Folks,
As if it wasn’t already stressful enough being a new parent, Trump’s ridiculous trade war is making life more difficult and more expensive for new families.
Let’s call these tariffs what they are: a baby tax. Car seats. Baby strollers. High chairs. Cribs. The cost of everything new parents need in the first weeks and months of their baby’s life is through the roof right now for no reason at all. (Happy Mother’s Day, right?)
I’m a proud aunt — plus I’m 36 so pretty much all my friends have babies right now! — so I hear a lot about navigating sleepless nights, doctor visits, finding child care, and the constant worry about doing everything right. That’s already a lot. And now families are being forced to pay hundreds or thousands more for the tools they need to keep their kids safe.
Take car seats. Experts recommend only using new seats, and new parents and their baby can’t even be discharged from the hospital without having their seat installed and ready to go. So an increase in the cost of car seats means a definitive increase in the cost of parenthood — because no one is trying to cut corners when the safety of your child is the top priority!
Look, Donald Trump and the GOP can talk all they want about how they’re ‘pro-family’, but it’s 100% clear to anyone paying attention that they’re just not.
If the self-described ‘fertilization president’ (sorry for the reminder 🥴) actually gave a damn about American families, he would not be waging a pointless trade war that’s sending prices skyrocketing!
Right now, Trump and the GOP are floating tiny, one-time “baby bonuses” to persuade women to have more babies — while also weaponizing trade policies that drain family budgets and trying to take away their health care.
To state the obvious: Caring about families doesn’t mean doing everything possible to make life objectively harder for families. Increasing food costs, cutting essential services and benefits, targeting trans and autistic kids, questioning vaccine science… come on.
What’s pro-family? Fighting for universal child care, paid leave, and health care that doesn’t bankrupt you.
If you’re as fired up as I am about this economic assault on American families, sign my petition to demand that Republicans drop this ridiculous baby tax. Together we can fight for policies that actually help families thrive.
