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For decades, conservatives have insisted that raising children is the most important job in the world. That you can’t put a price on maternal nurturing during the formative years. That mothers (or fathers, but let’s face it, mostly mothers) shouldn’t have to dump their babies in crap daycare just to help put food on the table. Family values are underrated! All moms are working moms! Tradwives aren’t a trend—they’re a return to sanity!
Trump White House: Hear, hear! In fact, let’s give parents some cold, hard cash so one of them can afford to stay home!
Half the Right: Whoa there, buddy. Let’s keep socialism out of it.
On the surface, the policy—championed often and loudly by Vice President JD Vance—seems logical: “You were perfectly willing to give my tax dollars to a daycare center to raise Brenda’s kids. Why does wanting to give that same money directly to Brenda suddenly make me a Marxist?”
Unfortunately, the opposition has an annoyingly reasonable rebuttal: “Because taxing working Americans to subsidize Brenda’s stay-at-home lifestyle is literally the definition of socialism.”
Apparently parenthood is priceless… until someone puts an actual price on it.