As a promoter of traditional values, Gary Bauer. president of the
Family Research Council, shares his vision for America.
By Gary Bauer
As I drew near the room where I would be meeting CBS' Dan Rather one day in July 1995, I wondered if this time I would get a chance to give a fuller explanation of what we are all about. Could I convey in relatively few words what America would look like if our dreams came true?
Under the hot glare of television lights, Dan Rather posed the question I will not soon forget: "What do you want for America?" It was the chance I had been hoping for.
"I want to see an America," I said, "where I don't have to worry about date rape when my daughter goes out for the first time at college. I want an America where, when a young man pledges to love and cherish and honor her for the rest of their lives, there's a good chance he means it. I want a country where children come first again and where virtue is honored, a place where values matter and the American dream is still real.
"I want a country where families no longer have to hide behind barred windows, where criminals do real time and aren't released on a whim or a technicality. I want a place where children can play in public parks again without fear and adults can walk across those parks at night.
"I yearn for a country where women are recognized and praised for their achievements in science, art, and business. But I also yearn for a nation where a woman who would rather be home with her children is no longer subjected to the disdain of the common culture and where the best compliment you can pay someone is 'He's a good family man.'
"I want a place where government quits robbing us of the fruits of our labor so that more families can get by on one salary. And I want a place where the flickering light that shines from the windows of our nation's houses at night would more often be from the hearth, where 'family fireside chats' are taking place, and less from television sets.
"I hope for a land where love of country is seen as a virtue again, where the young are taught the unique blessing they have received just to have been born in such a place.
"In my America, the schools would work once more. Political correctness would be thrown out, and the goal of education would once again be to teach our children to have 'knowing heads and loving hearts'.
"In this land, racism, quotas, and special rights would be rejected and all our children would be taught to judge their fellow citizens by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. I see a country that respects life again--where dirve-by shootings and 1.5 million aborted babies each year are seen as a disaster.
"Here responsibilities would be as important as rights, and a handshake would be something to rely on. In my coutnry, working men and women would be praised, not penalized by ever-growing government. The truly poor would get a hand up, not a handout."
As I went on to describe what had led me to forsake a lucrative law practice to devote my life to defending traditional values in Washington, Dan Rather's head began to nod in agreement. Whether or not he had come to interview me with a stereotype in mind, at that moment he seemed to be hearing for the first time who I was and what people like me hope for our country. And in that moment, I decided to write down that vision.
Although it is not possible to cover all aspects of it here--priority of the family, safer streets, schools that teach, sanctity of life and so on, I will try to highlight some of our hopes and dreams for our nation.
ECONOMIC PRESSURES
Some of the biggest obstacles to family togetherness in the 1990s are economic conditions. Many families just don't have the economic freedom to pursue the best work/family arrangement because they feel trapped economically. Many are just one paycheck away from a crisis.
Parents in every generation face some economic pressures as an inevitable by-product of parental responsibility and sacrifice. These can be healthy pressures, for they can encourage stewardship, thrift and unselfishness. Indeed, the sacrifices parents make for their children wouldn't be considered sacrifices if they were always easy.
But no civilization can long survive if it expects heroic acts to be routine. And in America today, it seems that heroic sacrifices are often required if parents are to meet their twin responsibilites of providing for their children's material needs and spending ample amounts of time to raise them well.
A VISION FOR A BETTER FUTURE
The America we seek, then, is one where a child's need for time with his or her parents is a top priority. It's an America where this priority is reflected in the private decisions parents make about meeting work and family responsiblities, and in the public policies that govern the tax treatment of families and the work options available to them.
In our America, family togetherness is prized, not as some far-off dream or utopian vision, but as an attainable goal for ordinary people willing to make ordinary sacrifices--for those who work hard and play by the rules.
The America we seek is not one in which everyone is compelled to adopt the same strategy for achieving family togetherness. Some families will want two earners; others will want just one. Some couples will want to work concurrent shifts, others will want to work split shifts so that one parent is almost always available to the children.
But the America we seek is one where families regularly eat meals together, take trips to see Grandma together and do homework together. It's an America where parents get home from work with enough energy to throw a ball in the backyard, lead a Scout camp-out, or take a hot meal to the elderly shut-ins who live around the corner.
The country we want to build would be an America where marital commitments are taken seriously. Where those who walk away from their family responsibilities are held financially accountable. Where men and (especially) women do not fear that dedicationg themselves to their families could leave them vulnerable to poverty should their spouses abandon them.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
What sorts of public policies are needed to make this dream a reality?
1. First and foremost families--especially families with dependent children--need massive tax relief.
For too long, our nation's economic policies have ignored those trying to raise children. In 1948, a median-income family of four sent only two cents of every dollar to the federal government in income and payroll taxes. Today, a median-income family of four sends nearly a quarter of every dollar to Uncle Sam. And another dime on average, goes to state and local government coffers. This tax burden is outrageous and is one of the main reasons families today find it difficult to live on the average 40-hour-a-week wage.
