NYT podcast host says it’s ‘ironic’ Rubio is against childcare allowance

New York Times podcast host Jane Coaston said Wednesday that it is “ironic” that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is against Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) proposal for childcare allowance.

Coaston, host of the podcast “The Argument,” discussed what appears to be an ideological rift in the GOP, telling Hill.TV’s “Rising” that certain “weathervane” politicians may be indicating the direction of the Republican Party. 

Romney released a proposal earlier this month that would provide monthly payments for families with children. Under Romney’s proposal, the existing child tax credit would be replaced with monthly payments of $350 for children ages 5 and under and $250 for children ages 6 to 17. Families would be capped at monthly payments of $1,250.

The proposal has met resistance from some Republican lawmakers. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) released a statement denouncing Romney’s proposed child allowance.

“It really does sound like 1996 all over again,” Coaston said. “Which is an ironic place to be after four years of an idea of a working class populism happening on the right, in part led by Marco Rubio.”

“Part of the argument — and I find this so interesting — is this idea, and we saw this in a couple of other conservative think tanks saying that, well, if single mothers receive cash payments, they may not work as much. Which to me, is part of the point,” Coaston said.

Coaston argued that lawmakers who claim to be working on behalf of healthy families would want parents to spend more time with their children and less time at work, which the child allowance could facilitate.

“I know that occasionally in our society we fetishize the idea of working three jobs or walking 12 miles to get to your workplace, but that’s not good,” Coaston continued. “And there was a brief point where we had the left and some people on the right, the populist right, agreed on this point or seemingly agreed on this point.”