[Daily Signal] A new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows that, absent immigration, America’s population will begin to shrink by 2030. As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, this projection underscores a hard truth: the collapse of marriage and family life represents the gravest threat to our great nation’s future.
That is why The Heritage Foundation has released the first in a series of special reports on "Saving America by Saving the Family." The central argument is straightforward. Our country cannot afford to continue ignoring our declining marriage and birth rates, as lawmakers on both the left and the right have done for decades.
The discussion ranges from eliminating all marriage penalties embedded in welfare programs to new tax credits for married families, to offering public honors to couples for every decade they remain married.
These proposals reflect a blend of longstanding conservative priorities and new ideas, all animated by a shared belief: that strong American families were at the heart of the nation in 1776 and remain essential to its future. They are not offered as a final word, but as the beginning of a long-overdue national conversation about how to halt America’s demographic and social collapse.
Unfortunately, there are those—on both the radical Left and the libertarian right—who are rigidly and ideologically opposed to our key ideas for supporting married families.
Critics on the left argue that opposition to abortion and support for married parents who prefer to provide home childcare (usually through the mother) amount to a patriarchal assault on women’s "autonomy" and "reproductive freedom."
Meanwhile, critics on the libertarian Right contend that government has no business trying to incentivize decisions related to family structure.
|