of others – for the basics.
Trump’s response? He pushed the cost of the strollers, or as he said, “the thing in which you carry the baby”, like “peanuts” compared to the drop in energy prices. Talked like a man who has never changed the thing in which the baby poops.
But price increases are not the only problem. Another imminent concern. Parents are already panic, strollers and cradles before prices go up further or stocks are exhausted. You don’t just need Babyroof of your home – now you need Babyroof for prices.
The doctor will not free you from maternity without a car seat. Parents’ wait does not have the opportunity to delay this purchase until Trump flashes and cancels his trade war. The time of these purchases is determined by the baby’s deadline, not by the vicissitudes of political decision -makers in Washington.
These are not only the necessities. Trump waged a war against pleasure and a first war against Christmas by absolutely demolishing the toy industry. Asked about the shortages of imminent toys, he was quick to suggest a war -style rationing in time for dolls and pencils saying: “They don’t need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five. ” Idotic children and their dolls. The small engine that could Put more efforts to get dolls and toys to children that the Trump administration cannot bring together.
If Trump wanted to seriously support families, he would not tax babies or children. He was fighting for childcare services and paid family leave – and he restarted milk and dairy products at Food and Drug Administration. Instead, it makes the basics more difficult, at the very beginning of the life of a newborn, when parents are the most vulnerable – physically, emotionally and financially.
Trump can hide his head with the pronatalist movement with his openings around fertility, but his real policies work in the wrong direction, increasing the cost of almost all articles in the nursery. It turns out that Trump’s commitment to family values ends when you start to buy a cradle.
Lindsay Owens is executive director of Collaborative Groundwork and author of the book to come, Gouged (Viking Penguin).
