Where does CatholicVote.org stand on tax policy?
Family is the fundamental unit of society and the biggest and best provider of healthcare, childcare, education, and welfare. Instead of growing the welfare state, the tax system should encourage natural avenues out of poverty by removing barriers to marriage, steady work, and children.
What does the Catholic Church teach about this?
“The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family’s prerogatives or interfere in its life.” (CCC 2209 )
“The importance of the family for the life and well–being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty ‘to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity.’” (CCC 2210)
What is a pro-family tax policy?
There are several tax policies that would help families. The proposals get technical, but they have a few basic commonsense goals.
- Stop disincentivizing marriage in the tax code
- Helps moms and dads who are doing the nation a favor by investing in the future (aka raising future taxpayers)
Want more detail? Read below.
Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee advocate a policy that would stimulate the economy by encouraging business growth, and help taxpayers who are bearing the financial burden of raising the next generation. The Senators advocate for two income-tax brackets of 15% and 35%, an end of the “marriage penalty,” and an increase in the child-tax credit. Read the plan here.
Robert Stein, in “Room to Grow,” emphasizes the importance of mothers and fathers who raise children. They pay a double medicare/social security tax by bearing the financial burden of raising children who will one day pay into the system. Read the plan here.