Brown: Trump’s child care funding freeze harms working people. Is anyone surprised?

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Any working person who has tried to line up child care in recent years knows how difficult — and expensive — this can be. In fact, parents and providers alike rightly call the situation a crisis.

Last March, I wrote about how child care costs were rising even though workers and facilities alike were making very little money. Back then, I was merely worried about costs. Oh, what a sweet summer child I was.

Today, child care facilities in Minnesota wonder whether they can stay open if a Dec. 31 freeze to federal child care assistance continues. County governments I contacted are currently unable to give guidance to applicants about the availability of funds.

Indeed, the Trump administration made its announcement ostensibly to implement fraud protections but has not yet finalized its plan or considered the potential impact of the decision. This won’t just affect what parents pay; it means parents might not have access to child care at all.

Now, about fraud. It’s simple. Fraudsters should be prosecuted and systems should be improved. Mistakes merit correction, not destruction.

The administration’s unclear approach will make things much worse. Sending armed federal agents into Minnesota to “root out” the fraud, with unclear purpose and no information for the public, is pure political theater at best. In the last week, Minnesota has already seen the worst, as needless death and trauma punctuate ineffectual policy.

Let’s look at how this approach affects the child care crisis.

Businesses need employees? The problem gets worse.

Families need to pay for housing, food and insurance? The problem gets worse.

Students returning to college after semester break? They don’t know if they’ll finish school if no one can watch their kids. That will keep them out of the workforce even longer, costing everyone more in the long run.

It’s clear that this discussion is not limited to child care assistance. The bug-eyed shrieking of online partisans amplifies anger to fulfill much darker motives. A perpetual political campaign, utterly detached from elections, has degenerated into a brazen attempt to seize and consolidate power.

The Trump administration is built largely on a foundation of grievance. It has shown a capacity to punish, but no ability to fix anything. Furthermore, it’s difficult to take lectures on fraud from a president whose net worth almost doubled since taking office less than a year ago.

I know hating the government is popular, even bipartisan, but once we end state and federal programs to help working people, there will be nothing to take their place. Fantasies of tax cuts somehow filling the gap overlook the fact that the people who need the help will receive the least. The money is flowing up. The hardship is flowing down.

A symbolic funding delay might not seem like much to some. But for parents, it means losing income just as living expenses are increasing.

Child care providers risk literal bankruptcy. If parents can’t pay their bills, and providers can’t pay their workers (or themselves), the entire business model collapses. Child care centers already run incredibly tight margins, with nearly all revenue going into payroll and food for the children.

We are rightly offended by fraud because it deprives taxpayers of the necessary services they deserve. But the existence of bad actors requires improved safeguards and focused prosecutions, not spiteful disruption of our entire economy.