Skirmishing over Families

Now Is the time when planks are hammered into platforms, and this year the Republicans would like to nail down some home truths about families: Intact ones are crucial to economic growth, indeed to economic health; low-income families in particular have been hurt by the inflation-eroded value of the personal income-tax exemption ($600 in 1948, $1,000 today); and large families and a growing population, far from being a drain on an economy, are its salvation.

There will be a politico-media skirmish over any attempt to help families by lowering their tax burdens, with the following line-up: Some Republicans (Representatives Trent Lott and Jack Kemp and Senator Bob Kasten, all members of the GOP Platform Committee) will try to force into the Republican platform a plank calling for an increased exemption for dependents. Democrats, expressing “concern” about the deficit, will advocate higher taxes on upper-income groups (which lower-income earners one day hope to join, of course). But they will avoid all reference to families. Homosexuals will receive more attention.

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Tom Bethell

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Now Is the time when planks are hammered into platforms, and this year the Republicans would like to nail down some home truths about families: Intact ones are crucial to economic growth, indeed to economic health; low-income families in particular have been hurt by the inflation-eroded value of the personal income-tax exemption ($600 in 1948, $1,000 today); and large families and a growing population, far from being a drain on an economy, are its salvation.

There will be a politico-media skirmish over any attempt to help families by lowering their tax burdens, with the following line-up: Some Republicans (Representatives Trent Lott and Jack Kemp and Senator Bob Kasten, all members of the GOP Platform Committee) will try to force into the Republican platform a plank calling for an increased exemption for dependents. Democrats, expressing “concern” about the deficit, will advocate higher taxes on upper-income groups (which lower-income earners one day hope to join, of course). But they will avoid all reference to families. Homosexuals will receive more attention.