Millennials Eclipse Boomers & Push New Policies

Cast your mind back to November 2017. Senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio were pushing for a slight amendment to the forthcoming Donald Trump tax cuts. Instead of reducing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, their amendment would reduce it to 22 percent and seriously expand the child tax credit. Twenty Republicans and nine Democrats in the Senate voted for it. But Trump wanted his number and got it.

And yet, the desire to do something to make family formation a little easier is everywhere. In recent months, Republican Mitt Romney proposed a federal child allowance that would be the first major expansion of the welfare state since the 1960s. Lee and Rubio have proposed more dramatic expansions of the child tax credit. Senator Josh Hawley has proposed a “Parent Tax Benefit” that would give aid to single mothers but also provide a serious marriage bonus to cohabiting couples that got hitched. The intellectual Right is full of proposals for expanded support for parents and their young children. The Biden administration wants to provide direct monthly checks to families.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

Cast your mind back to November 2017. Senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio were pushing for a slight amendment to the forthcoming Donald Trump tax cuts. Instead of reducing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, their amendment would reduce it to 22 percent and seriously expand the child tax credit. Twenty Republicans and nine Democrats in the Senate voted for it. But Trump wanted his number and got it.

And yet, the desire to do something to make family formation a little easier is everywhere. In recent months, Republican Mitt Romney proposed a federal child allowance that would be the first major expansion of the welfare state since the 1960s. Lee and Rubio have proposed more dramatic expansions of the child tax credit. Senator Josh Hawley has proposed a “Parent Tax Benefit” that would give aid to single mothers but also provide a serious marriage bonus to cohabiting couples that got hitched. The intellectual Right is full of proposals for expanded support for parents and their young children. The Biden administration wants to provide direct monthly checks to families.