Strategies to Support Traditional Families

Here are some ideas for supporting traditional families in our society. Some of these may not be capable of implementation in the foreseeable future, but we should keep them in mind:

Parental Voting Rights

Otto von Hapsburg is the likely originator of the proposal that parents be given a right to cast a vote for each of their children who are below voting age (see 30 Days, Sept-Oct. 1990, page 47). To that proposal, we add that adopted children would merit the same right. Moreover, only legitimately married couples now living together should be so entitled.

If voting power is thus dramatically shifted to families with minority dependents, political candidates would recognize the strategic importance of this concentration of votes. Large families, in turn, would sense the wisdom of caucusing to map out common policies and to target preferred candidates. A candidate who, for example, opposes parental notification before abortions are performed on minors, or who approves of the distribution of condoms, the pill, and Depo-Provera injections by school clinics, would be at a disadvantage in an area where large families decide the election. The policy might be adopted for local voting areas, county or municipal, even if it does not extend to the state or national level.

Taxes and Aid

Legislative tax measures should penalize abortions, the manufacture and sale of contraceptives, and sterilization procedures for contraceptive purposes. Stiff taxation might prevail where prohibitory laws fail.

The privilege of exemptions for newlyweds has an ancient history: “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has married” (Deut 24:5). With rising talk of a draft to man the war on terror, this may not be an academic issue in the United States,

With the marriage license, a couple should be entitled to a credit card, valid for one year from the day of marriage, which exempts them from ALL taxes, including the sales tax on food. The tax jubilee year for newlyweds should be given only once in a lifetime, and should perhaps not be given to those who marry younger than twenty years of age. Local tax offices may be authorized to specify further qualifications that are designed to encourage proper marriages.

Help for Parents

A tax-free year for couples upon the birth of every child would be a major incentive for parents to welcome babies. Surrogate baby bearing, and babies conceived in-vitro, should not qualify for the privilege. If a family is below the poverty line, child allowances may also be increased on a sliding scale.

Child allowances and tax exemptions ought to be generous enough to expand parental freedom to decide about the number of offspring, without fear of excessive economic hardship. The benefits should be so regulated that the mother has a viable option to remain at home and have more children.

The initiator of a no-fault divorce should usually be denied legal right to half the wages or to alimony from the abandoned spouse. The prospect of losing the other party’s support may help couples to ride out storms. Care should be taken to ensure that child support payments not be increased by judges to replace lost alimony.

Provide monetary incentives to reward sons and daughters or grandchildren who care for the elderly and disabled at home.

Home loans sufficient in scope to render the purchase of homes economically feasible for married couples should be made available.

The media may continue to favor same-sex marriage, sex-ed in schools, and no-fault divorce, but these incentives, which could be implemented by a pro-family legislature, could go a long way toward counteracting their influence.

For more information, e-mail: [email protected] or go to http://Catholicmind.com and http://Lifeissues.net.

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