November 06, 2017 03:07 PM UTC

The Party of (Biological-Only) Family Values?

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• by: Colorado Pols

CBS4’s Dominic Garcia reports on an interesting line-item in the Republican tax reform bill currently up for debate in Congress–a proposed elimination of the federal tax credit given to families who adopt children:

A provision in the proposed Republican tax bill is worrying adoption advocates in Colorado.

The current federal tax credit for adoption is $13,570 per child, a provision in the proposed tax bill would eliminate it.

The goal is to help offset the costs that come with adding a new member to the family…

Lauren Arnold, the executive director of the Adoption Exchange, worries that without the tax credit many families won’t adopt because they simply can’t afford it.

“What’s at stake here is the child who’s not going to be adopted because there’s not as much of an incentive or it’s too much of a financial burden for a family to undertake that task,” said Arnold.

To the extent that the GOP’s tax bill includes what’s known in the parlance as “pay fors,” meaning offsetting revenue increases to cover the lost revenue from reducing taxes, they frequently consist of the elimination of tax deductions and credits that have been carved out over the years to encourage any number of policy goals. We talked last week about the proposed reduction of the mortgage interest deduction, which would have a negative effect especially on high-value housing markets like the Denver metro area.

Well folks, it would appear that in addition to home buyers who unlike Donald Trump have to ask what real estate costs before they know if they can afford it, the Trump administration doesn’t prioritize child adoption either. Given the unquestionable social benefits of connecting children with families who want to raise them, this doesn’t seem like a tax credit Republicans should want to get rid of.

Unless of course it’s the same logic that says people shouldn’t have access to birth control, because it just encourages sin! Trump doesn’t have to worry about the cost of adoption, after all, since he’s a billionaire who changes spouses to keep the heirs pumping out. But if ordinary babies given up for adoption can’t get adopted, maybe these irresponsible punk kids (insert urban or whatever dog-whistle adjective suits you as desired) will think twice about making babies to begin with. Right? Just like that’s always worked every time it’s been tried.

More likely it’s just about giving rich folks a tax cut and not caring what comes after.