The Dictatorship

The high cost of motherhood leaves many women deciding against it

Published

1 month ago

May 11, 2026

May. 10, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

As Americans around the country celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, parents in the United States, particularly mothers, are facing an unprecedented affordability crisis. A glaring sign of that crisis is revealed in statistics showing that Generation Z and millennial womenare regularly delaying parenthood, having fewer children or not becoming parents at all. The data shows that many of these women want families but find the costs of housing childcare groceries, healthcare, utilitiesand more make parenting unaffordable.

People feel worse off financially now than they have at any point in the past 25 years. Those feelings are rooted in fact. The same basic pillars of living — housing, healthcare, food, transportation, childcare, utilities — now consume so much of a household budget that a typical family needs to earn $145,000 a year to make ends meet.

A pound of hamburger now costs more than people earn for an hour of work at the federal minimum wage.

A pound of hamburger now costs morethan people earn in an hour at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Gas prices (and car prices) are going up steeply. Groceries are up. Healthcare costs are rising steeply, and millions are being pushed off healthcare altogether as premiums rise. And for those who are taking care of older parents or family, paying for dignified aging and disability care is also mind-bogglingly expensive.

And that’s before we even really start talking about the costs in money and time that come with raising kids.

No amount of juggling, balancing, flowers, calendar maintenance, self-care moments, wine, chocolate or walks can fix the chain of dominoes that currently start disastrously falling the moment a person becomes a mom.

For the households that need the wages of moms to survive, and that’s most of them, paid childcare is essential. But the cost of childcarenow exceeds the price of public college in most states, and childcare is more than rent in 17 states. Affordability isn’t the only crisis in childcare: 51% of people live in a childcare desertmeaning there aren’t enough facilities that people can afford. Plus, childcare workers are some of the lowest-paid workers in the country and often are pushed out of their profession due to low pay. Even so, President Donald Trump has been targeting deep cuts for Head Start and other essential childcare programs that are proven to boost families and the economy overall. These cuts ripple out in the economy in destructive ways. The childcare crisis is estimated to cost our nation $172 billion per year.

Infant childcare is among the most expensive kindother, and that cost is amplified because the U.S. is one of only six nations in the world that doesn’t have some form of national paid family and medical leave. This means that when a new baby arrives, moms often have to go back to work before they are healed or have time to bond with the new baby. A quarter of moms in the U.S. return to work within two weeks of giving birth. In this mix, many moms are pushed out of their jobs entirely. This, too, is costly. Families lose $34 billion per year due to lack of access to paid family and medical leave.

A quarter of moms in the U.S. return to work within two weeks of giving birth.

For those moms who somehow make it work at work, it’s still not fair: Moms overall are paid just 74 cents for every dollar paid to full-time dads, Black moms are paid just 56 centsand Latina moms just 51 cents for every dollar a full-time non-Hispanic white father makes. This is part of deep and enduring wage and hiring discriminationagainst moms. One studyfound that if presented with equivalent resumes, hiring managers hired non-moms 84% of the time, but moms just 47% of the time. Women raising children were also offered significantly lower starting salaries, while dads got a wage increase. This hurts everyone: According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the nation’s gross domestic product would go up almost 3% if there were pay parity.

The human costs are immense, too. Between 2016 and 2023, mothers reported a nearly 65% increase of “fair to poor” mental health.

This crisis has been building for years, driven in part by Republican leaders consistently blocking widely popular legislation like the Child Care for Working Families Act and the Child Care for Every Community Act. GOP leaders have also refused to advance the Family Act (paid family and medical leave) and have repeatedly cut healthcare and food affordability programs, including SNAP and WIC. Since Trump’s second term began, MAGA policies have further dismantled the already fragile systems families rely on to work and raise kids. These leaders have redirected funds from essential services into tax cuts for billionaires, out-of-control immigration enforcement and reckless wars, an effort that again is raising energy costs and driving inflation, which hits families hardest.

