Feb 14, 2021
Thinking Citizen Blog — The Romney Family Plan
Thinking Citizen Blog — Saturday is Justice, Freedom, Law, and Values Day
Today’s Topic: The Romney Family Plan — a good idea? would you vote for it or against it?
What should be done about child poverty? How do you reduce child poverty without discouraging work and increasing dependency? How do you do so without discouraging marriage? Do we need more babies or fewer? Today, a brief look at Romney’s recent child poverty reduction proposal. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE FAMILY SECURITY ACT — Basics
1. $350 a month for each young child (0–5 years), and $250 a month for each school-aged child (6–17); eliminates marriage penalties; benefits “reduced by $50 for every $1,000 above the current Child Tax Credit (CTC) income phaseout thresholds of $200,000 for single-filers and $400,000 for joint-filers.”
2. Rationale: “Establishing a firm national commitment to all of America’s families; Cutting child poverty by up to one-third in America; supporting families from pregnancy through childhood; Promoting marriage; Providing equal treatment for both working and stay-at-home parents; and Reforming and consolidating outmoded federal programs, including by fully paying for the new proposal.”
3. “Expecting parents will receive the benefit mid-pregnancy, helping them tackle the expenses that start on day one.”
NB: Funded by the elimination of overlapping and duplicative federal programs as well as “the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT), which is an inefficient tax break to upper-income taxpayers. However, most families that previously claimed the SALT deduction will still be net beneficiaries through their larger monthly child benefits.”
ROSS DOUTHAT, NEW YORK TIMES: thumbs up!
1. “The Romney subsidy phases out only at high incomes, so there’s no disincentive for a low-income parent to take a job.”
2. “America needs more babies.” And the Romney plan would help.
3. “The teen birthrate has plummeted to its lowest level in modern American history, and meanwhile the overall birthrate has plummeted as well, with Covid-19 delivering an extra fertility suppressant. (If the US had maintained its 2008 fertility rate, 5.8 million more children would exist today)”
OBJECTIONS FROM THE RIGHT AND THE LEFT
1. From the right: would turn the clock back from the welfare reform of the 1990s by reducing work incentives for the poor, encouraging dependency.
2. From the left: existing welfare programs should not be eliminated.
3. Note that while Romney’s plan has much in common with Biden’s plan to reduce child poverty, Romney has said he would vote against the Covid relief bill even if it included child poverty reduction provisions because the stimulus bill overall is just too expensive.
Opinion | Why the U.S. Needs the Romney Family Plan
https://www.romney.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/family%20security%20act_one%20pager.pdf
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YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to justice, freedom, the law or basic values. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to justice, freedom, the law, or basic values.Or just some random justice-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart.
