Hawley’s Proposal Looks a Lot Like Universal Basic Income

On Monday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced that he was sponsoring a plan to give parents “tax relief” as they raise their children. He said that the plan was to allow parents to have money to raise kids the way they wanted to.

But as you dig into the plan, there are several concerns. Such as, the plan awards $6000 in “tax relief” to parents who hit a $7,540 minimum in federal earnings. Married couples could receive up to $12,000 per child based on the same minimum earnings level. This is well above any tax revenue that would be received for someone that makes that low of an amount.

In fact, it would create a significant deficit for earners even up to the $50-75,000 salary range. Hawley claims that the proposal would allow parents to decide if one or both should work full time. In other words, the federal government would be paying parents that wanted to stay at home and care for children.

As the Fox News article continues, it also shares that the IRS would create a portal to pay “payments” to these parents. That does not sound like tax relief at all. That sounds like an attempt at Universal Basic Income for parents. The proposal follows along the same lines as the Democrat’s proposals for monthly child care payments to Americans.

Of course, Hawley is not alone. Even Sen. Mitt Romney has proposed continued monthly payments to Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic recently. Neither of these proposals are conservative in nature at all. They are socialist plans proposed by those who are supposed to be fighting against the socialist agenda.

Unnecessary tax burdens should be eliminated to give people the ability to live their lives freely. That does not mean that the federal government should remove any responsibility from Americans to have to work to care for their family and children. But that’s exactly what this bill would do.