The newest MAGA ideas are “recycled Democratic policies,” according to writer and podcaster Erin Gloria Ryan.
In her latest MSNBC column, she points to several ideas from the Heritage Foundation, which are “not new.”
“Heritage’s ‘newest and boldest’ (their words) policy idea is … a tax credit for married couples with children that increases the more children the couple has. That would have been a new and bold idea in 1991, when 16-term Connecticut Democrat and longtime Child Tax Credit advocate Rep. Rosa DeLauro entered Congress,” Ryan pointed out.
She added, “Heritage’s bold new idea is to do a version of a law that’s been on the books since 1997, except it would only benefit married parents, who typically are in a higher income bracket than single parents and thus don’t need as much help.”
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Another “pro-natalist” idea“ is to pay women a $5,000 bonus to have babies.” A move Ryan called “a rehashing of the Child Tax Credit, this time increasing the size of the cash payout and making it single-use.”
She also noted, “Republicans have had opportunities to permanently expand the child tax credit that already exists — and have blocked it at every turn.”
Citing a New York Times report, Ryan even brought up a Heritage Foundation member who is suggesting they “should invest in getting to the bottom of what causes infertility. ‘The idea, called Restorative Reproductive Medicine, revolves around treating the ‘root causes’ of infertility, and leaving IVF as a last resort.’”
“The Heritage Foundation seems to have somehow stumbled into embracing an idea rooted in ecofeminism,” she wrote.
“One factor that’s been shown — over and over again — to make women in industrialized countries actually want to have more children was their male partners doing more around the house,” Ryan opined.
As for her own ideas of how to increase the U.S. birthrate, Ryan believes the government shouldn’t be “handing out medals or writing checks. It’s for men to evolve. Let’s see how long it takes the Heritage Foundation to come up with that one.”
