White House proposes giving out $5,000 checks to address falling birthrates amid growing ‘pronatalist’ movement

One of Donald Trump’s priorities for his second term is getting Americans to have more babies – and the White House has a new proposal to encourage them to do so: a $5,000 “baby bonus”.

The plan to give cash payments to mothers after delivery shows the growing influence of the “pronatalist” movement in the US, which, citing falling US birthrates, calls for “traditional” family values and for women – particularly white women – to have more children.

But experts say $5,000 checks won’t lead to a baby boom. Between unaffordable health care, soaring housing costs, inaccessible childcare and a lack of federal parental leave mandates, Americans face a swath of expensive hurdles that disincentivize them from having large families – or families at all – and that will require a much larger government investment to overcome.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    He “could” TOTALLY pay his way into a baby boom.

    Step 1: Tax the rich. Lower the pressure on the lower and middle classes.

    Step 2: Fix housing pricing so that a single hard-working person can afford a house, a car, and two kids without their partner having to work.

    Step 3: Put some guardrails in place to stop the 2-3 companies that are buying up everything. Give medium and small business a chance to thrive without needing to be purchased by a giant company.

    Step 4. Fix healthcare so that the family above gets 100% coverage for whatever happens. Pay for it with Step 1.

  • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Wow, look at that! The price of strollers just went up 5k!

    Replace strollers with basically anything related to birth or infants. 5k more to spend? 5k more to earn by big business selling wares.

    This assumes the hospital doesn’t determine that you seem to owe 5k more for that one out of network service provider they slipped in while you were distracted during birthing.

    • Tire@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      I hate our healthcare system so much. Individual bills for random doctors you never asked for that are somehow working for the hospital but are unrelated in terms of their insurance policy makes zero sense. How could anyone consent to anything in a reasonable fashion

      • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Preach. I can do nothing but agree, and I have insider info in the insurance industry, pharma and healthcare. It’s all a game to make the rich even richer and the politicians are colluding in such a bipartisan fashion you’d think the parties were fully unified.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      not in the slightest. births can be up to 20k, plus if you want to have a healthy birth and healthy mom, all the prenatal stuff too. woman are also likely to have morbidities while pregnant, and can die. i the us has a high maternity mortality than other western countries.

      when your pregnants, your body goes out whack, gestational diabetes, hbp, autoimmune diseases.

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          our private healthcare was is so cumbersome and unnessary, it only exists because everyones been propagandized to think its better than a State subsidized healthcare system.

          funny thing is conservatives are heavily dependent on our MEDI-CAID/care system, they will have a rude awakening once most of them will have to fork hundreds for highblood pressure meds, avrostatin for cholesterol, and insulin which can be hundreds per vial(if trump repeals biden isulin ruling).

  • adrian@50501.chat
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    2 months ago

    Give me one year paid family leave and Medicare for all, then we’ll talk.

    • SuiXi3D@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      Maybe a grant for college as well, so I can get a degree so that I might actually be able to participate in society at large.

      • klemptor@startrek.website
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        2 months ago

        Serious question, have you considered the trades? It seems that jobs like electrician, plumber, auto mechanic, etc are a lot more secure than white collar jobs are right now, especially STEM. I know at least where I live (Philly exurbs) there’s a shortage of electricians, with only 2 going into the trade as 5 retire. You get paid during your training and through the union you get healthcare and a pension. Something to think about.

        • SuiXi3D@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          I currently work assembling cables. Soldering, crimping, etc. I grew up building stuff, be it with my father at his business or at home. I don’t have no skills, but the skills I have don’t seem to be those that are in demand for high wages. Furthermore, as someone with Autism, I don’t do well in positions where I have to interact with the general public.

    • PopcornPrincess@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Seriously, a one time payment that low won’t cover shit. The climate doesn’t support families to begin with like your comment points out.

      Also you can’t ask people to have kids and cut funding to Medicaid & be actively dismantling Department of Education… It’s counterintuitive to say we support families and then not support families. Oh but here’s some money.

  • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Why do I have a feeling the administration would still try to find ways to not pay nonwhite families having kids?

    Trump was propped up by people who believe this bogus “Great Replacement” theory and I don’t think they would be willing to back down from that stance on account of a generally declining population.

  • glimse@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Hey non-Americans, fun fact! If you have a baby here, you can expect $15,000+ in hospital bills.

    $5,000 should cover that, right?

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      That’s the most laughable part of this idea. Even with a great insurance plan that $5k is basically a hospital discount. Furthermore, the few people I know that are interested in having more kids and have “uneventful” home births under their belt, thus minimal medical bills, are all Hispanic.

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Let’s not spread incorrect numbers, our hmo made the cost of labor about $100 (maybe because of California). Childcare, formula, etc is still way more than $5k but labor is only expensive with bad insurance or no insurance, which is actually kind of more ironic since that applies more to MAGA than the rest of us.

        • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          That’s the fucked up part about America. You can walk out of a hospital with no bill or life-crippling debt depending on your age, income level, state, and employer (i.e. employer-based insurance).

        • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Not in California, but we had twins, a couple days stay in the hospital, and have really good insurance. Still got billed 7k for the supposedly 80k total the hospital was billing for.

    • The_v@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      A C-section will run you $60K easy. With the 80:20 insurance thats $12K owed by the parents. . With the federal out of pocket maximum being $9,450 for the mother. The baby also has a $9,450 out of pocket maximum. So the family will likely owe at least $12k before leaving the hospital

      $5K handout is seriously ignorant. It will cost a hell of a lot more to reverse the trend

      In order to increase the birthrate above replacement level here are a few things that need to happen.

      1. Free universal healthcare including dental.

      2. Rent control for all apartments locked to single income minimum wage.

      3. Ban on investment properties for single family homes. If the house is classified as single family, you can’t rent it out. It must be sold.

      4. Free childcare.

      5. Free education from pre-K to Graduate levels.

      6. Open immigration policies for countries with higher birthrates.

      7. Increase minimum wage to make it a livable wage.

      8. To pay for it all - Increase corporate taxes to 95% for more than $100million income. Increase personal taxes to 95% for more than 1 million in income.

      • glimse@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s funny how all of the real solutions for increasing the birthrate are just generally good things for the country.

        • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          And also things the party that most wants it to happen will never ever enact because their ideologies conflict with one another

      • glimse@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You got a good fuckin deal. I don’t have kids but my friends pay between $20,000 and $30,000 for daycare

  • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    The fact that formula is now pretty universally behind the counter or behind a locked cabinet door says a lot about the current situation in America.

  • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Trump: “Gotta save the government money”

    Also Trump: “Just throw money at it, maybe it will fix itself”

  • crystalmerchant@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Lmaooo no shit it won’t work. Daycare alone is $20-$40k a year. A pittance one-time payment doesn’t change the fundamental calculus of how fucking expensive everything is now

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    2 months ago

    If $5000 is a lot to you, he’s really not interested in there being more of “your type” of person.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Actually, I’m sure he’s quite interested in there being a nice big class of desperate labor pool ripe for exploitation.