Boost the Child Tax Credit and help families

University of Virginia professor Brad Wilcox has been studying marriage and family in America for nearly two decades and he’s come to one conclusion:

“So many of the biggest problems across America are rooted in the collapse of marriage and family life in all too many communities and homes across the country. For all of the outcomes — from our nation’s growing happiness divide to surging deaths of despair to the stagnant state of the American Dream — questions of marriage and family are often better predictors of outcomes for people than the topics that currently dominate our public conversation — like race, education and government spending.”

That’s from Wilcox’s new book Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization.

Much of what ails American families stems from complex social and cultural realities that are far outside the reach of Congress. But there is something legislators in a divided Washington can do to support parents. In late January, the House passed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 (HR 7024)in a decisive, bipartisan 357-70 vote. A product of monthslong, hard-fought bipartisan negotiations, the package now awaits Senate action.

Alongside a set of pro-business and pro-growth tax policies, this legislation would strengthen the existing Child Tax Credit. First championed by religious and social conservatives and passed into law in the 1990s, Congress has incrementally expanded this tax provision that seeks to offer relief for working parents. The existing law increases the tax credit with rising earnings and can reach up to $2,000 per child.

Among other things, the proposed changes fix two significant flaws in the current CTC. First, they eliminate a built-in disadvantage for larger families. Currently, the phase-in for earning the Child Tax Credit is based on household income, regardless of the number of children. This means it takes larger families significantly more income to earn the maximum credit. As experts at the Niskanen Center explain, the proposed phase-in under HR 7024 would shift from 15% per household to 15% per child. This faster phase-in rate will make a huge difference for working-class parents with more children who can now count on a larger, hard-earned credit to help balance their checkbooks and shore up family life.

Secondly, the new proposal updates the Child Tax Credit for inflation. Currently, the CTC does not account for changes to the cost of living, leaving parents with diminished relief every year even as rising living expenses pressure family finances.

These are small measures, to be sure, and not adequate to address our rapidly declining birth rate or the troubling rise in family dysfunction. Still, in an economy where families are facing real budgetary challenges due to the significant rise in the cost of basic goods, HR 7024 would relieve economic pressure.

Money is a factor in family stress, causing marital stress and discouraging pressured moms and dads from welcoming more children into the world. This tax package is a small way for the government to promote stable families and create a fairer playing field for larger and married households.

Perhaps this is why the legislation is attracting an unusual bipartisan coalition, from prominent conservatives such as Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich to center-left groups such as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Pro-life, faith-based, civil rights and business groups are urging the Senate to get this bill to the White House.

As a social conservative who believes strongly in the sanctity of human life and as a fiscal conservative who believes the government too often gets in the way of human flourishing, I believe this legislation both shores up struggling families and rewards work in contrast to far too many government programs.

America’s decaying family structure won’t be solved by Congress but, in this small way, lawmakers can at least be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.

Daniel Darling is the director of The Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

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