Pro-ballroom Republicans have cut $911 billionfrom Medicaid and $200 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over 10 years. They have also frozen more than $10 billionin childcare funds. On top of that, the president’s budget for fiscal 2027 proposes to cut $4 billion from utilities support and $27 billionfrom housing, among many additional cuts.

That’s at least $1.1 trillion less (with even more cuts lined up) for family economic security. Period.

Trump has said it clearly with his budgets and his words. His priority is reckless wars, not families: “We’re fighting wars, we can’t take care of daycare,” he said recently.

This paints moms and people who want to be parents into a corner, with nowhere to turn.

President Trump has said it clearly with his budgets and his words. His priority is reckless wars, not families.

We know what the problems are, and we have real, tested solutions that work — and strong bipartisan support from voters in poll after poll: childcare and eldercare, paid family and medical leaveand healthcare. Enacting these care-infrastructure policies doesn’t just open avenues for people to be able to have children and succeed, it also helps narrow the motherhood wage gapsand boost the economy, too.

But unless Republicans finally join Democrats in pushing for real action at the federal level, we will see more moms in crisis, fewer people able to afford to have children and, on Mother’s Day in the future, fewer moms to celebrate.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner is the executive director of MomsRising, an advocacy organization for moms and families with a cumulative membership of 3.7 million that focuses on policies that expand access to child care, health care, paid family/medical leave, maternal health, and economic opportunity.

The Dictatorship

Court denies request to immediately block DOJ ‘slush fund’

Published

6 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Court denies request to immediately block DOJ ‘slush fund’

Jun. 10, 2026, 6:14 PM EDT

A federal judge in Washington has denied a bid Wednesday brought by a watchdog group to immediately block the Justice Department’s “anti-weaponization” fund, for now choosing to trust the department’s assertions that it is not moving forward with the fund.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled immediately, denying Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked the Department of Justice from taking steps to create the fund.

Throughout the 30-minute hearing, the DOJ reiterated that the administration was not moving forward with the nearly $1.8 billion fund, which seeks to compensate individuals who allege they have been politically targeted or victimized by the DOJ.

Andrew Block, the only lawyer present for the government, repeatedly cited Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s June 2 congressional testimonyin which he said the administration was “not moving forward” with plans to create the fund.

Leon indicated he agreed with the DOJ’s position that the case appeared to be moot, saying he was not persuaded there was an issue for the court to decide regarding the creation of the fund. He issued a stern warning to the DOJ, saying, “Don’t play possum with this court!” — meaning he does not want to be deceived.

The plaintiffs argued Blanche’s testimony did not amount to an official cancellation. Nikhel Sus, CREW’s attorney, said Blanche “refused to memorialize that rescission,” or in other words, put it in writing. Sus said that was “highly unusual.” Leon responded, “This whole case is highly unusual to say the least.”

Leon asked the government twice why they would not just rescind the order that established the fund. Block responded, “I don’t know,” and pointed again to Blanche’s public statements about the fund’s future.

Both Leon and Sus raised the issue of Trump’s continued public defense of the fund. “It can still be an important issue and also not moving forward,” Block said. “That isn’t a direction to move forward with the fund.”

Although Leon rejected CREW’s bid for an immediate block, he indicated he is still considering its request for a longer-term block against the fund.

A block order from a separate federal judge in Virginia remains in effect until at least Friday.

Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.

The Dictatorship

Trump is accelerating our Social Security insolvency crisis

Published

6 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jun. 10, 2026, 5:50 PM EDT

The date when Social Security’s trust fund is expected to run out of money just got bumped up. The fund is now projected to empty in 2032according to a new report released by Social Security’s trustees.

The new depletion date isn’t an earth-shaking change — it’s only a quarter earlier than the estimate in last year’s report. But it illustrates how President Donald Trump’s policies are degrading a program he promised to never jeopardize — and accelerating an approaching crisis in how our government will assist the elderly and disabled.

