胜利的民主党人，理所当然地担忧美国家庭的瓦解，现在必须兑现承诺，从负担得起的日托和住房，到更丰厚的税收优惠。但该怎么做？他们如何团结中间派民主党人和更偏左的进步派，来支持父母，让养育子女再次成为可能？
Victorious Democrats, rightly fearing the American family’s demise, must now deliver, from affordable day care and housing to heftier tax benefits. But what to do? How can they unite centrist Democrats and more left-leaning progressives to buoy parents and make child-rearing feasible once again?
民主党候选人在竞选期间提出了各种负担能力解决方案。现在真正的工作开始了，最好以两党合作的方式进行。民主党领导人甚至可能忍气吞声，给副总统JD·万斯打个电话。
Democratic candidates floated a variety of affordability fixes on the campaign trail. Now the real work begins, ideally in bipartisan fashion. Democratic leaders might even hold their noses and give Vice President JD Vance a call.
进步派左翼推动斯堪的纳维亚式福利，比如免费托儿，这是纽约市市长佐赫兰·马马德尼力推的旗舰倡议。他坚持认为，政府必须为家庭外的额外照护人员提供资金——从婴儿刚满六周就开始——这样妈妈和爸爸就可以追求事业，或者仅仅是维持生计。
The progressive left pushes Scandinavian-style entitlements like free childcare, the marquee initiative pressed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He insists that the government must finance additional caregivers outside the home — starting when babies turn just six weeks old — so mom and dad can pursue careers or merely keep food on the table.
但事实证明，大多数父母在新生儿出生后更倾向于待在家里，更喜欢带薪家庭假，而不是把幼儿送进日托中心，这是上个月一项对美国家庭的调查所揭示的。此外，福利项目伴随着巨大的价格标签，预计在纽约将达到90亿美元——同时还在补贴富裕父母，以及那些从释放出的劳动力中获益的雇主，让纳税人来支付托儿账单。
But it turns out that most parents prefer staying home after a newborn arrives, favoring paid family leave rather than stashing toddlers in daycare, as a survey of American families revealed last month. In addition, entitlements come with a huge price tag, projected at $9 billion in New York — while subsidizing affluent parents, along with employers who reap freed-up labor, letting taxpayers foot the childcare bill.
万斯从另一个角度切入，提出了每个父母都会问的一个基本问题：如何在赚取足够维持家庭开支的同时，能有更多时间陪伴年幼的孩子？然后他却跌倒了，把社会工程推向了一个全新的水平。万斯想要截留目前帮助低收入在职父母支付托儿费用的联邦援助，将这些钱送给富裕家庭——前提是其中一位父母同意待在家里。副总统想要将他自己的家庭观念强加给所有美国人。
Vance arrives from a different angle, pressing a basic question that every parent asks: How can I spend more time with my young child, while earning enough to sustain my family? Then he stumbles, taking social engineering to a whole new level. Vance wants to capture federal aid currently helping employed lower-income parents pay for childcare, sending these dollars to well-off families — if one parent agrees to stay at home. The vice president would impose his own rendition of family onto all Americans.
不过，民主党领袖们看到了这一根本性的政策难题：政府是否应该帮助父母更好地在家中抚养孩子，而不仅仅是为家庭外的托儿和学前班提供资金。
Still, leading Democrats see the underlying policy quandary, which is whether the government should help parents better nurture kids at home, rather than only funding more childcare and pre-K outside the household.
来自硅谷的众议员罗·卡纳（Ro Khanna，民主党-加利福尼亚州）一直直言不讳，他提议每年新增1000亿美元的托儿支出，这一方案将在“待在家中、去托儿中心，或由朋友或家人提供日托”之间保持“价值中立”。这与过去半个世纪的研究一致，即父母对孩子早期成长或发展迟缓的贡献远大于家庭外的照护者。
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), the vocal House member from Silicon Valley, has proposed $100 billion in new childcare spending each year, a package that would be “value neutral between staying at home, going to a childcare center, or having friends or family” provide daycare. This is consistent with the past half-century of detailing how parents contribute far more to a child’s early growth, or developmental delays, than do caregivers outside the home.
