A couple of impeachments ago, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) related an anecdote on the floor of the House about presidents lying and what a bad example it set for the nation’s children. Impeaching Bill Clinton was necessary “so that all of us can continue to not only uphold but teach those basic truths and basic right and wrong in our houses” as well as in the U.S. House. “Just remember, the children are watching,” Myrick said.
Oh, the children! Think of them! So long as money is not involved.
Paul Krugman remarks on the Biden plan to temporarily increase the Child Tax Credit as part of coronavirus relief. (Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah has a similar proposal.) Progressives hope it will become permanent, he writes, noting “an overwhelming economic and social case” for doing so:
Yet most conservatives seem to be opposed, even though they’re having a notably hard time explaining why. And the fact that they’re against helping children despite their lack of good arguments tells you a lot about why they really oppose aid to those in need.
You might think concern of the Myrick sort would compel them to give the proposal serious consideration. But their standard arguments about assistance breeding dependency come into play. Plus, they argue, such programs “penalize families for getting ahead.”
Krugman spotlights several reasons not to take those arguments any more seriously than Myrick’s. He concludes:
More surprising, perhaps, is the opposition of many (though not all) right-wing policy intellectuals. For example, the American Enterprise Institute’s director of poverty studies warned that giving families additional income would “take us back to the bad old days,” by allowing some adults to work less. Aside from the fact that this effect would probably be minuscule, why is letting parents spend more time with their children a self-evidently bad thing?
What seems clear is that the real reason many on the right oppose helping children is that they fear that such help might make low-income families less desperate. And the very reason they hate this proposal is the reason the rest of us should love it.
This is more of what I wrote about yesterday. “Low-income” is a euphemism for non-white despite the number of white families living below the poverty line. What do they see in their mind’s eyes when they hear “low income”?