A new report from the Congressional Budget Office shows that, without immigration, the U.S. population will begin to shrink by 2030. As we approach the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding, this projection underscores a stark truth: The collapse of marital and family life represents the greatest threat to the future of our great nation.
That’s why The Heritage Foundation has released the first in a series of special reports on Saving America by Saving the Family. The central argument is simple. Our country cannot afford to continue ignoring our declining marriages and falling birth rates, as lawmakers on both the left and right have done for decades. The discussion ranges from eliminating all marriage penalties embedded in welfare programs, to new tax breaks for married families, to offering couples public awards for each decade they remain married.
These proposals reflect a mix of longstanding conservative priorities and new ideas, all animated by a shared belief: that strong American families formed the heart of the nation in 1776 and remain essential to its future. They are offered not as the final word, but as the beginning of a long overdue national conversation about how to halt America’s demographic and social collapse.
HERITAGE FOUNDATION WARNS AMERICA ‘DANGERALLY CLOSE’ TO FAMILY RAID POINT OF NO RETURN
Unfortunately, there are those—on both the radical left and the libertarian right—who are rigidly and ideologically opposed to our core ideas for supporting married families.
Critics on the left argue that opposition to abortion and support for married parents who prefer home-based childcare (usually through the mother) amounts to a patriarchal attack on women’s “autonomy” and “reproductive freedom.” Meanwhile, critics on the libertarian right argue that government has no business incentivizing decisions regarding family structure.
America is a nation rooted in its people, culture, laws and customs, as well as in its ideals – and it cannot be sustained unless Americans themselves marry, form families and raise children.
Few dispute that marriage rates are falling, that traditional families are weakening, or that the nation is on a demographic precipice. What is striking is how our critics echo each other in saying that the government should not do anything proactively about this.
The problem is that if traditional families continue to disappear, we will eventually lose America itself.
AMERICA’S NEXT HEALTH REVOLUTION STARTS IN THE KITCHEN – AND AROUND THE DINING TABLE
America is a nation rooted in its people, culture, laws and customs, as well as its ideals – and it cannot be sustained unless Americans themselves marry, form families and raise children. And yes, we believe it is legitimate for government to encourage lifestyles that enable its residents to survive and thrive, and the social science is crystal clear: traditional married families outperform the alternatives in wealth, education, health care, and happiness.
We make no apologies for wanting to convince more young Americans to get married, own a home, raise the next generation and find deep fulfillment in family life.
We also do not believe that the solution lies in mass immigration, if we cannot even assimilate the immigrants who are already here. We also do not believe that modern technology can replace the home, the neighborhood and the family.
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The quintessential American dream of a family with a house and a white picket fence remains as important as ever to the American imagination, and it is our job to make that dream a reality. We want to ensure that young Americans can realistically achieve these goals by, at the very least, removing obstacles that stand in their way and by ensuring that our policies actually privilege, prefer, and support the formation of married families.
That’s a winning message that conservatives would do well to embrace in 2026. And the good news is that President Trump is already taking the lead. He recently announced his intention to address the unaffordability of single-family homes and the abuses in the credit card industry, and Heritage looks forward to contributing our thoughts and recommendations to that and upcoming discussions.
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More generally, we will continue to respond to those – the left and the libertarian right – who either see no problem or see no solution. They are wrong on both counts. A society that refuses to defend marriage and child-rearing is not neutral; it is a choice between accelerated or controlled decline. And a movement that shrugs its shoulders in the face of that decline offers nothing but surrender.
If our critics have new ideas, they should at least put them forward. But we are tired of watching our children fall further behind, our families struggling, our societal pillars crumbling, and we call for action that meets the moment. Heritage will proudly work to usher in a new American Golden Age centered on family, and the next phase in achieving that goal begins now.
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