ClintonCare II
Nordlinger, Pia
ClintonCare II by Pia Nordlinger The fix was in at the White House Conference on Child Care. Bill and Hillary Clinton used all the familiar buzzwords—"empowerment," "choice," "national...
...The conference had the atmosphere of a campaign rally or a party convention...
...indeed, the audience interrupted speakers with thunderous applause throughout the day...
...He didn't say...
...Clinton obliged, boasting of his accomplishments (the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the expansion of HeadStart, the White House Early Childhood and the Brain Conference, the budget deal) and taking the occasion to announce a four-step plan to strengthen the nation's child care...
...Gov...
...On the other hand, we can't expect parents, who are already stretched, to shell out for higher pay and better benefits...
...The panelists hailed from various institutions—the church, the military, federal and state government, medicine, big business, labor, nonprofit foundations, and the child-care industry itself—but they were anything but diverse in outlook...
...Bill and Hillary Clinton used all the familiar buzzwords—"empowerment," "choice," "national community"—when they kicked off their one-day event on October 23...
...Singing alongside Sweeney in the anti-market chorus was the White House's token businessman, Doug Price, president of FirstBank of Colorado...
...And finally, the president encouraged more use of community-service volunteers in after-school programs...
...Jim Hunt of North Carolina urged the president to "use that bully pulpit that you use better than anyone who's ever served here...
...The quip brought hoots of delight and clapping...
...Most child-care workers," he said, "have no benefits, no pensions...
...The plan could have been crafted by Dick Morris, Clinton's one-time political adviser...
...So it's settled then...
...The Clintons and their panelists—most of them, at least—do not expect to establish a federal day-care system any time soon...
...And since the conference's planners barred all opposing ideas from their love-in, no one objected all day...
...The second is a background-check system to prevent unsavory types from working with children...
...They do, however, insist on increased federal involvement—regulation, subsidies, and all the rest...
...But of course, that's what the Clintons thought about national health care in 1994...
...Rubin will be leading this group with support from AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, another of the panelists...
...sweeney was present to harp on a side-issue: the plight of child-care providers...
...Valora Washington, program director for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, seemed to speak for all when she proclaimed, in triumph, "We, as a nation, have decided to support child care with public funds...
...instead, he touted the "working group" Clinton has designed for business leaders, labor, and community representatives...
...Price, the last to speak, dropped the crowning "shame-on-the-market" soundbite: "When it comes to child care, Adam Smith's invisible hand is all thumbs...
...All operated on one assumption: When it comes to child care, the marketplace has failed, and the only thing that can save the children of America from disaster is a bigger and more expensive role for government...
...I am transmitting to Congress the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact," said Clinton, "which will make background checks easier and more effective by eliminating state barriers to sharing criminal histories for this specific purpose...
...His first step is a scholarship fund for child-care providers designed to help them get training and, when they graduate, "bonuses" from employers...
...The theme of market failure surfaced early: President Clinton, who moderated the first panel along with his spouse, asked Treasury secretary Robert Rubin why, in the area of child care, the market is "dysfunctional...
...Third, there is that working group on child care composed of labor and business representatives...
...Morris likes small proposals, or "nuggets," and that's what the president offered...
...How large are the bonuses...
...That's why we need government and business to play a bigger role and to make a stronger investment in America's working families...
...Rubin didn't have an explanation, but he didn't dispute the point either...
...But he harmonized this nicely with the emphasis on more government...
...Pia Nordlinger is a reporter for The Weekly Standard...
...Most don't make enough to keep their own children in child care...
...And while 14 seemingly diverse panelists pretended to be there simply to, as the White House put it, "start a conversation" on the state of child care in America, they had more on their minds...
Vol. 3 • November 1997 • No. 8
