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Unless the Clinton mess continues to use up all available oxygen, how the U.S. tax code treats marriage and child rearing is likely to emerge as a major policy debate of 1999. It's also one of the very few issues on which bipartisan agreement, both within Congress and between Congress and the Administration, might actually be possible. I love this issue. It invites attention to what is arguably our society's most dangerous trend, the weakening of marriage, through the prism of our society's most fundamental family policy, the U.S. tax code. Here at the Institute, we recently helped to fashion a Call for Family-Supportive Tax Reform in which we seek to identify principles for tax reform that would strengthen marriage and help all parents. Those signing the Call include progressives such as Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the National Parenting Association; communitarians such as Robert Michael Thomas of the Interdenominational Theological Center and Professor William Doherty of the University of Minnesota, who is president of the National Council on Family Relations; and conservatives such Michael McManus, the founder and president of Marriage Savers. Such a diverse group can find common ground on this issue because, as the Call puts it: ``On the left, many of us recognize that the enduring problems of poverty and economic inequality are unlikely to diminish so long as divorce and unwed childbearing continue at these historically high levels. On the right, many of us recognize that if families continue to fragment, leaving a host of important and unmet social needs in their wake, government is almost certain to become larger, not smaller or more limited." By the time you read this letter, we'll have just publicly released the Call. Please contact us if you would like a copy or more information. When two people get married, they become something more than two separate individuals. In so many important respects - morally, socially, financially -- the two become one. Taking account of this fact in the tax code is not primarily a matter of giving special breaks to married people or creating incentives for people to get married. It is essentially a matter of recognizing what marriage is: a union of body, soul, and pocketbook, a joint venture of enormous social importance in which husband and wife make equal contributions, possess equal value, and have an equal stake. Back to Top | Next | Previous
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Institute for American Values |
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