America’s child-care crisis isn’t over. Democrats need to revive the care-economy agenda.

Follow this authorHeather Long's opinions

Remember the care-economy plan? Biden campaigned on it in 2020 and included it in his Build Back Better agenda. It was going to be a big investment in affordable child care, free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds in America, and an expansion of home health aides to care for the elderly. These initiatives would have touched tens of millions of households — and would have tangibly lowered costs for families. But they weren’t going to be cheap.

In 2022, Biden had to choose: Should he invest in reviving U.S. manufacturing and fighting climate change — the “manly stuff,” as one administration staffer described it to me? Or was it the moment to transform the care economy — the “womanly stuff”? The price tag was about $5 trillion for everything the president wanted to do, and that was too high to pass the Senate. In the end, Biden and Senate Democrats went with infrastructure, semiconductors and clean energy.

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That might have been the wrong choice. And Biden might be making the same mistake again this year by not campaigning on his plan to address kitchen-table economics. Lowering child-care costs should be a prominent message.

Industrial policy takes years — even decades — to bring major benefits. Yes, Biden’s investments have prompted a manufacturing investment boom, visible in places such as Phoenix and Columbus, Ohio. But in an economy with 168 million workers, the nationwide impact has so far been modest.

Meanwhile, America’s child-care crisis has been evident to everyone since the pandemic. When schools and day-care centers were closed, parents couldn’t work. The case for action was clear: Young children would benefit from quality child-care and pre-K programs. And parents, especially moms, could join the labor force. This is a proven model. Other nations that have made big investments in child care, such as Japan and Canada, have seen a substantial boost in the number of women in the workforce.

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But Biden didn’t make his investment in the care economy. Many blame Sen. Joe Manchin III, the West Virginia Democrat who, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), insisted on lowering costs in the final bill. The for-profit child-care industry might........

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