另一种策略可能会团结民主党和新近转变的温和派共和党人：简化现有的四项税收抵免和两项联邦项目，这些项目已经为全国的托儿和学前教育提供资金。也就是说，通过简化项目而非增加重复的举措，让更多家庭负担得起托儿费用。
Another strategy could unite Democrats and newly minted moderate Republicans: Simplify the four tax credits and two federal programs that already finance childcare and preschools across the land. That is, make childcare affordable for more families by simplifying programs, rather than adding duplicative initiatives.
你可能还记得，乔·拜登总统扩大的儿童税收抵免，在2021年为每个5岁以下儿童的家庭提供3600美元，这一短暂的改革惠及数百万中产阶级家庭，同时将全国儿童贫困率降低了一半。
You may recall President Joe Biden’s expanded child tax credit, awarding families $3,600 for each child under 5 in 2021, a short-lived reform enjoyed by millions of middle-class families, while slicing the nation’s child poverty rate by half.
万斯在2024年承诺将拜登的抵免额提高到每个孩子5000美元——这一承诺他至今尚未兑现。副总统肯定会重振这类亲子政策，将自己塑造得更温和，向政治中心靠拢。而万斯在推动白宫的两党改革方面仍然具有重要作用。
Vance pledged in 2024 to boost the Biden credit to $5,000 per child — a promise he has yet to keep. The vice president will certainly revive such pro-family ideas, remaking himself as kinder and gentler, tiptoeing toward the political center. And Vance remains relevant in moving bipartisan reforms through the White House.
整合现有的亲子项目可能会赢得两党支持。除了儿童税收抵免之外，华盛顿还向父母和雇主提供另外三项税收优惠，以帮助抵消托儿费用。这个项目迷宫每年给国库造成约2010亿美元的税收支出。它如此混乱，以至于只有七分之一的父母会申请儿童和受抚养人照护抵免。
Consolidating existing pro-family programs could win bipartisan appeal. On top of the child tax credit, Washington awards another three tax benefits — going to parents and employers — which help offset childcare expenses. This maze of programs costs the treasury about $201 billion annually in tax spending. It’s so confusing that just 1 in 7 parents even file for the child and dependent care credit.
联邦政府不仅为数千所起点计划学前班提供资金，还向各州拨付儿童保育拨款，以可携带的凭证形式发放给家庭，让父母可以支付给祖母，甚至加利福尼亚州的男朋友，作为照护报酬。
Beyond funding thousands of Head Start preschools, the feds send a childcare block grant to the states, distributed to families as portable vouchers, allowing parents to pay grandma, even boyfriends in California, for their caregiving.
在这一系列举措之上，14个州和华盛顿特区为新生儿到来后的父母提供带薪家庭假，通常通过工资税资助，由员工和雇主共同缴纳。
On top of this bevy of initiatives, 14 states and Washington, D.C. finance paid family leave for parents after a newborn arrives, commonly supported through payroll taxes that balance contributions from workers and employers.
民主社会主义者或许会认识到，他们的斯堪的纳维亚同志同样热衷于家庭假，如同热衷于儿童保育一样。挪威父母可享受12个月带薪假期，由双亲平分。芬兰为在家照护孩子的父母——通常是父亲——提供家庭津贴，直到孩子满三岁，重视孩子的健康成长，而非父母尽快复工。
Democratic socialists might recognize that their Scandinavian comrades embrace family leave as heartily as childcare. Parents in Norway benefit from 12 months of paid leave, split evenly between both parents. Finland offers a home allowance for stay-at-home parents — often fathers — until their youngster turns three years old, valuing the child’s robust growth over a parent’s quick return to work.
确保幼儿茁壮成长是任何社会的核心。民主党可以通过简化对众多项目的准入，并投资于真正帮助家庭的项目，来推进这一重要事业。这场家庭支持的繁荣或许源自两党沃土，滋养出一个新近高效的国会。
Ensuring the vibrant growth of young children is central to any society. Democrats can advance this essential project by simplifying access to myriad programs and investing in those that truly lift families. This blossoming of family supports just might spring from bipartisan soil, nourishing a newly productive Congress.
布鲁斯·富勒是伯克利教育研究生院的教育与政策学教授，著有《辩论童年与学前》。
Bruce Fuller is an education and policy professor at Berkeley School of Education and the author of “Debating Childhood and Preschool.”