Texas GOP Bill Would Reward Straight Married Couples Who Have Tons Of Kids
Couples with 10 or more children would get a 100% tax break.
While you’d think that the GOP would have a laundry list of actual problems to solve in the U.S. (like the 95 mass shootings already this year), they decide to be laser-focused on continually attacking the LGBTQ+ community, women, and basically every other marginalized community.
From forbidding drags shows to writing literally 100 bills working to restrict doctors from offering transition-related health care for minors to their dreams of banning the abortion pill, conservatives really think of everything to worry about except problems that are actually making this country lesser like gun violence, rising maternal mortality rates, and a broken education system.
In their latest bizarre and horrifying thing to try make a law, one Republican state representative in Texas has filed a bill — HB 2889 — that would give a 100% credit for property taxes to married couples with 10 or more children.
The bill — introduced by Bryan Slaton on February 27 — would provide graduated tax relief for married families with four or more children, incentivizing couples (straight, good Christian couples, of course) to increase the size of their family.
The GOP rep and former pastor said in a statement, “With this bill, Texas will start saying to couples: ‘Get married, stay married, and be fruitful and multiply.’”
If having 10 kids wasn’t on your life bingo card, don’t fret! You could still get a nice tax break by procreating.
Under the bill, married couples who have or adopt up to three children will be entitled to a 10 percent tax credit. Those with four would receive a 40 percent tax break, those with five a 50 percent reimbursement, and so on with a 100% credit for property taxes to married couples with 10 or more children.
The bill also clarifies that the couple must be a straight couple and stay married.
The irony of this bill begins with the fact that this “pro-family” bill comes on the heels of the devastating Roe v. Wade overturn, which left the ban of abortion up the states.
The same GOP Texas legislatures like Slaton — who spew “pro-life” rhetoric — are the same legislatures who cut programs that feed hungry already-living kids, deny affordable healthcare coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and literally consider the death penalty for women who access safe abortion care.
According to The Houston Press, a significant part of modern Christian extremism is large families, sometimes known as the quiverfull movement. The practice is rooted in the idea that white Christians must birth an army of God. Birth control is also a big no-no.
“This is handmaids tale, where women are pushed to be broodmares. They want more white kids,” one Twitter user noted about HB 2889.
“Hard to get over how insane the idea of rewarding a family with 10 kids with a 100% tax reduction is, but the bill also exclusively states that it’s only straight couples who have never been divorced,” another user criticized.
So, while this bill may seem like it’s just a friendly tax break for good, “all-American” families, it’s actually yet another coordinated and thought-out attack on any type of family who doesn’t adhere to “right-wing” values.
