Topline
A $5,000 “baby bonus” is one of several proposals the White House is considering amid declining birth rates in the U.S., according to multiple outlets, as it looks to incentivize Americans to have more children.
Key Facts
The $5,000 would be given to every American mother after giving birth, with President Donald Trump saying the concept sounded “like a good idea to me” when he was asked about it Tuesday.
The bonus could also be utilized as a form of a newborn supplement to existing child tax credits, The New York Times reported.
Trump has not made a final decision on the proposal, which would need to be approved by Congress if it actually materialized.
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What Have Republicans Said About The Baby Bonus And Expanded Child Tax Credits?
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., characterized the bonus as a “creative idea” in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, suggesting the details have yet to be sorted out. Vice President JD Vance has advocated for an expansion to the child tax credit and said he would like to see it placed at $5,000 per child, noting the concept’s viability would need to be ironed out by Congress, ABC reported.
What We Don’t Know
Details on the bonus remain sparse. It’s unclear where the money would come from, how much money would be doled out and if there are any eligibility standards beyond being an American mother who gives birth.
How Much Could The Baby Bonus Cost The Government?
That would depend on the birth rate for the given year. If the bonus had been put into law in 2023 and applied to every birth in the U.S. that year, the government would have spent $17.9 billion on bonus checks.
Has The Trump Administration Considered Similar Incentives For Americans?
Yes. Trump has considered sending American taxpaying households up to $5,000 each using savings made by the Department of Government Efficiency, which has made sweeping controversial cuts to the federal government’s funding and workforce. However, the concept, which could create inflation if it came into fruition, has not been fleshed out since it was first floated in February. Tesla chief and DOGE leader Elon Musk has said “we need to balance the budget as first priority,” referring to the federal deficit, which reached $1.8 trillion last year.
Key Background
Trump and Vance encouraged voters to have more children during the election cycle, with Trump telling supporters in 2023, “We will support baby booms and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom,” the Times reported. Trump has largely positioned himself against abortion and sought to lower the cost of in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Musk, one of the president’s most senior advisers, has also encouraged Americans to have more children. Musk, a father of at least 14 children, has claimed civilization at large will collapse without an increase in children. The U.S. fertility rate dropped to a historic low in 2023, with 3,591,328 births recorded that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birth rates specifically declined for women ages 20 to 39 as rising health costs, economic concerns and child-bearing postponements have impacted the fertility rate, according to Time, which cited research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Further Reading
White House Assesses Ways to Persuade Women to Have More Children (New York Times)
Here’s Everything We Know About DOGE Dividend Checks—And How They Could Contribute To Inflation (Forbes)
