OPINION
Our Nation's 47th President-Elect Must Move Fast to Strengthen Families, Secure a Lasting Legacy
With a fresh mandate of support from the American people, and a resultant majority in both houses of Congress, President-elect Donald J. Trump has the best opportunity for meaningful legislative action a Republican president has enjoyed in two decades.
He should use this moment to strengthen and defend a group that both parties would say makes up the backbone of America, but which is too often overlooked in real policymaking: the American family.
American families, and particularly new parents with children, are struggling.
Grocery prices are up, birth and childcare costs have skyrocketed, divorce rates are at historic levels, school systems are failing academically while indoctrinating kids with leftist curriculum, and family-sustaining work seems hard to come by.
Our families need more than aspirational rhetoric.
They need genuine, substantive support.
President-elect Trump and his GOP counterparts are positioned to give it.
If they do so, millions of lives will be changed for the better, and they will win enduring electoral support for years to come.
Recall, this is not new ground for President Trump.
In 2017, he and Republican lawmakers doubled the Child Tax Credit to $2,000, awarding historic tax relief to millions of working parents.
He championed a federal paid family leave proposal and achieved meaningful paid leave policies through the tax code and rulemaking.
He reduced marriage penalties, provided more flexible resources in childcare and schooling, and strengthened the foster care system by cutting regulation and expanding nonprofit partnerships.
Republican lawmakers, too, have voiced consistent support for pro-family policy — and in more than just the "traditional" Republican areas like business tax cuts and economic growth.
Numerous federal paid family leave and financial family support packages have been advanced in recent years in both chambers.
Nearly every Republican senator voted in support of dramatic expansion to the Child Tax Credit. Expansions to post-partum care, pregnancy and early childhood resources, and foster care and adoption access have been widely championed.
This week, dozens of conservative leaders circulated a letter to Congress calling for permanent, dramatic expansion to the Child Tax Credit, highlighting a recent Students for Life of America poll finding that 71% of Americans support such a policy — including overwhelming majorities of both Democrats and Republicans.
This only constitutes a snapshot of a persistent reality across a range of pro-family policies: the public sees the need, and conservative leaders are voicing their support.
In January, when President Trump is inaugurated and the new Republican Congress is sworn in, they will be in an even stronger position to effect positive change for families than they were in 2017.
Over the past eight years, the Republican Party has coalesced and unified around Trump’s America First vision.
Over the past four years, in particular, conservative grassroots organizations have laid the groundwork for tremendous progress on pro-family policies, giving Congress a major head start on enacting an agenda that will empower parents, protect children, and give families the support they need to thrive.
President-elect Trump has an opportunity to seize a once-in-a-generation moment and leave a lasting legacy for American families.
He and Vice President-elect JD Vance have voiced admirable support for these issues, and now is the time for action.
Republicans have championed substantive support for families in the past, and leaving the job undone now would represent an inexcusable betrayal of the people who voted for them.
Republicans are — and must be — pro-family.
President Trump’s second term should make that an inarguable reality.
Margaret Iuculano is the Chief Operating Officer of Moms For America. Previously, she served as Executive Vice President at FreedomWorks.