How Elizabeth Warren's Universal Child Care Plan Works

Whether or not she's an early favorite to come out of her party's loaded 2020 field, Elizabeth Warren is no doubt setting the pace among Democratic hopefuls.

Warren detailed her second major policy outline Tuesday, one that would provide universal child care for children who aren't old enough for school. Under Warren's Universal Child Care and Early Learning proposal, families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level wouldn't pay for child care. People who earn more will pay more, but no household will pay more than seven percent of their income, severely lowering current costs.

The federal government would partner with local providers - such as nonprofits, school districts, churches and cities - to create a child care network that would provide the option for in-home and locally licensed care, as well as preschools centers.

The program is a "big, structural change" Warren said. It would be funded in part by her first major policy outline, an Ultra-Millionaire Tax that would target people with a net worth of at least $50 million, hitting them for 2 percent and tapping billionaires 3 percent. That tax would cover the cost of her child care plan four times over in the next 10 years, Warren said.

"In the wealthiest country on the planet, access to affordable and high-quality child care and early education should be a right, not a privilege reserved for the rich," Warren said on a Tuesday morning post on Medium detailing her own struggles finding and affording child care as a young professional.

The average cost of infant care in Warren's home state of Massachusetts is $17,062 for a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That's nearly 20 percent of a typical family's income and is second only to Washington D.C. The EPI says a family with an infant and 4-year-old could see costs of nearly $30,000 a year - far greater than rent in most cases.

Warren, a frequent sparring partner of President Trump, was the first big name to enter the 2020 field. Though she has been under fire for her handling of how much of her heritage is Native American, she has changed the conversation at the forefront of the Democratic field by hitting early and often with major proposals.

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