When President Joe Biden unveiled his
American Families Plan
in April 2021, its very existence seemed to mock the GOP.
“Biden calls bulls*** on the GOP’s pro-family bluff,” the tag line of a
Daily Beast
article
read at the time, as two large, blue, animated hands make air quotes around the words, “The Pro-Family Party.” The insinuation was clear: Republicans’ claim to be “pro-family” is lip service, while Biden and the Democrats are ready to spend $1.8 trillion to prove they’re the ones who really care.
“How are all the so-called pro-family Republicans going to run against it?” the Daily Beast asked. Some conservatives, at the time, wondered that, too. The GOP purports to be pro-family, but what does that actually mean when it comes to a concrete policy agenda?
While many Republicans did run in the midterm elections on enacting a “pro-family” agenda, the election results left them with little power to do so. Worse still, GOP energies since the midterm elections have been occupied with things such as the massive omnibus bill and Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s beleaguered run for House speaker.
Split government or not, there remains the question of what policies a truly pro-family GOP might formulate. In broad strokes, it should focus on the following.
Faith and morality
The Pew Research Center
reported
that “the share of people who say religion is losing influence in American life continues to far exceed the share who say religion’s influence is growing (by a 74% to 23% margin). And those who say it has gotten harder to be a deeply religious person in the U.S. continue to outnumber those who say it has become easier (by a 47% to 13% margin).”
Ken Blackwell Sr., a fellow at the Family Research Council, explained the importance of keeping faith at the center of policy this way. “It starts with our operating belief that the family is the incubator of liberty, and it is the most basic unit of governance in a person’s life. That means that policies that support the traditional nuclear family get priority in terms of our attention. There’s no perfect unit of governance, but we believe this is in complete alliance with the divine design of God,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Religious liberty is part of that equation, too. Often, in the Biden administration’s zeal for equality and inclusivity, religious freedom is treated as expendable. One example is that Biden took action to wipe out the expansion of religious exemptions for religious organizations that contract with the federal government. And his “Build Back Better” bill limited religious institutions’ access to improvement funds.
“Americans are hungry for principled leadership and elected representatives who will advocate for policies that promise to strengthen the family and empower moms and dads. They’re also grateful when politicians recognize faith is foundational and that our deeply held convictions like respect for innocent life and religious freedom are nonnegotiable priorities,” Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, told the Washington Examiner.
Marriage and family
Marriage is fraying faster than any institution in America. Yet it makes people happy, and it’s a boon for society.
“Marriage is in retreat, and yet marriage seems to matter more than ever for adults and children,” Brad Wilcox, professor and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, told the Washington Examiner. “People who are married are much less likely to say that they’re unhappy.”
A 2020
Gallup
poll showed that only 29% of people think it’s important for a couple to marry, down from 38% in 2013. In 2006, nearly 50% of people polled thought it was important for couples to get married. Wilcox stresses that marriage is more important than ever.
“It’s not just the case that marriage matters, but in a world that’s more economically unequal, where people are more atomized, less connected to their local institutions like church or secular community organizations, and where people are spending a lot more time on their devices, having a benefit of a spouse and a family actually becomes more important for people’s financial, social, and emotional well-being,” Wilcox said.
He argued that Congress should address the existing marriage penalties within the U.S. tax code. Joint-filing couples face a higher tax rate, and for low-income couples, the difference can be significant enough to dissuade them from tying the knot. (The tax penalty is easier for upper-income couples to absorb.) Additionally, the combined incomes of married couples can make them ineligible for some welfare programs. “Congress needs to reform welfare programs like Medicaid and food stamps to stop penalizing marriage for working-class couples with kids, the very group that’s witnessed the biggest drop in marriage in the same period these programs were expanded,” Wilcox said.
The GOP should also remain open to supporting Sen. Mitt Romney’s Family Security Act 2.0, which “would modernize antiquated federal policies into a fully paid-for, cash benefit for working families starting during pregnancy, amounting to $350 a month for each young child, and $250 a month for each school-aged child,” according to Romney’s June 15 announcement. The plan doesn’t penalize marriage, nor does it go to families without a worker, so it still incentivizes work.