The report names three factors that contributed to the earlier insolvency date. One is a declining fertility rate, but the other two drivers can be traced back to Trump: a drop in immigration into the country, and the “substantial effect” of the tax policies in the One Big Beautiful Bill he signed last summer.

Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities.

Reduced immigration during Trump’s second term — especially when coupled with a declining fertility rate — strains Social Security because the program is funded through payroll taxes. Those come out of people’s paychecks, and fewer workers supporting an aging population means the program receives less revenue. Indeed, Social Security already has been tapping its trust fund for the better part of the past two decades because the program’s costs have exceeded its cash income. And as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out last yearlast year’s tax cuts were a boon to the rich but a bust for the solvency of the Social Security trust fund.

To be clear, if the fund is depleted, Social Security won’t go belly up. Benefits will continue to be paid out, but there will be a large drop in the amount. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the “average monthly cut would total $500, which is more than what the average retired household spends on groceries each month.”

That would be a huge blow to the budgets of many older Americans. Social Security is a major source of income for most retirees, and roughly 40% of beneficiaries over the age of 65 rely on it for most of their income. And it would mark the destabilization of the sole source of retirement security for most Americans that is supposed to be insulated from ups and downs — unlike 401K plans. As the CBPP has pointed outSocial Security is “most workers’ only source of guaranteed retirement income that is not subject to investment risk or financial market fluctuations.”

Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities. His cuts to the Social Security Administration have left offices understaffedincreased wait timesand reduced quality of customer service.

Ultimately, Trump is exacerbating a colossal social safety net problem that predates him, and the trust fund will hit dire straits after he has left office. Democrats need to have clear plans for shoring up the program and making it robust for the future — which will require not being sheepish about taxes as a tool for renewing the social contract. And when Republicans try to claim that they, too, are champions of Social Security, all Democrats need to do is point to the truth.

Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.

The Dictatorship

Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 6.10.26

Published

6 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The latest from Northern Ireland: “The family of a man who lost an eye in a knife attack appealed for calm on Wednesday after the incident triggered a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Belfast overnight, with masked men burning families out of their homes and torching vehicles. The appeal ‌came as a Sudanese man appeared in court charged with attempted murder and as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and politicians in Northern Ireland condemned the violence by ‘masked thugs’ that had targeted ethnic minorities.”

* In related news: “The British government hit out at X owner Elon Musk Wednesday, accusing him of whipping up tensions online ahead of disorder in Belfast.”

* The tenuous state of a dubious ceasefire: “Trump said the U.S. is going to hit Iran ‘hard’ today when pressed by reporters in the Oval Office about his statement earlier that Tehran will ‘pay the price’ for taking ‘too long’ to reach a peace agreement. ‘Well, we’re going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard, resuming bombing,’ he said.”

* The latest casualty figures from Lebanon: “Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon has killed at least 3,666 people, including 131 healthcare workers, and injured more than 11,300 since the U.S. and Israel began their war with Iran in late February, the Lebanese health ministry reported yesterday.”

* The changing nature of modern warfare: “Ukraine is wreaking havoc on unarmored trucks and trains in the battlefield’s rear, using drones with upgraded engines and batteries, integrated Starlink communication systems and new artificial-intelligence capabilities. The ramped-up attacks are causing fuel shortages, complicating troop rotations and reducing Russian military activity on the front.”

* This seems like a reasonable request: “Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee demanded Wednesday that Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for acting director of national intelligence, submit to a full security check before assuming the post, including an examination of his financial holdings and foreign contacts.”

* Some market trends can’t be stopped despite the White House’s best efforts: “Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power. Data released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said.”

* A bizarre schedule for a nonemergency vanity project: “Federal officials are laying more groundwork to begin construction on President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, sharing additional documents that detail the project’s scope and an aggressive timetable for potentially completing work before Trump’s term ends. According to National Park Service documents posted this month, the administration envisions 20 hours per day of construction on the arch, year-round, in hopes of completing the project within two to three years.”

See you tomorrow.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”