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Affording child care and health care remain among the top concerns for most families in the region.
David McCormick, former under secretary of the Department of the Treasury and combat veteran, who is running for the U.S. Senate this year, touted his proposals for family-friendly policies.
"Doubling the child tax credit – it's a $1,000 – make it $2,000 per child," he said. "I had a child care savings account, which you could save up $10,000 tax-free ... I really think this is the most important thing we can do: I learned as a CEO – I was the CEO of two companies and my last company I put in place a policy where the company paid for IVF or fertility treatment."
He noted that balancing careers with family planning often leaves women postponing having children, making fertility treatment integral.
"It's incredibly expensive," McCormick acknowledged. "People that ... are living paycheck to paycheck, or just don't have a lot of discretionary income, they can't afford to have IVF, therefore they can't afford to have kids."
"I think everyone that wants to have children, that is going to commit themselves to being good parents should have the opportunity to have the joy of parenthood," he said. "I think its critical to the future of our country."
McCormick supports making money earmarked by families for IVF tax-exempt.
While McCormick says the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has "failed," he also said he believes lawmakers should focus on correcting or improving the law rather than repealing it.
"Its primary goal as said by President Obama at the time, and Senator Casey voted for it, was it was going to reduce costs and enhance access and it said you weren't going to have to change your doctor," McCormick said. "It certainly failed on the first one and the third one."
He cited competition as the key factor in reforming health care.
"You're going to drive down price, and increase quality," he said. "The Affordable Care Act didn't do enough of that."
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who is running for reelection, says child care efforts need to go beyond the existing programs in place.
"I think it's an issue that the federal government in a substantial way really hasn't wrestled with, or had not wrestled with until 2021 and 2022," Casey said of child care. "I was directly involved in trying to urge members of the Senate to embrace new investments in quality affordable child care as well as pre-kindergarten education. So I think the federal government can play a role here that is substantial."
Casey centered in on the tax code as a way to augment the affordability of child care.
"You can't give away the store to billionaires and invest in child care," Casey said. "You can't have a corporate tax break that costs $2 trillion and expect to invest in children."
"One of the ways to invest in children so they learn more now and earn more later – that's literally the truth, not just a rhyme, if they learn more when they're young they are going to earn more and have a better job in the future – one of the ways to do that is to make sure we have quality affordable child care," he added.
Casey said the Affordable Care Act's exchanges are a key part of delivering affordable health care, and that legislators need to prioritize subsidies for plans on those exchanges, along with monitoring the costs of co-pays and deductibles.
"Sometimes, even if someone can afford a premium – sometimes that's the problem, but even if that's not the problem – the deductibles and the co-pays are high," he said.