January 17, 2022
What’s Behind New Proposals to Help the American Family?
Democrats and Republicans both seem to think that the family needs help. But they don't agree on what a family is, or what government support would aim to accomplish.
In recent years, discussions of “family policy” have picked up steam across the political spectrum. On the left, the Democrat-sponsored Build Back Better Act promises subsidized childcare, free universal pre-school services, and an expanded child tax credit, among other things. The Republican senator Mitt Romney of Utah, meanwhile, has proposed a straightforward, monthly cash stipend for families through his Family Security Act. Debates over how best to deliver benefits, and to whom, have frequented the op-ed pages of major newspapers for months.
It’s not hard to see why. The family is perhaps the most important institution in society, and it is the nursery of not only civic belonging but also of religious identity. Leaders on the right and left appear to agree that it is in distress, and that the pandemic has only made it harder for families to thrive. But in order to craft effective laws, policymakers must get clear about what they are trying to accomplish—and what a family actually is. In doing so, they should keep in mind the formative function of law and the contrasting visions animating different types of family policies. They should also look to the past to discern what has worked—and what hasn’t—as we try to strengthen America’s families.
Some on the right want family policies that incentivize marriage and parenthood. In May 2021, The American Conservative published an interview with Katalin Novák, Hungary’s minister for families (and now a presidential candidate). Hungarian mothers can receive reductions in, or total relief from, student loans; women with at least four children are exempt from personal-income tax; newly married couples can get interest-free loans of up to roughly $30,000 and are also eligible for total loan forgiveness following the birth of a third child. In these and other ways (including offering up to several years of financial support for parents, a home-building subsidy, and free or discounted summer camps), Hungary is using the government to promote families with two married parents and, ideally, more than two children.