on child allowance discourse, the day after roe v wade is struck down
I don’t know why this particular thing is annoying me enough to write a post, but some simmering annoyance in background is now more explicit and no one is even articulating this not a single person and that is the kind of thing I feel driven to write about. This is just a brief write up and some thought on child allowance.
Yesterday Roe v Wade was struck down it was quite historic, I follow all sorts of people and factions just to keep in touch with what different kinds of people think on twitter. I am proponent of child allowance policy, I think like yimby stuff its something “everyone” agrees on, everyone as in when smart enough people look into it they just go oh that seems right and then they think that now but don’t necessarily talk about it. This is probably less the case then yimby policy and there is probably more disagreement, but I mention the dynamic merely to note I am not so unique for supporting the policy. Child allowance is recently a topic of conversation now that abortion bans are back on the table, there is a very annoying strain of wonk on wonk violence going on of people catastrophizing about this policy and being mad the right wing people they know mention child allowance as an answer to charges an abortion ban leaves the hypothetical sudden parent with no assistance.
“HOW CAN YOU MENTION CHILD ALLOWANCE AS ANSWER TO ABORTION BANS IF REPUBLICANS LITERALLY HAD FIFTY YEARS AND NEVER SUPPORTED THE POLICY IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN” so the complaint goes. This crosses the line. No one was more mad then I was when child allowance entered the national discourse and prominent republicans who mainly try to brand or re-brand by saying they are pro family not your normal republican(tm) responded to the policy by saying that we can’t do that that’s socialism what we really need is complicated tax shenanigans. It is truly infuriating. But now some very annoying people are spouting off and I must put them in their place even if no one reads it.
Lets make something clear, the catastrophic bad attitude temper tantrum over this policy and republicans not supporting it is absolutely bullshit. These people, these globe emoji self important wonk brains have no right to pull this shit. Republicans have never supported the policy so its not possible for them to support it now??? Did Obama support it?? Did the Clintons??? Maybe if instead of all the healthcare stuff they focused on a permanent child allowance the past three decades the Democrat party would be a lot more popular and the country would be in a lot better place. Except they didn’t. You know why they didn’t??? ITS BECAUSE IT WASN’T EVEN A POLICY OF NATIONAL PROMINENCE TILL LIKE ONLY ONE YEAR AGO.
The main current national proponent of permanent child allowance is Mitt Romney, he is a republican. Is that some kind of coincidence? He is accused often times of being RINO on some level, but is it ever along tax policy axis??? He was the former presidential nominee of the party! All these people act so high and mighty because Biden passes a temporary child allowance in the most crummy low quality way possible and then it ran out, mission accomplished! Champion of the people!
Biden was trying to extend a temporary child allowance within his build back better bill, during the drama this is when Mitt Romney put forward a proposal to make it permanent and how to make the policy tax neutral. In my opinion if these people support the policy they should have heard this, gotten excited, then wanted Biden to cut a deal. Clearly this was obvious attempt by Mitt to help and broker a deal while the Biden admin is desperate for that +1 senate vote and would be possible pathway for even more votes. Not only did he put forward a child allowance bill but he proposed substantial environmental policy as well. He basically single handedly wrote up a build back better life raft and sent it in a nice bow tied package with characteristic Mormon hospitality. No one noticed, no one cared, no one called. Build back better.
Here is an example of a political demo that cares about a policy. MAGA people care about immigration. If under Trump needing +1 vote Manchin started proposing all on his own unprompted a way to fund the wall, end chain migration and better deport illegal immigrants every last MAGA person would be talking up how amazing and based Manchin was. Every meme account would be singing his praises, he would be invited on Tucker, and all MAGA people would be begging Trump to cut a deal. That is how you act when you care about a policy. Instead of picking something he could broker deal on Biden wanted it all, instead of doing the work he resorted to dirty tricks and intimidation and possibly won’t have anything to show for it.
When Mitt Romney made his proposal I did not see a single dem leaning wonk get excited about it, I saw nothing at all. I saw no evidence whatsoever anyone who cares about the policy even exists. Hello? Anyone out there? Are you reading what I’m reading ????? I did not see a single person suggest he should cut a deal. Isn’t that weird??? I saw so many dem wonk econ twitter people high five each other that various twitter accounts were getting jobs in the Biden admin, did any of these people or others with prominent substacks even write or push for the possibility? We could have had permanent child allowance, here, now. That is a fact. And in order for that to become a reality the very demo acting petulant is the one that should have been unanimously non stop pushing for cutting a deal.
These people breathlessly bash the right wing people they see support child allowance then turn around and purposefully ignore the very fact its not already permanent national policy is their own preternatural ability to thumb their nose at even considering cutting a deal with an icky republican. This has only been a policy to even consider for one fucking year. Republicans are not even in power, the fact certain set on twitter supports it is good sign it will spread to other Republicans and gain traction, and the most prominent national proponent is Republican. The idea it is just totally impossible or unreasonable to think its possible for Republicans to become more supporting of the policy is just total bullshit. This very attitude and temper tantrum is revealing of the very reason WHY national child allowance is not policy NOW.
For all the talk of norms and democracy and Republicans being super duper hitlers because of some graph a political science mental lightweight made up out of thin air Republicans are willing to cut deals and negotiate for policies they want, and Democrats are not. We are watching two years that could have been spent passing a historic Build back better bill that included things never done before, and instead possibly nothing will happen at all. Up to Roe v Wade being over turned Democrats had almost two years to white knuckle run out the clock on filibusters over an abortion bill and do the work, instead they leaked the supreme court ruling, attempt to intimidate the judges at their homes and threaten them in public and it didn’t even work.
Democrats are incapable of doing hard work, all they are apparently capable of is lies, character assassination, intimidation and dirty tricks. When that does not work and they have nothing to show for it they whine voting does nothing and lament “if only we had played dirtier”. You may catastrophize to your hearts content your own dithering incoherence, but on the republican side I still see live players, I see a real possibility this is something they will come around on. It has only been one year, and it is not the Republicans in power but Democrats. If you want someone to blame or catastrophize about, keep it to your own damn self.