Parental choice in education
While Biden’s pro-family
policies
advocate a whopping $225 billion in child care funding and $200 billion in pre-K funding, the Republican Party should be more averse to the concept of universal child care and pre-K for one reason: Conservatives favor parental choice, not universal government programs. Parents should be calling the shots about who watches their children when they can’t, and parents should decide where their children go to school, ZIP code notwithstanding.
The school choice wave has taken over education policy in the United States, and it should continue to be a priority for the GOP at the state level. “The introduction and expansion of education savings accounts in states across the country in light of the success of the school choice movement the last three decades and the urgent need to empower parents” is one of the most important things state- and federal-level politicians can encourage, Ginny Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women’s Forum, told the Washington Examiner.
However, that doesn’t mean Congress is powerless. Gentles said members of Congress, such as Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), co-founder of the Congressional School Choice Caucus, can use their platforms to shine a spotlight on the issue. But to that end, it’s important members ensure that people understand where real education change occurs.
“If they believe in truly empowering parents and in protecting parental rights, they should be advocating for education savings accounts and talking about them and encouraging their colleagues and former colleagues from the state legislature to pass these bills,” Gentles said. “There has to be a regular reminder to Congress that education policy happens at the state level. A reminder even to parents — parents need to understand where they need to apply pressure. Conservatives should help parents and inform them on where they can have the most influence and where they can make the most high-impact change.”
In addition to fighting for more choice in education, the GOP should fight back against the Biden Department of Education’s June 2022 rule that proposed
rewriting Title IX
in a way that puts women’s safety and privacy at risk by altering definitions of sexual harassment and that deprives women of athletic and professional opportunities. While a new Republican president could likely reverse the rule, the sweeping changes and resulting chaos in between will be devastating for women and girls.
Independent and remote work
People are most concerned about their own finances, a
May 2022 Gallup
poll reveals. Forty percent worry about paying their monthly bills, and 52% fear they won’t be able to maintain the standard of living they enjoy. With massive inflation, high gas prices, and soaring home interest rates, Rachel Greszler, senior research fellow in the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, said that what helps families most when it comes to work and money is for the government to get out of the way.
“There’s all these barriers that are already there, the keys to families having a good standard of living, being content. There’s: get a high school degree, get married before you have children, take a job. But then how do we make sure they have rising income and opportunities? It’s really education and work and experience. Now more so, we want options for flexible jobs. Those things, the government doesn’t do a good job at,” Greszler told the Washington Examiner.
Greszler suggested that the GOP needs to embrace a workforce that provides “more options instead of just the 9-5 job.” About
6%
of workers are self-employed, and
26%
work remotely. Experts say that number will only increase.
“The reality is independent work is the only way some people can work,” Greszler said. “More than one-third of the people who work independently said they can’t work for a traditional employer. We need to have options that fit everywhere. Independent work is especially valuable for parents and single moms. But the administration is trying to close those doors.” She is referring to Biden’s move to change a
Department of Labor
rule that would adjust the classifications of employees and independent contractors, causing employers to have to cut contractors or take on the cost of additional employees, an expensive trade-off.
Greszler has other ideas to help working families, too, including expanding education pathways beyond higher education, such as with the
Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs
that tend to be focused in vital fields such as healthcare and technology. This helps people pay for the ability to learn an important new skill while working.
CLICK TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER MAGAZINE
What about people who really need a safety net? GOP-backed policies must be focused on incentivizing work. “There’s three things we need to do,” said Matt Weidinger, an American Enterprise Institute expert on safety net policies. “The first is to come up with a more rational safety net that pulls more in the direction of strengthening families and marriage. Changes like the current tax policy, the child tax credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit. There’s a couple changes like reward work more, punish marriage slightly less, and head in the direction of offering more support for families, including as they go to work and move up the ladder.”
With a split Congress and a Democrat in the White House, it’s not likely the GOP would pass all of these policies, though bipartisan support is possible for some. But the Republican Party can still begin to formulate a practical policy agenda for how to support families for the next time they are in power.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Texas who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She is an opinion columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
