This doesn't lower the costs, it just causes all taxpayers, including childfree adults, families with a stay at home parent, and families with older children, t

This doesn't lower the costs, it just causes all taxpayers, including childfree adults, families with a stay at home parent, and families with older children, to subsidize the cost of childcare for those families where all adults are working full time. You could even hypothesize that this extra tax burden ends up being enough to force some stay at home parents get a job and put their children in childcare, creating a vicious cycle. That's not obviously bad, but we should talk clear eyed about whether that's the right social contract to enter.