Federal and state policy makers can reduce the tax burden on families in several ways. Some want to incresase existing tax exemptions for children. Others want to provide new tax credits for children. However it's done, the most important thing is that the tax code allow families to keep more of the money they earn and treat families with children differently than other tax payers.
It's appropriate to permit a family of five making $45,000 a year to pay less in taxes than a single person making $45,000 a year, especially since most taxpayers will at some point be facing significant child-rearing expenses. Indeed, the best way to think of pro-family tax relief is that it's relief for people during the stage in life when their family responsibilities are greatest.
2. Promote economic growth.
Per-child tax savings are not our sole concern. We believe that all Americans are overtaxed and that big government hinders the kind of econmomic growth that raises all boats on the sea of opportunity. We favor a decrease in the capital gains tax and lower marginal tax rates. Government should get out of the way and allow American entrepeneurship to take over. Growth equals jobs, and jobs are good for families.
Moreover, we recognize that the income-tax code is riddled with all sorts of inequities and perverse incentives, many of which threaten the social contract that has held our country together for more than two centuries.
At a time when many working class people who play by the rules are seeing long-term stagnation in real hourly wage rates, it is not only irresponsible but also potentially dangerous for government tax and welfare policies to continue to penalize socially responsible behavior such as marriage and paid work.
Thus, current tax and welfare policies that make it more financially attractive for couples to divorce or cohabit must be reversed. Similarly, policies surrounding the tax deductability of contributions to an individual retirement account (IRA) should be altered so homemakers can deduct as much as employed women. Moreover, efforts to simplify the entire tax code through some variation of a flat tax are certainly laudable, provided that the resulting code continues to significantly adjust tax liability for family size and for charitable contributions. Indeed eliminating the tax deductibilty of charitable contributions would undermine efforts to replace America's faltering welfare state with a vibrant charitable sector that meets more than just the material need of America's poor.
3. In addition to pro-family tax relief, changes in the workplace policies of America's employers are needed.
Specifically, employees should seek to give family-oriented workers greater discretion over where, when and how much they work for pay. Where possible, arrangements that permit full- or part-time work from home ought to be encouraged. So should flexible work schedules, compressed work weeks, part-time work and job sharing.
The goal should not be to offer programs or services (such as on-site day care) that employers perceive some families may need, but instead to give family-oriented workers the ability to meet their unique needs in the way that works best for them. This not only argues for flexible work arrangements, but also for flexible forms of compensation (more cash wages!) instead of rigid employee benefits that serve the interests of only a narrow range of employees.
4. Divorce reform is desperately needed.
Today it's easier to break this most sacred of contracts than it is to get out of a contract to have your lawn fertilized. Today, of the more than one million divorces granted each year, three-fifths involve couples with children under the age of 18.
We can change this by returning to a covenant idea of marriage. We can shore up marriage with legal safeguards and enforceable periods for reflection and reconcillication. One thing is clear: No society can afford a succession of Me generations. We have a right, as well as a duty, to call people to consider the well-being of their children.
5. Increase family wages.
In the last 20 years, "free trade" has been a central plank of the conservative revolution. I worked for a free-trade president, and I support the concept of open markets. But no policy position should go unquestioned and I find myself asking whether the free-trade mantra is being used to play American families for suckers.
In a pro-family America, politicians would remember that working men and women who play by the rules have kept this country going. Too often, our system seems to tilt toward multinational corporations that don't even think of themselves as American companies anymore. Lost between the cracks are the middle-class and working-class families that make our country strong.
History has shown that when a free people have come to rely on government to provide for them, they will eventually become corrupted. Our freedom does not come from Washington, D.C. Our Declaration of Independence tells us that liberty is a birthright and is inalienable--that is, it cannot be taken away. Libery's source is God, and the guarantee of it in our country is the first "contract with America," the Constitution.
Gary Bauer has been in Washington, D.C., working on behalf of the family for 15 years. He is president of the Family Research Council, a pro-family public policy organization. This article is excerpted from his new book, Our Hopes, Our Dreams, published by Focus on the Family.
Will you work for family tax relief that takes the costs of child rearing into account?
Will you support reform of so-called no-fault divorce laws to provide additional safeguards for covenant marriages?
Will you support a flat tax in which dependent deductions and charitable contributions are protected?
Will you work to give homemakers the same tax advantages of IRAs currently enjoyed only by those working outside the home?
Will you support "cafeteria plans" that offer employees higher wages rather than such restricted benefits as on-site day care?
Will you work to protect American workers from competition by slave laborers in China and elsewhere? Will you also alert consumers to abusive labor practices in Central American countries and elsewhere that produce goods for the U.S. market?
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