Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), former President Donald Trump’s running mate, has proposed family-friendly policies like expanding the child tax credit and child care policies that would benefit stay-at-home mothers, fathers, and grandparents, not just those who send their children to daycare.
During the period Interview Vance joined CBS News’ Margaret Brennan to outline what he’d like to enact in a second Trump administration to ease the financial burden.
“What President Trump and I want to do with family policy is, number one, make it easier for families to start, we want to lower the cost of housing so that when a baby is born, they actually have a place to raise that baby,” Vance said.
[We] I want to increase and expand the Child Tax Credit, and I want to make sure moms and dads aren’t surprised with unexpected medical bills when they go to an out-of-network provider. We’re working on all of this, but we think that’s ultimately how we ease the tension a little bit and make it easier to choose life in the first place. Because when you talk to women, mothers, fathers, a lot of times they feel like they don’t have a choice when they get pregnant, especially if it’s an unplanned pregnancy. We want to give people more options so they can thrive and raise their families happily in this country. [Emphasis added]
Specifically, Vance said he wants to expand and make permanent the child tax credit.
“The child tax credit has been stalled under the Biden administration because of Harris’ fundamental failure to provide leadership,” Vance said. “… I think it would be nice to see a child tax credit of $5,000 per child, but of course we need to work with Congress to determine how feasible and achievable that is.”
The current child tax credit allows for up to $2,000 per child.
Vance noted that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has attacked him for supporting the child tax credit, even though Democrats in Congress have consistently supported expanding it.
“When my comments came out saying parents should pay less in taxes because of the child tax credit, the Harris administration immediately jumped on board and said, ‘We’re against this.’ … Do they want to repeal the child tax credit? Or are they just reacting inadvertently to comments I made three years ago? I don’t know. They should make that clear,” Vance said.
“Broad-based family policies” like an expanded child tax credit would “apply to all American families,” from low-income to high-income, and to families with heterosexual and same-parent parents.
“I don’t think you want to see the same kind of big cuts to low-income families that we have now,” Vance said. “You don’t want a different policy for higher-income families. All you want is a child tax credit that’s favorable to families.”
Trump and Vance’s pro-family policies also include child care policies that support not just parents who send their kids to daycare, but stay-at-home moms, stay-at-home dads and grandparents. Vance said it’s important not to exclude stay-at-home moms.
Of course, we want child care to be available to everyone. But I grew up poor and my grandparents were in charge of child care, and a lot of these child care suggestions are not helpful to grandparents, and if you look at some of these suggestions, you’ll see they’re not helpful to stay-at-home moms or dads. I want to implement child care policies that work for all families, not just one particular family model.
[Emphasis added]
Vance proposed potentially providing tax credits or checks to mothers, fathers and grandparents who stay home to care for children.
“I don’t want to favor one family model over another,” Vance said. “If grandparents are at home caring for children, I think they should be treated the same by the government as other family models.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
