Obama's Response To Child Poverty Isn't Just Feeble—It's Inefficient, Too

Child allowances support young parents of young children by increasing incomes at the most developmentally-critical moment for those kids' success. The taxes to support these programs come from higher-income folks who are, by virtue of that income, more likely to be older. That is, child allowances are a way to raise families' incomes at the critical moment—early in kids' lives—by redistributing from people who have already passed through that stage in their lives. President Obama’s State of the Union proposals are modest in comparison. His child care tax credit echoes the sorts of tax-policy-as-welfare proposals of conservatives like former Republican Senator (and 2012 presidential candidate) Rick Santorum.