The stay-at-home mommy wars: What both Obama and Republicans get wrong
It's about class, not culture
President Obama's tax proposal to help working families had barely left the presidential podium before critics pounced. And with that began the stay-at-home mommy wars. But don't be fooled into thinking this is a typical left vs. right argument about culture: it's about a bipartisan failure to help the lower class.
Obama’s proposal would bulk up the tax credit for child care expenses and provide a new tax credit for families with two earners. Because the tax credits would be of no use to families in which one parent stays home and doesn’t earn a taxable income, conservative journalists saw the plan as implicitly derogatory to traditional families and stay-at-home moms. The proposal is a declaration that "moms who stay at home with their children are less valuable than moms who work for pay," according to Tim Carney. Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry called it a progressive statement "about what the good society looks like" — and it’s families in which both parents work.
The first problem with this critique is that our tax code is already biased to help married families with one earner in numerous other ways, so Obama’s plan could be seen as a corrective rather than an affront. The president has also previously proposed expanding the child tax credit, which would help single- and dual-earner families with children alike.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
More importantly, however, Republican proposals have their own problems on this score. As Elizabeth Bruenig pointed out, the new form of child tax credit Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) proposed is not refundable, which means it likely will not help lower-income families, since they often have little to no income tax liability. (Lee's credit can be credited against the payroll tax, which is smart — but still of limited help, because state and local taxes are what really wallop the lower class.) Indeed, refundability is the key to making tax credits work for the less fortunate, and conservatives are depressingly uncomfortable with the feature.
That said, Obama cannot be allowed a pass here either. Neither his new tax credit for second earners or for child care expenses are refundable. Which is bizarre, frankly. The basic logic of the credits is understandable: families put both parents into the workforce to earn more income and get ahead economically. But that comes with costs, like commuting to work and finding care for the kids. Those costs are prohibitive for lower-income families, which means they can't have both parents working, which precludes them from upward mobility. But if they can't make use of Obama's credits either, what's the point?
To see the full extent of the contradiction, we can look at new numbers Brad Wilcox put together over at the Family Studies Institute. According to data he pulled from the American Community Survey, families in which only one parent works are disproportionately to be found in the poorest two-fifths of married households.
In other words, the connective tissue underlying both parties' failure with regards to stay-at-home moms is not culture or values or lifestyle choices — it's class. The fight between proponents and opponents of Obama's new proposal is a fight over whether to give middle- and upper-class families with two earners more tax relief, or give it to middle- and upper-class families with one earner. Lower-class families of all stripes are being shoved to the periphery of the discussion.
As Robert VerBruggen has proposed, a better way to help families of all types up and down the income ladder would be to bulk up the child tax credit and make it fully refundable. (And definitely keep Sen. Lee's applicability to the payroll tax as well.) The cash could be used to cover child care costs or to boost household income while one parent stays home, as each individual family sees fit.
Or better yet, as Bruenig rightly concluded, is a child allowance: a simple check from the government per child, with no work requirements, that's the same for every family regardless of income level. It would acknowledge the fact that — as family-conscious conservatives and liberal feminists alike observe — the work of making a home is profoundly valuable to the economy and society even if it isn't rewarded by the markets. It would also avoid the strange, roundabout strategy of using the tax returns of the spouse who does labor in the market to compensate the spouse laboring outside the market. Lastly, it could also be folded into a public day care system to provide families maximum flexibility, as some Nordic countries already do.
The economic realities of stay-at-home moms mean both left and right need to rethink their policies. And conservatives need to stop taking umbrage over cultural identity spats that are of no use to any family — traditional or not — that isn't already well-to-do.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.
-
Government shutdown looming? Blame the border
Talking Points Democrats and Republicans say funding for immigration enforcement is the budget battle's latest sticking point. That's about all they agree on.
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
'Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the US'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Housing costs: the root of US economic malaise?
speed read Many voters are troubled by the housing affordability crisis
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Will North Korea take advantage of Israel-Hamas conflict?
Today's Big Question Pyongyang's ties with Russia are 'growing and dangerous' amid reports it sent weapons to Gaza
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published