Trump Accounts? Republicans Have Had Better Ideas

Abby McCloskey, Bloomberg, May 27, 2025

“The Republican tax bill contains flashy goodies for families with kids. The flashiest: savings accounts for children — branded Trump Accounts — created and initially funded by the Treasury Department. These will consist of $1,000 in invested assets for each American citizen born through 2028, plus whatever funds parents later add.

So if you want to have a baby, hurry up! The seeding of the accounts (previously called MAGA Accounts) expires at the end of President Donald Trump’s term. The president has made his goal clear: “I want a baby boom.” House Republicans also proposed expanding the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 to $2,500; that would also expire in four years.

But if more babies are the goal, these cash carrots are the wrong incentive. Claudia Goldin said it best in her recent paper, “Babies and the Macroeconomy”: “The birth rate is … clearly determined by forces that are independent of the whims of governments.”