As she laid out an ambitious plan to lower child care costs across the country, Hillary Clinton Tuesday painted presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump as dangerous for women and families, previewing a line of attack she’s sure to ratchet up as the general election campaign begins in earnest.
Campaigning in Lexington, Kentucky, Mrs. Clinton cited Mr. Trump’s claim that workers’ “wages are too high” — a comment the billionaire has since walked back, but one that’s sure to haunt him over the coming months.
“At a time when families are struggling to pay for child care and so much else, Donald Trump actually stood on a debate stage and argued Americans are being paid too much, not to little … It’s troubling to me, because if you’re going to grow the economy, I think it’s kind of obvious you want people to be making money so they can actually spend it,” she said during a stop at Family Health Centers in Lexington. “I think with somebody like Donald Trump you would see a race to the bottom across our country with working families paying the price, and I don’t think that’s a race we can afford. We have to reject that vision.”
Mrs. Clinton courted Kentucky voters — who go the polls next week — on the same day Democrats in West Virginia weighed in on the party’s presidential primary. Polls have shown Mrs. Clinton trailing Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont in West Virginia, though the former first lady’s big lead in the delegate race means a Sanders win wouldn’t make a significant difference.
Instead of battling it out against Mr. Sanders in West Virginia, Mrs. Clinton has chosen to highlight policy proposals she believes will be crucial in a November race against Mr. Trump. Polls have shown Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton in a virtual tie in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, and the Clinton campaign believes its best approach is to court voters in those states with specific domestic policies that will benefit families.
During her stop in Lexington, Mrs. Clinton said that her administration would ensure that no family pays more than 10 percent of its income on child care costs, though she didn’t explain how much that proposal would cost or exactly how she would implement it.
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The plan is somewhat reminiscent of the Obama administration’s move to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of discretionary income — a policy implemented through federal regulation, not legislation.
Mrs. Clinton said she’ll institute a program providing funds to states and local governments that want to raise salaries for child care providers, and also proposed doubling the federal investment in home-visiting programs for pregnant women and new parents.
The proposals — part of a broader pitch that’s also focused on equal pay, a higher minimum wage and other, related issues — will form a cornerstone of Mrs. Clinton’s domestic platform as the general election campaign unfolds.
“What we’ve got to figure out is how to move our family policy into the 21st century and do more to help women and men … take care of their most important responsibilities,” she said. “I don’t think we can keep going on like this. We can’t just keep saying families just have to buckle down, tighten their belts and figure it out. I think belts are about as tight as they can get for the vast majority of families.”
As for her battle with Mr. Trump, it’s clear the billionaire is eager for a fight on women’s issues. He said last week he firmly believes he’d be better for women than would Mrs. Clinton, and he famously accused the former first lady of playing the “woman’s card” while claiming she wouldn’t even be a viable presidential contender if she were a man.
Polls show Mrs. Clinton has a massive advantage among female voters, but the Trump campaign has indicated it will argue its candidate’s vision is better for women. Trump campaign officials have specifically gone after arguably the two most prominent women in the Democratic Party — Mrs. Clinton and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — in recent days.
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“He’s not going to allow hypocrisy on the women’s issue. His business empire, he has put many women in leadership positions … He’s not anti-women,” Trump senior adviser Paul Manafort told Fox News earlier this week. “He’s not going to allow Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren to hide behind their sex to make cases that are just hypocritical.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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