Starting a couple of years ago, and increasingly since the coronavirus economic downturn, there has been a sprouting of new-wave conservative proposals designed to help working-class families, even if those plans required ditching traditional free-market economics and concerns about budget deficits.
A few examples:
— Sen. Marco Rubio, who four years ago held up the Republicans’ big tax-cut package until it included an increase in the child tax credit, now has proposed, along with Sen. Mike Lee, expanding the child tax credit to levels even more generous than the child allowance President Biden and the Democrats put in their new coronavirus stimulus bill.
— Sen. Mitt Romney has proposed a guaranteed monthly government cash benefit for families, starting mid-pregnancy and extending until children are 18.
—American Compass, an organization of young, conservative economic thinkers, has proposed a similar benefit, but one tied to work by capping the benefit at the level of income earned the prior year.
—Sen. Josh Hawley has proposed a “blue-collar bonus,” paid out directly through an automatic, advanceable tax credit tied to hours worked.
—Sen. Tom Cotton has co-sponsored, along with Mr. Romney, a plan to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation, as long as the increase is tied to a new E-Verify system to keep undocumented people out of the workforce.
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