August 19, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris’ anti-baby and anti-family agenda isn’t just limited to her extreme views on abortion. Sure, she announced a childcare tax credit (after Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance said he supports it first), but the impact she’s made on families is deeply felt economically: it’s a hard, expensive world out there for families.
The Brookings Institute notes that “since 2020, the inflation rate has skyrocketed—it was 8.5 percent as of July 2022—in part due to supply-chain issues and stimulus spending packages that put more cash into Americans’ pockets… … We estimate that total average family expenditures on a child born in 2015 to a middle-class family with two children, adjusted for higher expected future inflation, would be $310,605. Due to higher inflation, a middle-income married family with two children will now spend $26,011 more to raise a child to the age of 17.”
But how does this affect newborns and infants specifically? In those formative years, diapers, baby food, and start-up costs like baby clothes, toys, strollers, and more can be expensive.
In short? It’s not good. News reporting from Spectrum News says, “Credit Karma estimates that with inflation, raising a child born in 2023 will cost between $16,227 and $18,262 a year. That is about a 30% increase from a USDA report that says raising a child in 2011 cost between $12,290 and $14,320 a year.”
Let’s look at the price breakdown for key items for babies and infants.
FORMULA AND BABY FOOD
One report from SmartAsset identified that brand name baby formula cost anywhere from $0.09 cents to $0.32 an ounce in 2019, compared to $0.54 to $1.15 an ounce in 2022. TrustedCare on the other hand noted that baby food is averaging between $0.60 cents to $2.00 an ounce.
A separate report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a significant spike from 2021 through 2022 for baby food prices at large. Statista on the other hand showed a steady increase in prices for baby food and formula from 2019 to 2024.
DIAPERS
Fox Business reports that diapers cost an average of $16.54 per pack in 2019 but shot up to $21.90 per pack in 2023. A separate NBC News report found that “since the pandemic, the price of diapers has reportedly increased 48%, costing families as much as $1,000 a year per child.” And data from MorePerfectUnion says, “in June 2022, a box of 168 Pampers cost around $60 at Walmart. That’s nearly 184% more per unit than the price Bloomberg reported in November 2020.”
CHILDCARE
Childcare, like the rest of things that babies and small children need, is not immune from the Biden-Harris’ terrible economy. According to Market Watch, “the average cost of care for two children is now greater than the average rent in all 50 states, and greater than the average mortgage payment in 45 states.”
Using a handful of America’s largest states, using the Department of Labor’s website, the cost of infant center-based childcare in 2018 compared to 2023 is:
- California – $17,025 (2018), $20,039 (2023)
- Florida – $9,215 (2018), $10,847 (2023)
- New York – $17,382 (2018), $20,459 (2023)
- Texas – $8,562 (2018), $10,078 (2023)
It’s a pretty bleak reminder of the impact made by incompetence of the Biden-Harris administration and testament that America absolutely cannot afford another four years.
READ: Meet The Most Radically Pro-Abortion Presidential Ticket in US History
