Bill Clinton: “Let me say, this is a huge issue. If you want to balance work and family in America, you have to have adequate family…”

“Let me say, this is a huge issue. If you want to balance work and family in America, you have to have adequate family leave laws, and then affordable quality child care. And given the fact that most parents work and the percentage will go up, one of the most significant issues we have to resolve as a people is how to make people successful at the same time at home and at work because if you have to choose between one or the other, the country's going to be badly hurt. We had a question earlier about an affordable tax cut. One of the things that I asked the Congress to do was to increase the tax credit for child care so that we could embrace more people. I've also asked the Congress to appropriate more money, because right now, we only serve with Federal subsidies about 10 percent of the working parents who are eligible for child care help. So the answer to your question is, we have--at the national level and at the State level, we ought to be doing more with both tax credits and with direct subsidies to child care centers to help lower income and middle income people who otherwise can't find affordable quality child care. It's a huge issue out there that I don't believe has gotten the attention it deserves yet. I hope this, too, we'll make progress on, both next year in Congress and in the Presidential election. I'd like to see it heavily debated. [The discussion continued.] On-Line Townhall Meeting”