White House proposes giving out $5,000 checks to address falling birthrates amid growing ‘pronatalist’ movement
One of Donald Trump’s priorities for his second term is getting Americans to have more babies – and the White House has a new proposal to encourage them to do so: a $5,000 “baby bonus”.
The plan to give cash payments to mothers after delivery shows the growing influence of the “pronatalist” movement in the US, which, citing falling US birthrates, calls for “traditional” family values and for women – particularly white women – to have more children.
But experts say $5,000 checks won’t lead to a baby boom. Between unaffordable health care, soaring housing costs, inaccessible childcare and a lack of federal parental leave mandates, Americans face a swath of expensive hurdles that disincentivize them from having large families – or families at all – and that will require a much larger government investment to overcome.
Build massive amounts of new housing. Give people paid parental leave, and universal healthcare. Guaranteed baby boom.
There is no housing shortage, just an abundance of greed. There are 14,000,000 empty homes in the USA and most are owned by corporations who hold them as part of a financial portfolio or hedge funds. Ban corporations from owning residential properties and the housing shortage will vanish without cutting down more trees and burning more fossil fuels.
$5k a month, right? Right?
Or they could just forgive the student loans haha, they are so stupid.
Literally cost us $11k in medical bills to have a baby. That doesn’t include the cost of actually maintaining it either. $5k is a JOKE
Why can’t countries understand quality of life leads to more of those productive babies they really want
None of the developed countries have a replacement birth rate. Higher quality of life has lead to lower birth rate in all cases.
because that requires the people in charge facing hard truths about their own lifestyles.
I read that as “baby room” and still was not surprised.
Would that even cover the hospital delivery bill?
Not in the USA
That wouldn’t even cover an ambulance ride to the hospital
5k is better than nothing of course but not really enough with all the fees and costs associated. Especially the initial costs that you get from hospitals. Maybe regulate those?
Australia tried this approach already - https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-baby-bonus-generation-is-starting-to-turn-18-has-it-saved-australia-s-population-20220624-p5awfg.html
I’m not American. I thought “$5k/month for sure”. Lol.
Most of these kids watched their parents struggle to pay the bills and sometimes basic things like food. They think they can overcome that amount of generational experience.
Guillotine time
My wife and I would consider another kid if the fed wanted to kick us an extra $25k per year.
A one time fee of $5K is hilarious. You’d maybe be able to cover the hospital bill from having the kid with that sum.
Not even cash, but healthcare, childcare, preschool, more tuition assistance (WTF, FAFSA no longer considers if you have multiple kids in college? Let’s start by fixing that), excessive housing and vehicle cost. Plus give us some hope for the future with investments in the environment and renewable energy, making the world a better place. $5k probably covers first year food, clothes, diapers but not much more
FAFSA calculations have been bullshit for years.
“Oh, your family was extremely abusive and they aren’t giving you a dime? Well, your stepfather still makes too much for you to get anything other than unsubsidized loans.”
Like, fuck, my mom stole thousands of dollars from me. I should have had a negative EFC.
Just shows how out of touch oligarchs are. $5000? Seriously?
What can raising a child cost? 5000?
You’d maybe be able to cover the hospital bill from having the kid with that sum.
If there’s no complications.
Seriously! 100K minimum to cover the basics.
It’s not even his idea.
https://taxfoundation.org/blog/hillary-clintons-proposal-5000-baby-bond-essentially-already-here/
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s plan to give every newborn a $5,000 bond, money meant to defray college costs when the kids hit 18, continued to draw criticism yesterday from her right-wing rivals.
“It’s a quick way of trying to buy votes, which is irresponsible when it comes to the economic future of the nation,” said New York Conservative Party chief Mike Long, adding that the White House would have to raise taxes to finance the plan.
The bonds would cost about $20 billion a year, based on the 4million American babies born annually, according to Time magazine, which last month proposed a similar plan.
I thought Republicans were against giving people handouts?
Only if Democrats are the ones doing the handouts. Trump was very happy to sign all those stim checks during covid. Didn’t hear them bitching about socialism and communism then.
He held up pandemic aid for his signature on them btw.
Trump has no respect for anything
