March 28,
2007
Column #1,335
How To Strengthen The Family Structure
by Michael J. McManus
"For the first time, less than a quarter of American households are headed by a
married mother and father," said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS). "They have plummeted
to the lowest level ever. Yet the family, with mom and dad bonded together, is
the best place to raise the next generation."
Therefore, he and Rep. Lee Terry, R-NE, introduced a package of bills, "the most
important pro-family legislation to be created in several decades," according to
Dr. Allan Carlson, President of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and
Society. "It recognizes the importance of parental care of young children by
expanding the dependent care child tax credit to cover stay-at-home moms."
At present the tax credit is given only to parents whose children are in
daycare. Imagine what will happen if Congress adopts the Brownback-Terry
proposal to extend the $2,100 credit to mothers who remain at home to care for
young children. Many will leap at the chance to be full-time mothers.
A new study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
underscores the importance of this initiative. In a long-term $200 million study
following children from infancy through the 6th grade, researchers found that
putting a child into daycare for as little as a year, increases the odds the
child will become disruptive in class years later.
"Children with more experience in center settings continued to manifest somewhat
more problem behaviors through sixth grade," the report stated. And this impact
on behavior was manifest even if the child attended high quality day care.
By comparison, children reared by parents or grandparents were "relatively
stable" emotionally. The report says, "Parents and children also share genes,
further contributing to the relative strength of associations between parenting
and child functioning through the sixth grade."
This massive proves what has long been obvious, that kids do better if nurtured
by their own parents.
Therefore, the package of bills proposed by Brownback/Terry is particularly
important:
I. Increase the child tax exemption to $5,000 from $3,400 and index it to
inflation.
It started at $600 in 1948 when average family income was $3,000 and would be
$10,000 today if it had been indexed to inflation.
II. Make the child tax credit of $1,000 permanent, scheduled to sunset in 2010.
III. Make permanent the elimination of a marriage penalty in both the tax rate
tables and the standard deduction.
IV. Allow a simple $2,500 deduction for a home-based business.
V. Give businesses who allow workers to work at home, a $2,400 tax credit.
VI. Give Social Security credits for at home work, as if the worker were earning
the national average wage, as long as children are under age 6.
The Social Security provision is particularly important. My wife was a
stay-at-home mother who was out of the workforce for more than a decade while
our children were young. Although she now receives Social Security benefits,
they are substantially less than if she had been credited as a full-time worker,
which she certainly was - though not for pay.
The Social Security system is in fiscal crisis today because Baby Boomers had
fewer children. Abortion alone has resulted in more than 40 million fewer
births. Had those children been born, there would be many more workers to pay
for the retirement of their parents in the Baby Boom generation. The long-term
future of Social Security rests on birth rates.
If Congress were to pass this package of family-friendly laws, the lure of work
for parents of young children would diminish, and the joy of being a full-time
mother would be rewarded economically. It would level the playing field of home
and work.
Also, it would begin to rebuild the family structure which has deteriorated as
cohabitation has soared 10-fold since 1970, and as marriage rates have plunged
in half, a million couples divorce annually affecting a million children, and
nearly two out of five children are born out-of-wedlock.
"Why not use the tax code to empower the family, if one parent wishes to stay
home?" suggests Rep. Terry.
However, the package would be very expensive, in the tens of billions. Allan
Carlson suggests one solution: "Raise the overall tax rate a point or two, to
put more of a burden on people not raising children." Of course, such a hike
would be very controversial.
Not a problem for Senator Brownback who told a press conference, as he unveiled
the proposals, "I want to be known as the Family President."
|
|
Since 1981...
2000+ Columns |
|
LATEST ARTICLE |
|
Februrary
23, 2021: Column 2063: RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE |
|
Recent Columns |
|
Observing Lent |
|
Celebrating Marriage Week |
|
A Case for Pro-Life
|
|
End
The Death Penalty? |
|
Christian Choices Matter |
|
2020 Was A Terrible Year |
|
Suicides Rates Are Rising |
|
The Biblical Sexual Standard |
|
How to Cut the Divorce Rate in Half |
|
Divorce Rate Is Falling |
|
How To Save Marriages |
|
55 Years of Marriage |
|
How To Cut America's Divorce Rate |
|
Suicide Rate Rising |
|
Overcoming Porn Addiction |
|
The Devastation of Pornography |
|
Marriages Are Falling - But Improving |
|
Divorce Rates Are Falling |
|
Cohabitation: the Enemy of Marriage
|
|
How To Reduce Suicide |
|
How To Stop Drug Addiction |
|
Cut Federal Funds for Planned Parenthood |
|
The Horror of Soaring Suicides |
|
Make
Adoption More Appealing |
|
The Addictive Nature of Pornography |
|
Abortion Becoming Illegal |
|
Protecting Girls from Suicide |
|
The Worst Valentine:
Cohabitation |
|
Pornography: A Public Health Hazard |
|
Sextortion Kills Teens |
|
Cohabitation: A Risky Business |
|
Recent Searches |
|
gun control,
euthanasia,
cohabitation,
sexting,
sextortion,
alcoholism,
prayer,
guns,
same sex marriage,
abortion,
depression,
islam,
divorce,
polygamy,
religious liberty,
health care,
pornography,
teen sex,
abortion and infanticide,
Roe+v+Wade,
supreme court,
marriage,
movies,
violence,
celibacy,
living+together,
cohabitation,
ethics+and+religion,
pornography,
adultery,
divorce,
saving+marriages |
|