One of the portions of Rick Santorum's tax plans, were he to become President (let's say there's a giant earthquake on Election Day and everyone else eligible gets sucked into the ground) that hasn't been mentioned much is his plan to triple the child tax credit from $1000 to $3000 per child.
He stuck to his guns on FOX News Sunday:
Rick Santorum is a Republican -- a member of the party that accuses non-white women of "pumping out the babies for higher welfare checks." In another part of the interview, Santorum refers to the European "demographic winter", a major dog-whistle; Pat Buchanan in his latest book, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America survive to 2025? devotes an entire chapter to the perceived problems in Europe. When Buchanan and his ilk talk about "demographic winter", they're not talking about "not enough babies", but "not enough white babies".
The Republicans are the party that would gut the educational system that those babies are going to need to become members of society and the community. Take a look at what's happening in Pennsylvania, where teachers are going without paychecks in order to teach their students. What happens to those students if they go without education? What do you do with a child who hasn't learned enough to be able to read a job application, balance a checkbook, or even read the ballot in the voting booth?
The Republican Party is the party that decries the notion of "global warming", and indeed decries any environmental controls that seek to mitigate the damage that humans are doing to the environment. What happens to food supplies if the population suddenly doubles or triples? What about water supplies, a big concern here with what's been an inordinately dry winter (we're finally getting showers on Wednesday, meaning I'd better blow the dust off my umbrella). And where do all those people live, and work, and play in what free time they may actually have?
And the Republican Party is doing nothing to help those people out of work get jobs, jobs that would help them support newly-born children or those they already have. In 1968, my eldest sister, at 20, had her first child; by the time she was 22 she'd had her planned two kids. They were in their early to mid 40s when my nieces were out of the house and on their own, still young enough and energetic enough to keep up with the grandkids and enjoy life with each other and their other interests. My youngest niece has been engaged for about 4 years, but she and her fiancé don't want to get married till he can find a job in his field (wastewater engineer) so that she'll know where to put in her applications as a high school English teacher (assuming there are any jobs for her). They're still relatively young (early to mid 20's), but they'd like to be able to start their lives together. How many other young (and not so young) couples are putting off their own family plans because of economic uncertainty?
You want to help families, Rick? Instead of giving a tax credit that would put families like the Duggars in the 1%, how about supporting universal health care so that women could get pre-natal care to help bring healthy babies into the world, and so that families wouldn't have to worry about skyrocketing insurance rates should one family member become catastrophically ill? How about extending unemployment coverage for those out of work so families aren't left homeless and without food? How about leaning on the big banks to reform mortgage practices and re-write mortgages to reflect the true value of the home, so families aren't facing foreclosure? How about supporting increases in school budgets rather than slashing them, so those babies actually have safe and effective schools to attend? How about coming up with actual solutions to getting the unemployment rates down that don't involve putting the environment or people's lives at risk with reduced regulation and controls?
Combine this with Santorum's belief that contraception should be banned, and you can see where this is going -- sex only for those that can afford the risk of pregnancy, and cold showers for the rest of us. And those kids who are born will be inheriting a world of smoggy skies, dirty water, little food, and no hope.
Rick Santorum -- Stupid Answers to Complex Questions.