merican families are in crisis. In the U.S., fewer young people are getting married, and they are having fewer children. They struggle to afford a first house. They report depression and loneliness at high rates. For those in the Millennial and Gen Y cohorts that do have kids, they worry about what—indeed whether—their children are learning in schools. Groceries are expensive; mortgage rates and housing prices are crushing. Whatever the future holds, America’s young parents know it almost certainly will include having to take care of aging Boomers and their own small children at the same time, with a demographic structure more weighted toward the elderly than at any other time in history. While meeting their obligations to their elders, they have no assurances that the same benefits will be afforded to them.
The current administration and Congress were elected at least in part on promises to meet these challenges. And, indeed, they did begin to make right on them. The One Big Beautiful Bill contained a significant expansion of the Child Tax Credit and other tax credits for middle-class American families. Republicans in Congress expected to go into the midterms able to boast about securing billions to support working families. The new Trump Accounts promise to make it easier for the parents of today’s babies to send them to college one day. When parents with young children file their taxes this year, they should see some welcome extra cash in their pockets.
Read in The American Conservative
Ivana Greco is a Senior Fellow at Capita.