Sen. Ron Johnson suggests mothers on public assistance should staff child care centers

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MADISON – U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson on Tuesday suggested mothers receiving public assistance should help other mothers by staffing the child care centers attending to their children.

The Republican incumbent made the comment at a telephone town hall meeting, repeating a similar statement he made in 2016, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

Wisconsin law prohibits state subsidy payments from going to a certified child care provider where an employee’s child receives care. The law restricting eligible recipients of child care subsidies was enacted after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2009 discovered daycare providers collecting subsidies while watching other each other’s children.

“When you have mothers on different kinds of public assistance, to me, an elegant solution would be, why don’t we have them help staff child care for other mothers?” Johnson said, calling it an “imaginative solution” to staffing shortages at child care centers across the country.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/16/ron-johnson-suggests-mothers-welfare-should-staff-child-care-centers/7064382001/

[dchill]

1. Johnson should be concerned about child care centers...

...in Ukraine.

[milestogo]

2. He's a Putin lover

He supports anything Russia does.

[dchill]

3. Well, I did say "should."

But when has that ever happened?

[milestogo]

4. From Vanity Fair...

Something you may have picked up on during the decade-plus that he’s been in office is that Senator Ron Johnson is a dangerous moron. Early in his career, he claimed in an interview that members of ISIS could be purposely infecting themselves with Ebola and then coming to the United States to spread it.

The following year, he introduced legislation “directing the federal government to prepare to protect critical infrastructure against threats of electromagnetic pulse…and geomagnetic disturbances,” a favorite conspiracy theory of the far right. On climate change, he’s said the scientific consensus is “bullshit,” that experts who attribute the crisis to manmade causes are “crazy,” that excess carbon dioxide is good for the environment, and that Greenland got its name because it was originally green.

He is a leading purveyor of misinformation about the 2020 election and COVID-19, claiming, in the case of the former, that the deadly insurrection was largely a “peaceful protest.” On the latter, he pushed ivermectin—a horse dewormer—as a treatment, falsely insisted the vaccines were dangerous, and said mouthwash could kill the virus. So when Johnson opened his mouth this week to discuss an idea he’s apparently been knocking around re: government assistance and childcare, it wasn’t exactly surprising that the words that came out were those of a big-time idiot.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/ron-johnson-mothers-childcare

[Enter stage left]

5. Sen Ron Johnson should be staffing a mental health center in any town in Wisconsin...

or more likely, be a patient.

[secondwind]

6. They do this in Holland, and probably other countries.

[childfreebychoice]

8. Good idea. Nt

[DanieRains]

7. I Have Said The Exact Same Thing Paying People To Stay Home When There Is A Need For Childcare

Doesn't make sense.

My idea was to turn the schools into daycare centers with constructive learning and activities. People that work can take their kids to school / affordable daycare.

[DanieRains]

9. Mothers Can Work Get Paid To Work Watch Their Kids And Other's Kids

Instead of simply staying home and having baby after baby.

[peacefreak2.0]

10. Wow! Talk about stereotyping.

Are they all driving their Caddies to the grocery store to buy filet mignon? This is a worn out trope that is insulting to women.

[eShirl]

11. and the fathers?

[obamanut2012]

19. Notice the poster isn't answering that

A woman can only have one baby within a calendar year (unless she has twins, etc.), but a man can impregnate several women a week, but yet it's only the "deadbeat moms" who folks want to work for free, be punished in some way like this, etc. How about the fathers?

AS per what the poster wrote, men get a pass, because they don't want to stay home and keep having babies (wtf).

[obamanut2012]

20. Why did you answer yourself?

[obamanut2012]

12. Lolz

[meadowlander]

15. So why not just create better paying childcare jobs that are actual jobs for people that want them?

How does forcing mothers on assistance to take care of five other kids all day work for women who are on assistance because of substance abuse, mental health issues, intellectual disabilities or other complex social problems?

Having one kid doesn't really qualify someone to be a childcare worker and women who want better paying work or something better aligned to their interests and talents wouldn't be able to job search or go to interviews because they would be chasing rug rats all day.

[dsc]

16. It already costs more than private college to have a child in day care

I am not sure how parents could afford day care if the staff were making generous salaries. Barring the government at least heavily subsidizing day care it seems impossible.

[snowybirdie]

13. Anyone considered

That randomly forcing welfare recipients to take care of children in daycare isn't considering if they are able or competent to care for young children. I would want that before leaving my baby or child in such a facility.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Similar idea to proposal Rudy Giuliani made as NYC Mayor.

Take people on welfare and have them rake, clean up, etc. city parks to continue to be on the program.

Oh, and fire the UNION civil employees who were doing those tasks.

[Samrob]

17. Some pieces of this idea are good. Others, not so much. I think of a better solution.

I am retired now but when I and my spouse both worked and were raising a family our childcare was a retired neighbor who took care of two other neighborhood children plus mine. She was around 65 and became a third grandparent to the children she cared for, all three were pre-day care. Ages ranged from 6 months to 4 yrs. She was wonderful. Tended to the children as though they were her own grands. She taught the 18-month and 4 yr-old basic letters and numbers and started them both to read. She cared for all three until they became of kindergarten age. They grew to love her as a grandparent and were more bonded to her than all of us parents. We could drop off and pick up the children as needed. She charged half to a quarter as much as licensed day care and when we had financial emergencies she would accept late payments.

Sure, this was off the book income that supplemented her Social Security pittance but many retirees were supplementing incomes back in the sixties.

There are many retirees today who are mentally and physically fit who care for their own grandchildren and practically raise them and home school them until school-age. I believe our own government (state, local, or Federal) could devise a system where the elders who were deemed to be physically and mentally fit could provide those services while supplementing their retirement incomes to the limits allowed. Those who would want to, instead of visiting their own Senior Center every day for something to do, could perform quality time for themselves and the children by working at a well devised and monitored Day Care facility in centers within communities.
With retired care givers, the care hours could extend into the later evening hours or even overnight for mothers working night jobs.
If I had the funds to open and run that type of facility I would. Back in the 60's a place called "Tumble Inn" took care of my two girls until 9 PM while I finished my Masters degree courses at night. Just a thought.

[obamanut2012]

18. Dumbest -- and one of the most misogynist -- ideas ever

What an asshole.

[TheFarseer]

21. This is almost a good idea

Moms on public assistance could get a free (government funded) training course and work at a daycare center. Not saying anyone should be forced to but if they want to try this as a job, we should try to facilitate that.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

22. Instead, have the fathers of those babies staff the child care centers.

After all, they are the ones 100% responsible for those children.

[gratuitous]

23. Those mothers are already doing important work

Let's get those idlers who aren't otherwise of any use to society staff child care centers. Having said that, though, I don't know if any Republican Senators would be able to pass a criminal background check.