Implementing some kind of Universal Basic Income (UBI) isn’t just on the minds of the left, but it seems as though it’s also on the mind of the same man who created the template for Obamacare — polarizing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
Romney introduced the Family Security Act on Thursday, which would give families a monthly stipend for every child every single month.
Think expanded welfare rolls.
Under the plan, parents can “apply to receive the benefit 4 months prior to the child’s due date.” Every household with children between zero and five years of age will receive $350 per child, per month, while households with children between six and 17 years of age will receive $250 per child, per month.
According to the overview of the Act:
American families are facing an extraordinary amount of financial strain, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Marriage and birth rates in the United States have both steadily fallen to all-time lows. Yet, the average desired family size has remained stable for the last 40 years. Our family support and welfare system has not seen comprehensive reform since 1996, while the modern economy has left families further behind. Instead of flexible, transparent assistance to meet these rising challenges, families are forced to navigate a maze of complicated programs with few assurances.
The Family Security Act creates a new national commitment to American families by modernizing and streamlining antiquated federal policies into a monthly cash benefit. Expecting parents will receive the benefit mid-pregnancy, helping them tackle the expenses that start on day one. If enacted, low-income families would no longer have to choose between a bigger paycheck or eligibility for support. This plan would immediately lift nearly three million children out of poverty, while providing a bridge to the middle class – without adding a dime to the federal deficit.
Now, as a reader, you’re probably asking yourself, ‘Self, how much is something as massive as this projected to cost?’
The bill consolidates overlapping and often duplicative federal policies into direct support for families. In order to remain deficit-neutral and provide certainty for families, it also eliminates the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT), which is an inefficient tax break to upper-income taxpayers. However, most families that previously claimed the SALT deduction will still be net beneficiaries through their larger monthly child benefits.
In essence, while the information above says that eliminating SALT will affect “upper-income taxpayers,” in the very next sentence it assures families that with the government money given the them every month they will see a net positive.
The “annual savings” that would be enacted if the Act goes through would eliminate “Head-of-Household Status,” “Child and Dependent Care Credit,” “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),” “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Categorical Eligibility Changes” and the above-mentioned “SALT Deduction.”
Those eliminations would save a reported $66 billion that would go towards the $254 billion Romney’s Act would cost, which is exactly $66 billion more than what the U.S. government currently spends on Child Benefits and Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC).