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On the Sunday shows this past weekend, the GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance put himself into the line of fire in three separate interviews with hostile mainstream hosts, who all walked into their meetings trying to catch Vance in a "gotcha" on his past comments criticizing childless women. But Vance, too, was prepared: When questioned about his past comments, Vance countered that Harris is "anti-family" and the Vance/Trump ticket was the ticket for American families. Specifically, he cited his support of higher child tax credits, to the tune of $5,000 per child.
But if Vance actually supported child tax credits, he had the opportunity to express that support in his current role as a legislator—and neglected to do so. Just last week, Senate Republicans blocked an effort to expand child tax credits, especially those targeted at low-income Americans. Vance, a United States Senator who could have voted for child tax credits now, skipped the vote, as did a half dozen other Republican senators.
It's not the only example of talking the talk but not walking the walk.
In conversation with CNN's Dana Bash, Vance cited the COVID-era policy of masking children as evidence of how our society has become anti-child and anti-family, run by individuals in positions of power who have little to no recent experience with young children. If they did, argued Vance, they would not have believed it possible for children who are still in diapers to wear a cloth mask on their faces for eight hours a day.
But those awful policies, which originated with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and diverged from the World Health Organization's recommendations on child-masking, were written during the Trump administration. There has never been an explanation about why the CDC diverged from the WHO on when a child is mature enough to don a mask, and the fault with those decisions lies with those who were working at the CDC under President Donald J. Trump.
If there is going to be a COVID reckoning about our national policies, it starts with the man at the top of the ticket.
And much as I'd rather not admit it, the Democrats have a much stronger record when it comes to American families. Earlier this month, the Biden administration introduced a new rule targeted at airlines that try to charge families for the "privilege" of sitting next to one another. Families with young children basically have to pay a tax if they want to guarantee they will be seated next to their kids. As a mother of six children aged 1 through 10, I need to sit next to my kids. It's not so much that I want to, but if we hit turbulence or need to move quickly to open an air sickness bag, it's probably preferable for all involved that I'm sitting next to my kids.
The Biden administration decided to try to step up for families in the air, and Democratic legislators did the same with their work trying to advance the child tax credit.
I'm not one to give credit to the Democratic Party on anything, but credit where credit is due. And it's going to hurt the Republican ticket, especially when it tries to paint itself as pro-family.
The Kamala Harris campaign clearly thinks Vance's contempt for "childless cat ladies" is a winning argument against him. The truth is, the ability of the childless cat ladies comments to do damage with potential Republican voters would be staunched significantly if the Republicans weren't just talking the talk on American families but walking the walk.
Public policy should be advanced that makes it easier to raise a family. American parents want to know that we have a defender in the White House who will advance those policy goals. Right now, all the recent attempts at pro-family policy can be claimed by the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress.
If the Trump/Vance campaign wants to be the pro-family choice, it's time for their camp to point to their accomplishments and their plans to expand them on behalf of America's families. Leave cats out of it.
Bethany Mandel is a columnist, political commentator and co-author of Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation. You can follow her on Twitter at @bethanyshondark.
All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
