Parents pay a disproportionate share of the tax burden even as they bear most of the cost of the most important investment that Americans make. That’s why conservatives have long championed a tax credit for children. The Republican Contract with America of 1994 promised to create that credit, and President George W. Bush later expanded it.
But it is still much too small. Parents pay twice to fund Social Security and Medicare: once in their payroll taxes and once in the financial sacrifices they make to raise the next generation of workers. Directly cutting taxes for parents is a way of offsetting this anti-parent bias and recognizing the contribution parents make to our fiscal future.
We commend Senator Mike Lee for leading on pro-family tax reform.
Mona Charen
Matthew Continetti
Ross Douthat
Robert P. George
William Kristol
Jonathan Last
Yuval Levin
Kate O’Beirne
Ramesh Ponnuru
Ralph Reed
Robert Stein
Michael Strain
Reihan Salam
Vin Weber
W. Bradford Wilcox