Even a former Heritage Foundation writer now admits that the Democrats are the better party when it comes to policies that most benefit parents.
In a recent opinion piece for Newsweek, conservative activist Bethany Mandel — who rose to prominence last year in an interview in which she couldn’t define the word “woke” after denouncing it — acknowledged that the Democratic Party has consistently been a better ally to working-class Americans currently raising children. A mother of six, Mandel, 38, wrote that a major advantage Democrats have in arguing that they are better for families is their willingness to champion the child tax credit.
“Just last week, Senate Republicans blocked an attempt to expand child tax credits, particularly those aimed at low-income Americans. (JD) Vance, a U.S. Senator who could have voted for child tax credits, Nowmissed the vote, as did half a dozen other Republican senators,” she wrote. “I’m not one to give the Democratic Party credit for anything, but credit where credit is due. And it will hurt the Republican slate, especially if it tries to portray itself as family-friendly.”
READ MORE: JD Vance suggested America should “punish” people for not having children
As Mandel noted, Senate Republicans earlier this month rejected a bipartisan bill that would have increased the child tax credit by $2,000 per child and made a larger portion of it refundable. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) dismissed it as “handing out cash instead of relief for working taxpayers.”
The Associated Press (AP) reported that President Joe Biden’s administration temporarily increased the tax credit to $3,000 per child (and to $3,600 for each child under age six) during the Covid-19 pandemic, and included 17-year-olds in the covered group. In 2022, Senator Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia), then a Democrat, proved to be the deciding vote that allowed Senate Republicans to block an extension of the expansion. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that the child tax credit expansion kept half a million children out of poverty.
“There’s always a lot of talk among Republicans about helping families, competing with China and cracking down on fraud in government programs, but they just voted down a bill that would do all of that in one package,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) told AP at the time.
In addition to the child tax credit, Mandel wrote, Democrats also demonstrated their pro-family stance when the Biden administration imposed a rule on airlines that cracked down on the practice of charging parents extra to sit next to their children on a plane. She praised Biden for ending the practice of airlines “charging families for the ‘privilege’ of sitting next to each other.”
READ MORE: “Didn’t care about us”: The JD Vance-funded company is known for its “nightmarish” work environment
“Families with young children essentially have to pay a tax if they want to be sure they are sitting next to their children. As a mother of six children ages 1 to 10, I have to sit next to my children,” she wrote. “While I don’t necessarily want to, if we run into turbulence or need to quickly open a vomit bag, it’s probably better for everyone involved that I sit next to my children.”
“The Biden administration has decided to stand up for families in the air, and Democratic lawmakers have done the same with their work to advance the child tax credit,” she added.
READ MORE: Columnist: How JD Vance’s ‘creepy tendencies’ make him the ‘worst nerd’
Click here to read Mandel’s full commentary.
