When Barack Obama and the Democrats were selling ObamaCare to Americans, they argued that it was needed for combatting the rising cost of health care. Obama made the dubious claim (read: BIG lie) that the average family would save $2,500 a year in health care costs. Conservatives argued that this unprecedented expansion of government would only lead to greater costs and loss of individual freedoms. Today health care costs are not decreasing but increasing. Obama has walked back from his promise of $2,500 a year in savings, and Americans are facing the specter of single-payer universal health care. Just another lesson in government solutions that are worse than the problem.

With that backdrop, and with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton currently running neck-and-neck in the polls, both candidates are seeking leverage against the other. One issue that each has recently addressed is the rising costs of child day-care services. Both campaigns have made it clear that they want to lower these costs and increase the time for maternity leave. Trump’s plan is primarily based on tax incentives and reducing government waste. Hillary’s, which would seek to almost double maternity leave time from six weeks to 12 weeks, would become a significant cost to taxpayers. Just look at ObamaCare.

What people with children need is not government subsidies but rather greater economic means. The best way to alleviate the growing cost of child care is not through more government involvement but through a strong economy, where people can more easily afford needed child care. Time and again, free-market capitalism has proven to be more cost efficient and innovative than government bureaucracy. It will be proven so once again if the government is allowed to “reform” the child-care industry.