I know what Trump was really talking about in his child care rant, and it's even scarier than you thought

[Zorro]

An incoherent rant Donald Trump delivered at an appearance Thursday in answering a question about child care policy has gone viral, mostly because it reached new heights of incoherence, even for him.

But what commentators and viewers have missed is the tiny nugget of actual fact nestled within Trump’s 374 words of absolute gibberish. That’s too bad, because that nugget makes his answer even dumber, and scarier, than you might have imagined.

Here’s how he launched into the topic at the Economic Club of New York, when asked by attendee Reshma Saujani, a Democratic children’s advocate, if he would commit to making child care more affordable and what “specific piece of legislation” he would advance as president to do so:

“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down, and I was, somebody, we had Sen. Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so, uh, impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that, because, look, child care is child care is. Couldn’t, you know, there’s something, you have to have it — in this country you have to have it.”

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-09-06/i-know-what-trump-was-really-talking-about-in-his-child-care-rant-and-its-even-dumber-than-you-thought

Summary: Rubio's and Ivanka's 12 week paid family leave plan would delay the worker's ability to receive Social Security benefits by twice that time. It would be a Republican stealth attack on Social Security.

[werdna]

1. Rubio and Ivanka's plan -

The idea was to allow new parents, including adoptive parents, to receive up to 12 weeks of paid family leave. That sounds pretty good so far: The idea of paid family leave was (and is) enormously popular with voters, and providing it to American families would finally bring the U.S. into line with every other high-income nation in the world.

But in the proposal by Rubio and Ivanka Trump, families would have to raid their Social Security to pay for it by reducing or delaying their retirement benefits. As the Urban Institute calculated, for every 12-week leave, new parents would have to delay their Social Security benefits by more than twice that period, or as much as six months.

Parents who took four 12-week leaves, according to this analysis, would lose 10% of their retirement benefits, for life.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-09-06/i-know-what-trump-was-really-talking-about-in-his-child-care-rant-and-its-even-dumber-than-you-thought

[Lonestarblue]

12. Paid family leave is great, but not through Social Security.

Plus, it does nothing for the costs of longer-term childcare for kids before they go to kindergarten and school. Trust Republicans to find a sneaky way to hurt the middle class and poor.

[patphil]

20. So, paid family leave isn't paid leave at all.

It's simply a scheme to allow you to take money from your Social Security account that is already yours, but wouldn't normally be accessible until you retire.
It's a sucker deal that reduces your ability to pay your bills late in life.
They're not giving you a thing.

[Hekate]

28. As Hiltzik points out, it's the old GOP dream,going back to Reagan, of using SS as a piggy bank...

…. for whatever they come up with until it totally runs out of money .

Yep. And then when retirees can’t go on any longer on their own they can move in on their adult children. JD Vance family values.

“Sweetie, I know we said we’d help you go to college, but grandma needs a hip replacement and grandpa can’t remember which room is the bathroom. “

[werdna]

33. Worked for Ohio

When Ohio instituted it's income tax it was done for the sole purpose of funding education. Fast Forward and lo and behold it get's voted on to put it into the general fund. Rinse and repeat with the state lottery and now legalized casino gambling. Each generation a new group of dupes.

[bamagal62]

2. Wow. I had no idea.

That part of his word salad had me wondering what he was referring to. Now I know. So, the parent(s) would delay or lose SS by 24 weeks?? This needs to be shared far and wide.

[lostnfound]

6. 24 weeks PER CHILD. And gee, why don't they do this for extended illnesses, too...other sick leaves...?? Nt

[Farmer-Rick]

18. Yeah, why not do this for vacation time or weekends?

Instead of stock options for CEOs they could get Social Security options for every day off.

Weekends off could be compensated for by taking away more SS tax dollars that you paid in. The money could go to the corporation that lets you have weekends off.

A perfect solution for the filthy-rich.

[jaxexpat]

3. I've always thought Trump knows exactly what he's not saying.

The lying and word salad rants are camouflage to fill the void in his head. The fact that it's all so disgusting and disturbing is pure Trump, like a neurotic diarrhetic cat covering its own poop.

[Farmer-Rick]

19. Except that this word salad communication is a symptom

Of a lot of mental illnesses. Dementia, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and other mental problems have this word salad as a symptom. Even severe grief can bring it on.

Circumlocution is what's it's called but in severe communication disruption due to dementia it also includes Visual agnosia, Semantic paraphasia, Superordinate responses, Pronoun substitution, which pedo Trump also displays.

"In early dementia, the word retrieval problems are very severe and cause a lot of this circumlocution, or people start to talk around things to a point where the the conversation gets really disrupted and it's kind of hard to follow the thread of what that person is saying."

https://www.adrc.wisc.edu/dementia-matters/how-language-and-conversation-can-help-detect-dementia#:~:text=In%20early%20dementia%2C%20the%20word,what%20that%20person%20is%20saying.

