(EXCERPT)

The proposals Trump touted in his speech will not do much of anything to reduce our country’s extreme economic divides. As Pronita Gupta, Director of Job Quality at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), points out, the Advancing Support for Working Families Act Trump supports “is not paid family and medical leave — it is essentially a payday loan. It offers a loan to new parents, which would have to be repaid over 10 to 15 years through reductions to their Child Tax Credit—a critical cash support for families working in low-wage jobs.”

This repayment would place a big burden on parents in low-wage jobs, Gupta explains, “especially parents of color, who already contend with serious economic struggles in what is a formative time for their children’s development.”