[FemDemERA]

21. Thanks for the article link!

[jaxexpat]

23. ....had a cairn terrier with those symptoms.....total doggerel.

[rubbersole]

4. If Rubio and Ivanka had a child(s)....

....it would look like Eric with a coin changer clipped on his diaper. And thirsty.

[lostnfound]

5. UFB. Conflcts with Vance's "that's what grandmas are for" plan?? And women's lives, already full of caretaking...

Can get further compressed by extra 24 weeks? 48 weeks? 72 weeks? of work before they finally get to freedom?

[Squaredeal]

13. I'm surprised that J D Vance didn't suggest that one parent work nights

Problem solved.

[Skittles]

24. OR, don't take off work at all!

just have GRANDMA TAKE A SABBATICAL and take care of things for a year!

[erronis]

7. And delaying the age for collecting SS is particularly hurtful to the aging workforce

Those $s sitting in SS are vitally needed as people start to (or want to) retire.

Amazing to what lengths these people will go to cause damage.

[NNadir]

8. I don't think there was any deeper thought behind that incoherent rant. It was just ramble from a weak and damaged...

...brain.

[Hekate]

29. Hiltzik is nearly always spot on, & the entire thing is worth reading

[NNadir]

34. OK, I read it, but I still think it ascribes too much sanity to an empty headed confused senile old man.

It indicates that the corrupt daughter and the clueless Senator from soon to submerge Florida may have had a scheme some years back with the implications stated, but the "idea" such as it was was rattling around in his increasingly dysfunctional tiny little brain like a BB in an otherwise plastic gumball machine sphere.

Trump's brain, which, let's face it was never of a high order, is rotting, and he was struggling to recall something he may have vaguely been told about some years ago but is no longer competent to understand.

[highplainsdem]

9. Wow. Thanks for posting this!

[Squaredeal]

10. This plan would hit the middle class the hardest.

Not the wealthy, who don’t need SSI, or the poor, who often don’t have jobs that don’t pay enough to not stay at home.
Its really a disincentive for the middle class, the backbone of the nation, to have children.
It’s asking these parents to give up their retirement for the sake of their children.
Gee, if my mom took “advantage” of this plan, considering how many children my parents had, she would have had to wait twenty years to collect her SSI, had she lived that long.

[FakeNoose]

11. It sounds like a plan to bankrupt Social Security before the next generation retires

This just proves that the Repukes can't ever be in charge of anything. Ever.

[Squaredeal]

14. I hope that Harris will be able to bring up this "tidbit" if given the chance during the debate

If the question about childcare is asked.

[Hekate]

30. It is, and the idea (going back at least to Reagan) is to use SS as a piggy bank until it is gone

[surfered]

15. What I noticed was his tariff plan. He claimed we'll take in trillions of dollars from foreign governments.

What he doesn’t understand is that a tariff is a tax on foreign goods paid by the American consumers. So his plan will take in trillions of dollars from Americans.

[Squaredeal]

16. And bankrupt American companies

…that rely on a significant number of foreign sales to help make them profitable, as other nations slap their own tariffs on imported American goods in retaliation.

[surfered]

17. A double whammy! Whammy is a highly technical economics term.

[CaptainTruth]

25. YES! Why isn't the media reporting this??? He clearly doesn't understand how tariffs work!

Any high school student should be able to understand how tariffs work, who pays them, & how they can start "trade wars," but Trump clearly doesn't & he wants to set economic policy???

He also said he would be "taxing foreign nations," which is something a US President CANNOT do. The President, & in fact the US as a nation, has no power or authority to impose taxes on other countries.

Both of those are simple essential concepts that any candidate for POTUS should understand, but Trump clearly doesn't.

That is disqualifying (along with a laundry list of other things) & the media should be reporting on it & asking him follow-up questions, asking him to explain how he thinks tariffs work, who pays them, & how he thinks he & the USA has the authority to impose taxes on foreign nations. But him on the spot because his lack of fundamental knowledge is astounding.

[prodigitalson]

22. Actually what he was saying is "stfu im talking about something else. "

[Walleye]

26. Did Mexico pay for the Wall? I don't think so. He's not gonna tax other countries.

Last edited Sat Sep 7, 2024, 05:47 PM - Edit history (1)

[FakeNoose]

31. ...

[Frank D. Lincoln]

27. I'm always amazed at how much I learn spending time at DU. Thanks, Zorro. nt

[valleyrogue]

32. They are talking out of their backsides.

The GOP rightwingers have long considered subsidized childcare to be "socialist" as far back as at least Nixon. They will never back anything to help working parents, especially women.

As far as they are concerned, childcare is a woman's responsibility and needs to be done in the home by that woman, who has no business being in the workforce to begin with.